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SA games devs want to do a Humble Africa Bundle

South African game developers had a good year in 2013, according to news out of the Make Games SA (MGSA) Annual General Meeting that took place last night in Joburg and Cape Town via Google Hangout.

2013’s chairman Nick Hall said that while the group missed a few opportunities in 2013, for the most part they did well, increasing forum membership by 86% and upping the total number of companies associated with the forum to 17.

They also managed to start up a bursary program that raised over R20 000 for underprivileged game development students within 48 hours, something they hope to repeat – and beat – in 2014.

But perhaps most interestingly, it emerged from a last-minute update from one of MGSA’s members that MGSA is in talks with the people behind the Humble Bundle to put together an “Out of Africa” bundle featuring locally-made games for release sometime in 2015.

The biggest challenge currently facing them as a volunteer group of part-time and full-time game developers is money. Hall said Make Games SA has grown enough over the past year to warrant a full-time employee to manage the day to day operations, as well as a need for a dedicated home for the group.

Both goals are on 2014’s to-do list, and Hall is currently speaking to both government and corporates to secure the necessary funding. Hall reported that he’s trying to get the group classified under the Manufacturing banner, which opens many more opportunities to secure government funding under various stimulus programs government currently has in the works.

The biggest barrier in making that happen, he said, is the gender and race makeup of the South African games industry, which consists primarily of young Caucasian males. Apart from a genuine desire to increase diversity and better reflect the make-up of gamers in general, for government to believe that gaming is a legitimate industry it’s important to highlight the work of female and black coders and get them involved in the organisation. Knowing more metrics about the local industry would also help, he added, which the group would be working towards establishing.

Corporates he’s spoken to, which include Microsoft, Nedbank and Nokia, have indicated they are interested in supporting the local gaming industry, but none have committed to anything concrete as yet.

Despite the funding challenges, 2013 saw the group gaining recognition both locally and internationally thanks to a number of high-profile projects that members were involved in. These include side-scrolling testosterone overload Broforce and Nicholas Bischoff’s successful million-rand STASIS Kickstarter campaign.

Plans for 2014 include a stand at the Really Awesome Gaming Event (rAge) in October, another staging of their successful Amaze program that inspires youngsters to get into making games and a trade mission to another country to stimulate relations between international and local game developers.

They also want to encourage developers to show off their games to a greater extent at rAge 2014 than they did last year, as they noticed how Pixelboy’s developers attracted the attention of some big players at 2013’s rAge that included Microsoft, Sony and Nintendo. They’re also looking into securing sponsors to fly Cape Town-based developers up to Joburg for the show.

The last issue on the agenda was to vote on the makeup of the Make Games SA leadership structure. Votes were cast by a show of hands for each nominee, and Nick Hall remained chairman, Andre Odendaal was voted as the group’s treasurer and Hanli Geyser, Ben Myers, Danny Day and Travis Bulford were voted into the committee responsible for much of the organisation’s initiatives.

In all, the AGM showed a lot has happened in the last year. The local game industry has found more success than ever, and South African game developers are attracting international attention for their work, and with more hard work and official structures, permanent premises and a full-time employee, MGSA is looking set to build on that success and take SA development even further in 2014.

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