Small computer games companies creating mobile phone applications can fill the gap left in Dundee’s digital economy by the collapse of giants like Realtime Worlds, an industry expert says.
Dundee College project manager for creative and digital industries Andrew Mackenzie said the skills of people made redundant when Realtime collapsed make them perfect to profit from the growing craze.
Mr Mackenzie estimates the apps business is worth around £10 billion a year and said the nature of creating and distributing the products means firms are less likely to suffer big financial disasters.
“Basically, what’s happening is changing the way the market is running,” he said. “Before, you had console games and big companies running them but now you can publish things directly rather than going through a big company.
“That means you can put things out there and if they are picked up, go from there. It’s not £80 per game more like 80p an app but, if they are getting picked up in the tens of thousands, it’s still a healthy income.”
Dundee College is hosting a conference, AppCon, at Discovery Point from November 8-10 asas part of the week long NEoN digital arts festival. It will include 10 speakers from across the world address an invited audience of around 100 people. There will be workshops and seminars aimed at students and enthusiasts that will run in the evenings and are titled AppXtra.
Mr Mackenzie “very much hoped” a re-moulding of workers involved in the games industry’s skills could mean another digital economic boost for Dundee.
“It’s one of the reasons we’re holding the conference we want to get a lot of the guys to use their experience,” he said. “I have talked to many ex-Realtime Worlds employees who have long been thinking about an app and now they could start making it.
“There is a large pool of talent here. We want to ensure Dundee doesn’t lose a lot of the talent to bigger companies, which would obviously not be a good thing.”
Part of the conference is a 48-hour AppJam 30 developers in teams of three working on a new app to present on the final day of the conference.For more information on the event, 2010.appjam.eu