iPhone Game Development

Recent news articles are touting the iPhone as an alternative handheld gaming platform, competing with the Nintendo DS and the Playstation Portable.  Valleywag.com has an article online stating that 60 million apps has been downloaded online from the iTunes App Store during the first month of business, amounting to a sales volume of $30 million.  The current business model follow a 30-70 split between Apple and developers, meaning Apple takes 30% of all sales revenue.  To get the numbers straight from the developers, Macrumors.com has some links from developers stating actual download numbers and their corresponding revenue.

With the iPhone 3G arriving in the Philippines in a few days, developing games for the iPhone could be a promising opportunity for local game developers.  The iPhone’s local availability will allow us to develop games globally, while at the same time being able to observe our product’s acceptance locally.  It could also be a potential platform in which to develop ‘Situated Software’, as defined by Clay Shirky.

If anyone does decide to go into iPhone development, understand the development platform first.  If you haven’t had any experience developing on the platform, Embedded development using Objective C may take some getting used to.  You’ll also need to shell out $100 to get access to the documentation.  Once you’re ready to start, just head on to the iPhone developer program site, sign up, develop your best-selling game, and then let us know about it!  Good luck!

Feature on Game Development Outsourcing in Gamasutra

A recent article on Gamasutra interviews developers from studios such as Wideload, Kuju and THQ about their thoughts on the outsourcing process.  Outsourcing is particularly relevant as several of our GDAP members are outsourcing partners of Western publishers and developers: we cover outsourcing from certain parts of the game development cycle to full-on third party game development.

Some interesting points that were brought up included something Alex Seropian of Wideload Games calls “simply process” - effective outsourcing means setting clear expectations and providing outsource partners with ample development tools.  Jonathan Newth of Kuju Studios discusses the benefits of outsourcing: he states that outsourcing “has minimized our fixed costs and given us flexibility in scaling our resources up and down”. Finally, Kevin Chu of THQ further emphasizes the importance of outsourcing in a developer’s process.  He stated that THQ recognizes this, and offers the upcoming announcement of a THQ studio in Shanghai, China as proof.

The success stories from the featured studios provide a positive perspective for those looking into getting into game outsourcing.  While there is still an ongoing controversy on the effectiveness and economic implications of outsourcing, it helps to understand what drives developers to pursue outsourcing, as well as what they’re looking for in their outsource partners.

GDAP Featured in latest Games Convention Asia Newsletter

GDAP’s 1st Industry-Academe Seminar was featured in the latest Games Convention Asia Newsletter.

Games Convention Asia 2008 is expected to be the largest digital media and computer games conference done this year in the Asia-Pacific Region. It is organized by Leipziger Messe International GmbH, organizers of the upcoming GC Developers Conference in Leipzig.

The conference will be held on September 18-20, 2008 at Suntec, Singapore.  Several members of the GDAP are expected to attend.  If anyone would like to get in touch with any of the GDAP members during the conference, just send us a message through the comment box, or contact our members directly through the member links.  See you in Singapore!

Sony’s Playstation-edu Initiative

The Playstation Blog has a post online from Mark Danks, Senior Manager for Developer Support, detailing Sony’s Playstation-edu Initiative.  From the site:

“PlayStation-edu is a program for universities and colleges to get access to PS2 and PSP development kits…the same ones that professional developers use to make the games you love to play. You get the development software, the hardware, and the SDK to learn and experiment with. SCEA wants to make sure that students who are graduating from college are ready to program on PlayStation hardware and that means getting it into your hands.”

If any of our affiliate members from the academe want to inquire on the possibility of being part of the Playstation-edu initiative, you can contact Mark Danks at applications@psp-edu.scedev.net. It would be great if at least one of our GDAP academe members are able to get into the program.  A college graduate that has had experience developing games in an official console SDK would be a great asset to any game development company, local or otherwise.

Moving from IT to Game Development

GameCareerGuide.com has an interesting article online from Robert Madsen, an IT professional who transitioned into game development after 25 years in the IT industry.The article can be found here.

Robert proves that it’s never too late for anyone interested in creating and designing games to get started in the game development industry. I’m posting this in the hopes that the article will inspire skilled artists, developers and designers from other local industries to start living their game development dreams. Or join the GDAP! (shamelss plug)

GDAP 1st Industry-Academe Seminar

GDAP successfully held its 1st GDAP Industry-Academe Seminar last July 11, 2008 at the Cosmopoint International Institute of Technology. GDAP would like to thank CIIT, the attendees, the speakers, and everyone else who helped make the event a success. We will be analyzing the feedback forms and the suggestions from our attendees to ensure that future GDAP education initiatives will address any concerns. Looking forward to seeing everyone at our next GDAP event!

5th International Mobile Gaming Awards open for Submission

The International Mobile Gaming Awards (IMGA) team is inviting all mobile game developers to submit a contest entry in this year’s IMGA.  Calling all those who have the next great mobile game brewing in their studios: now’s your chance to show the world that we have what it takes to compete globally in terms of game design and development.

Previous winners of the IMGA include Anino Mobile, one of the GDAP core companies, for their entry Anima Wars.  The game won the IMGA Best in Connectivity Award in 2006.  Anino Mobile was again nominated for two more awards for IMGA 2007.

Good luck to all entrants and here’s hoping that this year we’ll have another Filipino game company competing head-to-head with international mobile game studios such as Konami, Digital Chocolate and Nokia.

Welcome to the new GDAP website!

The Game Developers Association of the Philippines (GDAP) is a non-stock non-profit organization dedicated to furthering the game development industry in the Philippines. It is composed of game development studios in the country, both foreign and local, and has strong ties to the government, technology suppliers, education sector and the international community of game developers via the International Game Developers Association.

Mission

GDAP is committed to elevating and advocating the game development industry in the country via education and collaboration

Vision

GDAP envisions a Filipino game development industry that is both prosperous and world class.