I wanted to hate goose game but I LOVE IT!
To the point, if you like Untitled Goose Game: why should you invest more in our indie creators
A new comic video game about a mischievous goose has become a viral sensation - reaching the top of digital sales charts, inspiring a steadily increasing stream of memes and fan art, and earning support from celebrities such as Blink 182 and Chrissy Teigen.
Video Credit: YouTube
Untitled Goose Game is the latest release from House House, a Melbourne-based indie developer.
The game is set in a quiet and unsuspecting English village and tells the player - a mischievous goose - to make life uncomfortable for city dwellers. "It is a wonderful morning in the village and you are a terrible goose", the promotional text reads.
Untitled Goose Game, funded by Film Victoria, is an indication of what the Australian gaming industry is capable of with funding and support.
A winning success
Untitled Goose Game is the latest in a long series of globally successful video games developed by small team developers in Australia and joining HalfBrick's Fruit Ninja, Hipster Whale's Crossy Road and Black Lab Games' Battlestar Galactica Deadlock.
These developers all received funding and support from various government support programs.
The same cannot be said for a fixed majority of independent game development studios across Australia, who continue to operate and succeed despite virtually no recognition or support, and the cessation of many federal and state aid and financing schemes. The Interactive Games Fund of the federal government was cancelled in 2014.
In 2018, Australians spent more than A $ 4 billion on video games and the income generated by Australian game development studios for a total of A $ 118 million, 80% of overseas sales.
The global industry generated sales of nearly US $ 138 billion (A $ 205 billion) in 2018 and is estimated to be US $ 180 billion (A $ 267 billion) in 2021.
An evolving industry
Australia was once home to several large studios, including 2K Australia, Blue Tongue, Pandemic, THQ Australia and Team Bondi.
Over the past ten years, the studios have closed their doors one by one due to excessive operating costs, the global financial crisis and changes in production and distribution processes.
The closure of large studios has paved the way for a new era of development that is reminiscent of the golden age or the design of video games.
During the mid-1970s and early 1980s, game developers often financed and developed video games at home and distributed software independently.
As the industry grew, it was increasingly dominated by companies. Publishers provided financial support to studios and took over the production, marketing and distribution of games. The market grew too fast and became oversaturated with poor quality games. In 1983 the industry collapsed.
The industry began to recover after the release of the Nintendo Entertainment System (NES) in 1985. Previous systems, such as Atari, offer unlimited freedom for external developers. The NES introduced strict quality control measures and checked which games were available on the system. Quality control entailed additional costs and many independent developers could not work without a publisher.
Publication deadlines were getting worse, with development studios offering creative control and intellectual property to publishers. It is not uncommon for developers to run into the ground.
But since 2012, the development of independent video games has been on the rise and the game industry is now in an "indie-game renaissance".
With the rise of the Internet, developers can use alternative, inexpensive methods to develop, market, and distribute their games. Independent studios can now reach customers directly with lower production and distribution costs.
Lower costs, however, mean no costs: small-scale studios would benefit greatly from subsidies and financing systems.
A model for success
The popularity of Untitled Goose Game comes from a perfect combination of factors: a stylistic and playful art style, slapstick humour, an adaptive soundtrack, solving logical puzzles, and the high accessibility and short learning curve thanks to the simplistic operating scheme.
The success of the game shows that great things can come by investing in small, independent teams.
Canada's media strategy, where video games are a focus sector, shows us what the right levels of support and financial investment can help.
Thanks to the collaboration of the Canadian Trade Commissioner Service and Canada Media Fund, the video game industry is booming in Canada. Canada's video game industry is among the largest of all countries in the world, with more than 21,000 full-time employees and a contribution of C $ 3.7 billion (A $ 4.1 billion) to the country's economy.
Despite these success stories and recommendations, the Australian government appears reluctant to provide assistance to the industry.
For now, we can only imagine what we could achieve if we invested more in our indie makers.
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