Q&A: general questions about the games industry

Here are the questions you asked our panel of people who work in the games industry and app development.

Question: Mark, what’s it like being a young CEO? And do you see enough skill and experience in Irish developers to continue creating great games in Ireland, or would you consider moving the company to somewhere such as Silicon Valley?
- David, Galway

Mark Lambe from NeverMind GamesMark Lambe (NeverMind Games): There’s no doubt that games studios in Ireland produce great games, they tend to be the start-ups, but as these companies grow, we should start to see some great high profile games coming out of Ireland.

Question: Is augmented reality on the horizon for the future of gaming?
- Patrick, Ballinteer, Dublin 16,

Damien Murphy, apps developerDamien Murphy (SAP): Hi Patrick, interesting that you should mention this as I just got back from an Augmented Reality conference in Munich, Germany called InsideAR yesterday!

Augmented Reality will see huge growth not only in gaming but in many other areas also like enterprise, lifestyle, retail and industry. For instance the new IKEA catalogue has augmented reality in it!

Question: How do you know people will like the games you are making?
- Orla, Sutton, Dublin

Mark Lambe: Focus groups, user testing, surveys, the same as most products.

Damien Murphy: Hi Orla, the simple answer is you don’t, but you should have a fair idea if it’s good by playing similar games or the game itself.

Question: How do you pick groups to test new games? For example, does your panel, in turn, have another panel of “expert gamers” to put new projects to the test or do you try them out with ordinary people to make sure the games aren’t confusing?
- Una, Midleton, Co. Cork

Damien Murphy: Hi Una, most companies have testers who test that the product works as it is supposed to. Then you have User Experience experts who would consider the usability prior to development of an app.

Mark Lambe: Our games are casual games so “ordinary people” are a great place to start.

Question: What is it like actually developing a mobile game, from one day to the next, as part of a team? What would you say is the biggest challenge you experience, and what pushed you down the game / app development road? I’m learning Java in my spare time and doing small projects, I feel I’d like to get into games, but aside from looking over open-source code, don’t know much about it.
- Patrick, Mayo

Damien Murphy: Hi Patrick, I would recommend picking a simple game you like and make your own version.

My first mobile app was an offline bus timetable for my bus to college. I then created a J2ME mobile game called DredBrick which was a breakout clone.

Mark Lambe: Read my blog post “Game industry 101”, it’s a good way of looking at different careers within the industry. Developing games is a lot of fun and quite rewarding.

Read more Q&As about the games industry and app development