The video game industry has boomed in recent years because of the variety of ways to play games. Gone are the days when all one had to track were console sales and games sold for their respective consoles and PCs. Now everything is simply played online.

The rise of digital-copy game sales has seen an increased uptick in the world of mobile games, in-app purchases of freemium or cross-platform games that aren’t limited to a specific console or online casino games (like Lucky Nugget $1, for example). That said, with streaming game services like Microsoft’s Game Pass, games-as-a-subscription models, and online distribution services like Steam, along with varying levels of transparency, anyone wanting to make apples-to-apples comparisons would encounter an unwieldy fruit basket.

Gaming Industry as a whole is now more expensive and profitable than most of the industries on the planet, even movies! In 2020, the global revenue coming from the Video Games industry alone took a surge to a value of close to $180 Billion according to IDC Data, which essentially made the Gaming industry bigger than the Film industry, which had an estimate of $100 billion as well as the North American Sports industry which had a revenue of $75 billion in 2020. COVID-19 played a huge role in these numbers. However, even if we were to wind back a few years, the industry still had revenue of $140 Billion which still puts it ahead of the other industries. Gaming is evidently adored by a large quantity, that is why websites such as https://pillarofgaming.com/, including others, are used for helpful tips and tricks as well as gaming guides so that gamers are prepared when they play.

No doubt that the gaming industry of Bangladesh has made noteworthy progress in the past few years but despite a very booming gaming market, the development industry is still very juvenile. If asked to name some of the leading game development companies of our country- despite their international acknowledgment and accolades- the names don’t really roll off our tongues easily.

Alpha Potato is one of the leading game development companies focused on the hyper-casual genre and with milestones such as I Peel Good and Icing on the Cake, going up to the first and second spot in the iOS US top chart respectively. In conversation with Munshi Saeed Hasnat (Max), Game Designer and Product Manager of Alpha Potato, we delved into the brutal challenges aspiring developers face in our home arena.

LACK OF SUPPORT FROM THE GOVERNMENT

This hits the industry hard as although investments are being made for tournaments, when it comes to tipping the scales in favor of the development side of gaming there is barely any support at all.

Since there isn’t any ‘hype’ regarding gaming development nationally, it also contributes to the challenge of foreign transactions. “At Alpha Potato, we have had games stay on top of the chart in both appstore and Google Play, yet any sort of transactions has been tedious, to say the least. Even if our audience and fellow gamers do want to support us, the difficulty of the international transaction process itself poses as an obstacle.”

What we fail to realize is just how massive the gaming industry has become, and how with proper support, the young generation and budding studios of our country could potentially turn this into a multi-billion dollar industry in Bangladesh.

CONFUSION SURROUNDING INVESTMENTS

Moreover, he added, investing in the gaming development arena works quite differently than other sectors. Additionally, lack of information and familiarity can make it seem more daunting since there is still not enough buzz about it and definitely a lack of knowledge regarding gaming in Bangladesh itself, this is where our industry again gets punched.

Whichever industry managed to flourish in Bangladesh like jute, RMG, etc. always received government support. Again referring back to the transaction issues we face on a regular, Mr. Max stated, allowing free trade access and lowering down charges for the gaming industry, and embracing it actively as a part of Digital Bangladesh would open doors for our country. Currently, it is roughly an untapped market of 12 million USD. If investors are shown the ropes properly and educated on the subject matter, they too will realize they can get a significant return in one of the most thriving industries of the future on a global scale.

And in the end, a lack of budget hurts overall qualities on the games we produce. When we are having to pay a lion’s share of our revenue to billing charges and taxes, we cannot really take leaps to further push the limits of the potential we hold.

That is pretty much the case for all other studios, where they are forced to create very simple games that just satisfy their respective client’s needs. This mentality really prevents studios and solo developers of our country from creating something unique or original that would compete with the international market. So clearing out the smoke and actively receiving support would actually help us sustain better in the long run.

STELLAR POOL OF OPPORTUNITIES

Not being highlighted hurts a large chunk of our aspiring game development enthusiasts as well. Due to societal pressure, most of these individuals are almost always a whisker away from giving into a more traditional source of earning anyways.

Mr. Max urged young aspirants to view this in a different light. He said, “Competition is still almost non-existent in Bangladesh’s development industry. We at Alpha Potato are constantly on the lookout for talented individuals and often feel frustrated at the lack of such individuals signing up for these opportunities.

An industry that has no requirement for degrees or age restriction and let’s you thrive solely on your caliber- that is how the Alpha Potato describes Bangladesh’s game development industry to the young generation.

He added, with perseverance you can also get the scope of working internationally from the comfort of your own home and make a mark in the global market.

More importantly, addressing these issues will also help stop the brain drain that is happening from our country from yet another industry, he further stated.

THE DREAM TEAM

Creating a proper high-quality game requires a lot of effort from people of extremely different fields. Think of all of the roles as different pieces of Cogs working together in a well-oiled machine. If even one of them breaks down or goes missing, the whole infrastructure will go into chaos. Which is why the Game Development industry has numerous different sectors that provide different opportunities for interested individuals. There is no “Singular” skill that would apply to everyone.

