State of Play 2013

Prison Architect producer Mark Morris will be giving the keynote speech at tonight's State of Play at DIT Angier Street. He works with Introversion Software in the UK.

A satirical twist on business-sim games like Theme Hospital, Prison Architect tasks players with running the most efficient privatley owned prison possible. It's currently in open alpha (an early test version) for people who want to preorder the game.

State of Play is an annual event looking at the Irish game development scene. There'll be games to play from a host of Irish indies from 5PM and a range of Irish and International speakers on stage. Coverage of last years event is available here on HackettOut.

You can still register for the event on stateofplay.ie.

Here's a terrible trailer for the Alpha version of Prison Architect.

State of Play 2012 Round-Up

Growth in the Irish games industry is creating opportunities for artist, designers and programmers. Last night’s State of Play conference heard that the Irish industry has almost quadrupled in size in the last three years.

• The 'Hackett Out' live blog captured the evening: Read along with State of Play here. 
• Get the data: Jamie McCormick’s report on the state of the industry can be found here. 
• Who’s funding indie development in Ireland? See Wayra Ireland and NDRC
• Got some free time? @seriousgamesIRL live-streamed the whole event. Find it here.

Ku from Bit Smith Games
Source: Bit Smith Games

The call for new talent came again and again from speakers at the 2012 State of Play indie-game showcase in Dublin last night.

From artists to coders, new blood is in short supply in this growing industry. The number of companies working in video-games here has jumped from 21 in 2009 to over 83 this year.

Jamie McCormick, Marketing Systems Manager at Gala Networks Europe, published his report on the state of the industry in Ireland last week. He said video-games are now worth €210m to the Irish economy every year.

His study, “Games Industry Ireland 2012”, is available online on gamedevelopers.ie. McCormick said that the study highlighted skills shortages in in Ireland, especially in the area of animation.

And he proposed solutions. He’s trying to bring together the Irish Film Board and the game’s industry to pool their talents.