Screen Australia, a government agency, announced a $2 million investment in September to support the Australian gaming sector.
The move is part of a $12 million commitment to video game development that was announced in January. While government investment in video games may seem insignificant, the industry plays a crucial role in training talent and serves as a gateway to other IT and innovation sectors.
“This significant investment underscores our ongoing commitment to fostering growth and innovation in the Australian video game industry,” said Deirdre Brennan, CEO of Screen Australia, in a press release. “By supporting these industry projects and events, we are supporting local developers and small and medium-sized studios, reinforcing our position as a global leader in independent video game creation.”
As Australia faces an IT skills shortage, strengthening the gaming industry can ultimately help close the talent gap.
From games to NASA
A notable example of the broader impact of gaming skills emerged in 2017. That year, Opaque Space, an Australian game developer, went from creating games to being contracted by NASA to develop virtual reality training modules. Given Australia’s strong ambition to lead in space technology, this deal with the world’s largest space agency was of particular significance to the local industry.
Although Opaque Space is no longer active, the fusion of game development principles with space technology remains part of Australia’s legacy of innovation.
Game Development: A Source of Talent
Game development is also an attractive first job or early career opportunity for those with skills in software design and IT. As Ross Symons, CEO of one of Australia's leading game developers, Big Ant, said in an interview with TechRepublic: It's also a demanding field that acts to train talent quickly.
“There is a widespread belief in IT-focused organizations and the community at large that programming and game development is not a serious endeavor,” Symons said. “Nothing could be further from the truth.”
He added: “Games are always on, they need to be responsive and, crucially, they can’t have any time-outs or downtime – all of which make regular business development and programming a walk in the park by comparison.”
As a result, many game developers are starting to look for work in enterprise software as part of their career path, and Big Ant is a good example of this, Symons said.
“Former Big Ant Studios employees have gone on to contribute their expertise to companies like Microsoft, Google, Tesla, Amazon, Adobe, Meta, and many more, often in senior roles,” he said. “In fact, so many have ended up in Silicon Valley that every year at GDC in San Francisco, there is an annual ‘Big Ant Dinner on the Bay,’ where staff who trained and learned their trade at Big Ant meet up.”
“It’s something we’re very proud of.”
A source of 'brain drain'
The fact that so many former Big Ant employees have moved to the US highlights the challenges facing Australia, both in the gaming industry and the IT sector more broadly. A lack of investment and opportunities often pushes those looking to advance their careers to move overseas.
The collapse of the industry has been a major factor, but the situation is now starting to improve.
Research shows that the number of full-time workers in game development in Australia has increased by almost 60% in recent years, meaning there are opportunities to keep people in the country.
“For decades, Australian developers have been leaving for foreign shores, and that has caused headaches for studios here as they have often invested heavily in them, but that has now eased somewhat,” Symons said. “The key for us now, in a post-COVID world that is in a state of flux, is to try to use the stability we have in Australia to attract those who left us back home.”
The other challenge will be ensuring that there are pathways for game developers to access corporate positions. As the country struggles with a shortage of IT staff, looking to Australia's gaming industry for talent could be a good idea.
Game development fosters mastery of programming languages such as C++, Python, or JavaScript, which are also widely used in enterprise applications. Additionally, game developers are often adept at working in collaborative and agile environments – a skill set that is easily transferred to software development teams in corporate settings.
They will need help in a few areas. The first step in this career change is to expand their knowledge of enterprise software technologies, such as databases, cloud computing, and enterprise resource planning systems. Gaining experience in frameworks such as .NET, Spring Boot, or working with cloud platforms such as AWS and Azure can improve their appeal to corporate employers. Certification in enterprise software tools can also ease the transition.
But as Symons noted, the games industry is a demanding one. Successful developers must learn and adapt quickly, as well as be flexible. Over time, the games industry could grow to become one of the most effective channels for solving IT skills shortages in businesses. It just depends on whether the growth in investment in developing the games industry can be sustained, because in Australia, that has remained patchy and politicised.