S Farhan Ahmed, Lead CG Artist at BRACU Computer Vision And Intelligence Research Lab (CVIS), Contractual Product Designer at Hamburg Leasing, Germany and Navarest Company, Spain, advices the young and rising talents to first thoroughly research the different roles available in a Game Studio and then try to understand what they are really good at and capitalize on that particular skill.

So what are the roles that you should be honing your skills for? We asked Farhan to give a simple breakdown of the most prominent roles present in a Game Studio for our readers:

GAME DESIGNER

In every project it all starts with the idea. But without proper execution, the idea is worthless. Being one of the most important roles in game dev, the game designer can bring game ideas to life throughout the iterations. He should have very strong organizational skills to keep all assets and documents created and organized to be understood by other game dev team members.

STORY DESIGNER

If your game is more complex than an endless runner, you will probably need a story worked out. Having a story in a game means having characters. Each with its own hair, clothes, height, etc. Throughout the game, characters face challenges, interact with each other; in other words, they live their virtual lives. That’s where the story designer comes in. His responsibilities are to keep players engaged till the end of the game by writing dialogue lines, progression, character biographies. LEVEL DESIGNER

Almost every game consists of multiple levels, which must have a gradual difficulty increase, introduce new mechanics regularly and be attractive. The level designer’s job is to literally bring worlds developed by game and story designers to life. If the level is boring, there’s a lot of backtracking, the mechanics are way too repetitive, there are unexpected difficulty spikes.

GAME DEVELOPER

Developers are responsible for creating logic and game entities’ behavior as described by the design team and developing any tools that will be used in the process. Depending on the tech used by the studio, it is assumed that modern indie game studios use 3rd party game engines like Unity3D or Unreal Engine because there’s little justification these days to develop their own game engine. So, in our case, anyone on the team that participates in coding is called a game developer. Coding can be considered quite a tricky skills to master, so if you are starting to learn how to code but you’re struggling to get to grips with it, there are ways to help. For instance, companies like Do My Coding can help solve problems for you, regarding coding mistakes.

RENDER ENGINEER

The creation of every game is a never-ending battle for resources. Minimizing memory requirements, minimizing draw calls number, optimizing shaders, combining meshes, textures. Optimization is a very delicate matter because, almost always, it is a trade-off between visuals’ quality and performance. Hence, it has to be carried out by experienced professionals who know how the image rendering actually works. Using modern middleware like Unity or Unreal Engine is that they encapsulate much of the under-the-hood processes away from the user. In theory, one could create “something that works” without knowing the basics, leading to dramatic results. Therefore, the rendering engineer in your team must most likely be the most experienced person who previously attempted to write custom game engines.

CONCEPT ARTIST (2D ARTIST)

Whatever game you create, you need to make sure it looks consistent. Do an experiment (if possible) – ask two 3D modelers to create a spaceship. Star Wars fans will most likely create something of a cornered form from the 80s, while Star Trek fans will stick to rounded shapes. And then, if you use both these models in one project simultaneously, you’ll get guaranteed eclectic looks. Concept artists are there to avoid such situations and work closely with the game designer throughout the project

TEXTURE ARTIST

The number of textures in modern games exceeds all possible and imaginable limits. While the production of some textures can be somewhat automated, the original source textures must be painted manually. Painting textures requires a lot of experience because they have to be looking good when scaled and transformed; most of the textures should be seamlessly tiled. A typical game has thousands of textures, so it is a great piece of work. The texture artist should better understand the tech behind the game development process to produce good-looking results.

3D ANIMATOR

While some 3D models can be animated directly in the game engine (i.e. infamous spinning cubes), the abilities of built-in engine animation are quite limited, so most of the complex animations are created with professional software like Autodesk’s 3DS Max or Maya. This person should know how to work with rigging and IK. It would be honest to mention that most AAA titles use motion capture techniques for characters’ animations. Still, we assume that MoCap facilities are unavailable to indie studios.

QA Engineer

It is always easier to release several ten-something gigabytes patched than spend additional time on QA but games with a large amount of content take months to get QAed properly. So, who are QA engineers exactly? They are professionals who are familiar with QA principles and have a passion for the game genre they are involved in. They should have vast experience as players and have critical thinking minds. Also, they should be involved in the process when the first pre-alpha versions become available to know how the game works, what it should contain, etc.

Besides these, 3D Artist, Release and Infrastructure Manager, Music Engineer/Composer, Sound Engineer, Project Manager etc. are some of the other career opportunities that await young aspirants.

So there are many hats one can decide to wear in the game industry, in the end it boils down to incessantly pursuing your craft. The possibilities are truly endless.

A report produced by Game Analytics provided Newzoo submitted a report where it claimed that the Bangladesh Gaming Industry is the third-largest video game market in South Asia. With the rise of so many talented and passionate game designers and artists, and resourceful and apt home originated studios to support them- if we can truly support this industry as a part of Digital Bangladesh- the future will indeed paint the global game development market green and red. Success stories are there, but they are so far stretched apart that they don’t really get the opportunity to hit the limelight. The industry is taking its time, but it is moving forward.

By Tasnuva Tasfia Puspita