Today’s fast paced world often leaves little time for outdoor recreation. Therefore it is no surprise that in-house entertainment is on the rise. Globalisation has facilitated the access of technologies that provide entertainment at the comfort of our home.

Parents need to understand the job opportunities in the digital game industry- Jennifer Casingena Harper

One example is Wii Fit which has given exergaming, or exertion gaming, a new dimension. Digital gaming no longer simply translates into the traditional couch potato. Indeed, in the next decade, it will be commonplace to find an animated rock climbing wall in the “gym room”, where one would have to dodge falling rocks and avoid rising water. Physical exercise with a vengeance could never have been more entertaining.

Originating in the 1980s, digital gaming has grown into one of the fastest growing media sectors. Software developers and publishers create and distribute games across different levels of platforms such as Nintendo and Sony, PCs, Apple Macs and iPhones. Ranging from social network games on Facebook to boxed games, digital gaming is a €20 billion per year industry with the potential to grow.

Conscious of the exponential growth potential in digital game production, Malta Enterprise, together with the Malta Council for Science and Technology (MCST), the University of Malta, the Creative Economy Working Group (in the Ministry of Finance) and a host of other local and foreign institutes have teamed up to harness the local digital games industry through a targeted strategy for Malta. The country’s economic stability, research and development incentives, information security, privacy regulation, intellectual property rights and budding digital media sector are all important assets for business. Not to mention Malta’s quality for life and affordable cost of living, which positions it as a potentially attractive location for attracting digital gaming companies.

Support from government and local development agencies has a pivotal role to play in the formation of a digital gaming initiative, and appeals for support are mirrored elsewhere; the UK’s Games industry association Tiga has proposed a creative content fund (CCF) to encourage new studio production. MCST has also provided funding support through the National Research and Innovation Programme.

The University of Malta and iMovo Ltd. have been awarded €171,332 in funds for their joint project entitled “Digital Gaming Clouds for Mobile Users”. The project aims to provide a platform enabling popular personal computer games to be available on smartphones. This project is being led by project co-ordinator Saviour Zammit, technical co-ordinator Adrian Muscat, both from the Department of Communications and Computer Engineering, and managing director of iMovo Pierre Mallia.

Efforts by policy makers to facilitate the uptake of digital game production are important but depend on the extent to which investors and digital games companies abroad are convinced of Malta’s potential in this sector. The signs are positive with the recent news that TRC Family Entertainment Ltd will be investing $6 million to develop digital games in Malta and create 100 new jobs. Clearly such developments need to be given priority and the appointment of Chris Deering, chairman of TRC Family Entertainment Ltd as the Special Envoy for Digital Gaming Industry in Malta is an important step in the right direction.

Similarly parents need to understand the job opportunities in the digital game industry. Initiatives such as the Gamezing game development competition, targeting students and teachers/lecturers encourage the diversification and exploration of local and international fora. Launched in 2010, Gamezing attracted nine teams, three teams in the Microsoft Kodu section and six teams in the senior Microsoft XNA competition. A Junior College team won the Microsoft Kodu competition for basic game development, whilst two teams from St Martin’s Institute of IT clinched the winning and runner up prizes for the XNA game development platforms.

Gamezing 2011 competition which is being jointly sponsored by the University of Malta, the Malta Council of Science and Technology, Malta Enterprise and St Martin’s Institute of IT, is aimed at enhancing the profile of digital game development amongst students, teaching institutions, and parents, and the potential of this field for future employment.

A Digital Games Production: Malta Facebook page has been set by as a forum for discussion and networking by the Department of Digital Arts of the Faculty of Media and Knowledge Transfer, and the Department of Intelligent Computer Systems of the Faculty of ICT at university. The mission is to “provide a focus for academia, industry and enthusiasts, to come together to forge the future of the Digital Games Industry in Malta”.

Research has shown that the country harbours a medium-good raw technical talent but in small volume in proportion to many other undeveloped locations. If a sound platform for digital gamers is produced on Maltese turf, it would not be implausible to expect another Markus Persson, celebrated for his game Minecraft, which has sold more than 3,000,000 copies and was estimated in April 2011 to have made €23 million in revenue. Indeed, Battlestar Galactica, winner of the Best European Browser Game Award at the European Game Awards in Cologne last year included in its development team, Nick Porsche, CEO and game director of Rocksolid Games Malta.

Ben Cassar, a Maltese student reading for a Masters degree in Media Technology and Games at the IT University of Copenhagen, sees the potential for Malta to become a hub for digital games. As such an industry requires a myriad of skills including that of artists, programmers, designers, sound technicians and story tellers, this could create a job market which Malta could highly benefit from.

www.mcst.gov.mt

Dr Casingena Harper is director policy & planning at the Malta Council for Science and Technology.

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