Alistair Houghton meets video game programmers making a fresh start after losing their jobs

JUST like characters on screen, it seems that Merseyside’s video game developers can bounce back despite what the world throws at them.

The video games sector was long seen by Merseyside regeneration chiefs as one that was ripe for growth, thanks largely to its two big players – Sony and Bizarre Creations.

But last year Sony axed many of its development staff in Liverpool, and just last week said more development jobs could be cut across its UK studios. Meanwhile, in January, Speke’s Bizarre Creations was closed with the loss of 200 jobs.

With jobs few and far between in the North West, it looked as though many of those developers would leave the region – perhaps heading to Canada, which offers tax breaks to game developers.

But many others, who have put down roots in the region, have decided to stop the brain drain and stay here to create the next generation of gaming firms.

In recent years, the UK has seen a wave of studio closures and cutbacks by the developers of big-budget “AAA” games for consoles such as the Playstation or the XBox. So Liverpool’s new wave of game developers are leaving the AAA world behind to focus on games that can be played online, via social networks such as Facebook, or on smartphones.

And, away from the world of the global entertainment behemoths such as Sony or Bizarre’s owner Activision, they are learning the rules of a new game – starting out in business.

You can see some of the new breed in action at Basecamp3, the business incubation centre in Parliament Street.

The open-plan former warehouse is home to a handful of refugees from Sony and Bizarre who are now running their own firms.

In the middle sits a block of desks that acts as home to Setgo, a company founded by three former members of the senior management team at Sony’s Wavertree site who left in last year’s restructuring.

Setgo’s ambitious mission statement could almost act as a rallying cry for all these small companies. It says: “We started Setgo in Liverpool because we wanted to help create a new culture of start-up games companies to counteract the wave of studio closures, redundancies and talent drain that has hit the region and the UK games industry in general over the last five years.”

Setgo develops online games that can played online through web browsers and via social networks such as Facebook – its first release was Facebook game Castaways. For co-founder Christian Lavoie, those markets represent the future of gaming.

Under the AAA model, studios have to invest large amounts of money to develop games, banking on big sales in the weeks after the game is launched. But if that fails, there is a price to be paid.

Bizarre Creations, for example, spent 30 months developing racing game Blur, which was launched last May. But sales were disappointing – and so Activision decided to close the studio down.

Mr Lavoie said: “Traditional AAA large project development in the UK is clinging to the roots at the edge of a cliff.

“We saw that when we were at Sony. We saw the beginning of the end.

“The market is shifting. There are large amounts of money being generated – video games generate more revenue than films. Yet the traditional games market is contracting.

“So we saw the opportunity to investigate new platforms.”

His co-founder Jason Chown, looking around at the other entrepreneurs in Basecamp3, added: “We were drawn to Liverpool by extremely big companies. With their demise, we are hoping to start the next set of big companies which will drive the next generation of talent.”

Setgo’s founders come from all over the world but made Merseyside their home after joining Sony in the 1990s. Mr Chown is a UK citizen, while Clemens Wangerin is originally from Germany and Mr Lavoie comes from Canada.

The Canadian games sector has grown strongly in recent years and many UK developers have crossed the Atlantic to grow their careers there. That success has been driven by tax breaks offered to games companies by Canadian provincial governments.

Games firms in the UK, backed by trade bodies TIGA and UKIE, are campaigning for similar tax breaks to be introduced here.

But for Mr Lavoie – who has many friends working in the Canadian video games sector – the issue is not simply about tax. It is instead, he says, about the wider support that government can offer.

“I’ve had conversations with members of the Quebec government,” he said. “You cannot talk to them and have them lay out their support, without getting giddy – giddy like a child in front of a sweet shop.

“They’ve got tax credits equivalent to 37.5% of your R&D costs. That’s the start. After that, they pay for training to a large degree. If you can’t find people locally, they will assist in getting people from elsewhere.

