Pinoy animators urged to look into game dev’t industry

Filipino animators should look into lucrative game development, according to Luis Mañalac, president of LadyLuck Digital Media, a local game development firm.

Mañalac said the gaming industry hopes to get at least six percent of the 25,000 animation graduates every year.

The video game market in the United States, Europe, Middle East, Africa (EMEA), Asia and the Pacific, Latin America, and Canada is expected to increase from $25.4 billion in 2004 to $54.6 billion in 2009, growing at 16.5 percent annually, based on Pricewaterhouse Coopers 2005-2009 Global Entertainment Media Outlook.

The global game development industry is likewise seen to grow in the next few years.

The US game development market is projected to reach roughly $15 billion in 2009, while Canada’s market is seen to grow to $1.3 billion and Latin America, $832 million in the same period.

According to Mañalac, the Philippines has a lower cost of development compared to North America and Europe and is therefore an attractive location for offshore companies wanting to outsource their work abroad.

Game development cost in the Philippines is just 1/8th the cost of game creation in the US.

Mañalac said that a team of 10 people working full time for two years only cost $262,000 in the Philippines as against $1.7 million in the United States.

To date, skilled Filipino animators end up working in post-production facilities or animation studios locally and abroad.

Philippine game developers sub-contract the rendering to the industry’s best talent, such as Holy Cow Animation.

Filipino musical scorers like Jessie Lucas are also commissioned for the job.

Sub-contractors are given credit in every game and paid in advance on royalties.

LadyLuck Digital is the maker of TerraWars: New York Invasion (www.terrawars.com <http://www.terrawars.com>), a one-player game that is a precise recreation of New York City.

The game is about a worldwide alien invasion and humanity’s battle against the aggression.

The game is set for release in the US and Japan in the second quarter of 2006.

Mañalac was one of the speakers in the recently concluded e-Services Philippines, an outsourcing conference and exhibition organized by the Department of Trade and Industry’s Center for International Trade Expositions and Missions.