Allan Simonsen the IGDA Coordinator from Singapore had to say this:
IGDA is about trying to work together to promote game development. It's not a zero-sum game; Malaysia's Loss is not Singapore's Gain... quite the opposite. Our best bet for pushing the entire SE Asian game development scene forward is to work together, find opportunities, and collaborate.Some of the malaysian developers, like Brett Bibby, has been doing this for longer than anyone in Singapore. Gamebrains is the only SE Asian company that's successfully published content on console and high-end handheld platforms. While Singapore's games industry is currently doing well, you don't have to go more than 2 years back in time to remember it lying with a broken back.
MistaMan; for ideas on getting skilled people into the games industry:-
- Find the opportunities (bringing in companies that do interesting projects)
- Remove obstacles (silliness like having to relocate to CyberJaya does not help game development companies, and it makes it a lot harder to recruit)
- Remove barriers to entry (make it easier to hire from abroad, look at ways of making visa-acquisition easier)
- Send Students overseas (do merit-based higher-education with bonding)
- Send Staff overseas (do things similar to TAP, where the government pays 50% of overseas training costs for fresh employees working in an MNC, in return for a bond to work in Singapore)
- Hire an industry liason (Someone like Hilmy, that can help coordinate schools, incomming companies, government incentives, etc. Perhaps especially important to have someone outside the regular government structure that can help companies navigate the different government roadblocks and incentives)
- Promote a student/grassroot community ( the people attracted to this will be the leaders of the next generation. An IGDA student chapter may be the way to go)
- Look at how you can promote part-time lecturers (people from the industry have the right skillset, but have no intention of going full-time into a staid academic environment. Look at how you can promote more part-time lecturers from the industry teaching the high-end classes on modelling for Game Development, Graphics Programming, etc).
- Sponsor industry trips (sponsor in full or in part for Malaysian developers and high-powered students to go to industry events like GDC or AGDS . Let them get experience in what the industry outside of malaysia is doing, and build the contact network that will help them be succesfull.).
- Look at ways of making local startups more successfull (MNCs are great, but sooner or later they'll usually leave to the next low-cost country with government incentives. How can you nurish startups; especially those created by the experienced ex-MNC developers? Look at content development grants, low/zero cost incubators with soft-services, advisory boards, business coaching sessions, pre-paid software and hardware licenses, handheld devkits, etc)
- Stop making large bets on the usual suspects (this is a bit controversial, but as a rule a lot of SE Asian grant money's gone out to the people strong connections and existing experience in siphoning off the government. Instead of doing 2-3 RM50M bets on large MNC/GLC companies, look at doing 100 RM1.5M bets on small startups, and find other ways to counterbalance their weaknesses in business and organization)
There's probably a couple of more ideas, but that's a good start
Allan
Interesting points - there is a tough perception problem about doing business in Malaysia. It does not help when it is perpetuated almost daily with the problems we have. But, I am not too sure that people within Malaysia are really the villains here - I think most are victims.
External powers can influence within....
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