“I spoke to them and they asked me if I wanted to start in Montreal – ‘How much money do you need? We’ll line up people who want to invest. Don’t worry about filling in forms – we’ll do it for you. We’ll get an accountant, we’ll show you premises.’”

Sam Hall, one of the newest tenants at Basecamp3, is one of 200 staff at Bizarre who lost their jobs in January. He is only too aware of the pull of Canadian gaming firms.

“A lot of ex-Bizarre employees ended up going to Canada, where they do get Government tax breaks,” he said.”For a publisher, that’s really appealing.”

The only way Mr Hall could get a job in another large studio would be to move away from Merseyside.

“But I’ve got a family,” he said. “It’s not something I want to do at the moment.

“So I decided that as I had a bit of savings, I would go out on my own.

“It’s at a really early stage – I haven’t even got myself a company name.”

At first Mr Hall plans to offer his programming skills to other businesses, rather than designing his own games.

“I haven’t got my sights set on world domination,” he smiled. “I want to make a living and pay my mortgage.

“If along the way I find time to make my own games, I’d love that. But at the moment I’m trying to play it reasonably safe. I’m just finding my feet and getting used to the idea of not being part of a bigger studio.

“I’m enjoying the benefits, but I’m also scared stiff.”

Activision announced last year that it was planning to close Bizarre. The studio had a proud heritage, thanks to titles such as Project Gotham Racing and Geometry Wars, and its closure rocked the video games world

“It was an utter shock,” said Mr Hall.

“Activision spoke to the whole company and went through all the options for the business. The last one was closing the studio down, and they told us that was the option they wanted to take.

“The whole room went completely silent. People thought there would be cuts, but didn’t think it would close.

“A lot of people are trying to look on the bright side and see this as a new start.”

Last month the Daily Post reported that a team led by senior Bizarre executive Pete Wallace had opened Lucid Games, a studio they hope will eventually take on more former staff from the closed Speke studio.

And Roy Jones of Basecamp3 has recently spoken to more ex-Bizarre staff about their budding business ventures.

If they want tips, they could do worse than speaking to some of the other ex-Sony staff now based at Basecamp3, including Dave Burrows – who sits two desks away from Mr Hall.

Mr Burrows worked at Sony for 10 years before leaving last year. Trading as Damibu he will not be building games himself, but will instead offer services to other developers, helping them to develop games that work across platforms from social networks to smartphones.

He also gives occasional lectures at Liverpool John Moores University – and in one recent lecture on the future of gaming, he urged students to consider setting up their own firms rather than chasing jobs at large studios.

“Starting a business as a student is much easier than starting a business once you have a mortgage,” he said.

“There’s more job security running your own life than there is working for a large company.”

For Mr Burrows, starting his own firm was a way to get back to the work he loves most – programming.

“At Sony I was managing a big team,” he said. “I ended up getting further away from doing things myself.

“I ended up as the PlayStation Network Technical Director. I was talking to Japan and the US. We were coming up with really good ideas. But they seemed to come to a halt.

“It’s probably a big company thing – not particularly Sony. They were pretty good and certainly let us run with stuff. But there are definitely things I could now do that I couldn’t do then.”

Paul Ripley, who founded Phasic Labs following a five-year career at Sony, is also enjoying being his own boss.

Phasic will develop games for the iPhone, iPad and other platforms.

Last year Phasic launched its first iPhone game, Hexius. Mr Ripley has signed an agreement with publisher Chillingo to develop a new game, though he is keeping details under wraps, and is relishing having the freedom to turn his own ideas into games.

“When you’re part of a large development team, you’re focusing on just one area of the game,” he said. “Now I can look at every single aspect of a game.

“I left Sony and looked around to see what was available. I was interviewed at Bizarre. They offered me a job. But it was a narrowly-focused job and not really what I was interested in.

“I thought if I don’t try something now, while I’m in a financially strong position, I’ll never try it and I’ll always regret it.

“I wouldn’t want to go back now. It’s fun being my own boss.”