Smaller, more agile developers can thrive in Britain, Sega exec says
The British games industry will continue to thrive but no longer from grand-scale development studios, a production boss at Sega has said.
Gary Dunn told Develop “it would take a brave soul to start up a 100-man studio at the moment, because the risk is so high.”
His comments as Sega opens a new micro-studio based in Solihull. The new outfit will work on smaller handheld and mobile projects with a 15-person development team, Sega said.
The investment comes at what has been a transformative 36 months for the UK sector, with several of its biggest studios (Bizarre, Realtime Worlds, Free Radical) being torn from their roots.
“The thing is, in most of these cases the studios closing down are quite large,” Dunn said in a newly published interview with Develop.
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“Bizarre Creations was a behemoth of a studio. We’re looking to be an agile, modern studio focusing on new platforms,” he added.
“I think the days of the great big teams are going to be limited. The UK industry’s going to have smaller startups from now on, I would say.”
Dunn’s comments come days after a former senior Rockstar North designer claimed that it’s never a better time for UK devs to quit triple-A development and start their own business.
how to get into games industry if you are living in UK?
By applying for jobs ;)
What role are you looking for in the industry?
Assuming you're looking for a coding job, are proficient at coding and maybe have a degree in Computer Science / Software Engineering, invest some time in creating some games.
Key technologies: OpenGL (for non-Microsoft consoles, iPhone, Mac and web), Python (for quick prototyping), C# (for Microsoft), Java (for Android and if one dares, the Web)
In my day experience in the homebrew communities (such as GBA / DS / PSP / Wii, etc.) would have worked wonders, there you will gain lots of information on embedded systems (for handhelds) and proprietary games consoles. One thing I'd say though, the real thing (i.e. official kits) have very different API's and rules, but if you know the hardware well enough you will be able to sell the fact that you have the knowledge to squeeze all the juice out of a machine :)
And one question, how much skill and experience do you have?
