Scottish video game designers 'lack skills' to reach next level

Published on Saturday 17 April 2010 14:29

SCOTTISH computer games firms risk being held back because those running them suffer from a lack of management skills.

Research from Abertay University suggests that computer game designers are failing to grow their businesses because many cannot properly balance their creative and commercial interests.

The initial findings from the project – which is expected to be completed in September – will be unveiled on Wednesday at a workshop in Dundee, with academics and industry players discussing the problem.

Katherine Champion, a research assistant at Abertay's Dundee Business School, said: "We found that business activity in the creative industries is underpinned by a tension between creative and commercial priorities. On one hand, businesses need to foster creativity, yet also exploit and commercialise it.

"In practice, these demands are often conflicting rather than complementary and such tensions require a sophisticated change in management capability and, in some cases, drastic organisational change."

She said that computer games entrepreneurs needed strategic vision, effective organisational structures and "high levels of managerial expertise" to solve such conflicts.

Her project – Supporting small firm growth strategies in the digital media industries – questioned representatives from the industry and was funded by the Economic and Social Research Council's business engagement scheme.

Paul Farley, managing director of Dundee-based TAG Games, said he was not surprised by the findings.

He said: "I think it's a very common problem – a lot of people will set up games companies with more of a hobbyist mentality than a business mentality because the draw of video games is so great.

"The potential rewards of having a hit game lure many people towards it – they think it's easy to set up a video games company, but the reality is that it's hard and you need to run it first and foremost as a business. The fact that you're creating games is secondary to that."

Farley said he had overcome the problem by setting up TAG Games with a twin-track approach: the firm still designs its own games but also takes on contract work for other clients. The company's own titles have included Car Jack Streets, on Apple's iPhone and other mobiles, and Astro Ranch, which was one of the launch games to accompany the new iPad.

Contract work has included a computer game version of the BBC1 series Total Wipeout for Endemol, presented by Richard Hammond, and programming for Sir Richard Branson's Virgin Atlantic airline.

Wednesday's workshop will include practical tasks and "scenario-based" work to help those employed in the sector and students training to become games designers learn how to manage businesses better.

But Dr Richard Wilson, chief executive of trade body Tiga, defended companies in the games sector. He said: "As any small business grows, the owners will recognise that they need to bring on board people who understand more about running a company, whether that's as part of your management team or as non-executive directors.

"But I think that's true of any sector of the economy – there's always going to be a time when you need to broaden your managerial talent."

Wilson said that computer games developers obviously had a passion for their work but that the industry was complicated by the relationship with games publishers and financiers, which had more commercial concerns.

He added: "While games developers tend to be more entrepreneurial and are prepared to take more of a risk, I think traditional publishers and third party financiers will be looking for more security and guarantees that their investments in a project will return a dividend."