Week 3 - New Zealand and Australia Gaming Industry

A group task for this week was to look into what the gaming industry is like in other countries. In my group we looked into the gaming industry in New Zealand and Australia. I focused on New Zealand and while looking I found a lot of interesting facts. Both New Zealand and Australia have a greater focus in developing mobile/tablet and social media games rather than AAA titles. The industry as a whole is not very big at all. A survey took by the New Zealand Dame Design Association shows that in 2010 there were 186 people working in the gaming industry, that grew in 2011 reaching 289 people and finally in 2012 there was 367 people.  From looking at these results it's only expected to grow even more in 2013.
 http://www.careers.govt.nz/jobs/information-technology/game-developer/how-to-enter-the-job

An article found from the New Zealand Herald Chris Harris the founder Ninja Kiwi states that there are "huge opportunities" for the individuals and companies looking to create games for people on smart phones. Ninja Kiwi was founded in 2006 by brothers Stephen and Chris Harris and since the company grown to 40 people. Ninja Kiwi made $5 million in it's last financial year mainly thanks to the game Bloons Tower Defence 5 that reached number 2 in the IOS charts in its first week.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/business/news/article.cfm?c_id=3&objectid=10883915

From the looks of things the industry is on the rise even though the community is small it's gradually increasing. Outside of the lesson I wanted to research what what it's like getting a job as a animator in New Zealand. http://www.careers.govt.nz/jobs/creative-design/animator/job-opportunities Using the careers website as before, I found the animator role however it's also includes Illustrator too. Comparing this to the game developer role the numbers are a lot bigger, in 2012 the total number of people working as a animator/illustrator is 754.

It also states on the previous website it's harder to get a into this kind of field in the gaming industry. Majority of animators are employed full time, however some work as freelance and contract work. With the gaming industry and companies themselves being small in size it's expected for them to have very few jobs in the animation sector as many companies are developing app games. However I did come across an article about an animation company called Oktobor Animation. Oktobor Animation produce computer animated shows like Kung-Fu Panda, Pengiuns of Madagascar and Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles for Nickelodeon Studios. These are really big shows based on huge movies and are viewed by 400 million households around the world. All this really attracts me to possibly consider New Zealand.

I wanted to look deeper into the company Oktobor itself. Going onto their company website, I was able to find various information about the company. On their website they state all their contact details and addresses so you are able to personally give out your portfolio to them or email and call them. Even though this isn't a company that makes video games I would still be interested in working for a company like Oktobor working on TV programmes or even movies.