Task 1: The Size and Shape of the Industry

For this task I was given the instruction to read an attached PDF File (pg32-36) from UKIE that goes
into detail about the UK games industry and facts about it (which I shall link on my website), then write
up something that details the size of the games industry, as well as answering a few questions.

So, the size of the UK games industry is actually very large and makes up a huge figure of the total
income for Great Britain. There are a total 2,182 individual game companies in the UK as of Q4 2017,
and the UK is a bit of a talent magnet, having three huge cities that attract skilled workers (London,
Birmingham and Cardiff).

Do you think jobs in the games sector are increasing or decreasing? Why?

I feel like jobs in the games sector are increasing, even though the positions are being filled,
the growing games industry is looking for more diversity and more success passed what it
already has achieved.

Where are jobs concentrated geographically, in terms of the UK?

Jobs and employment are most focused in London, the South East, East and West midlands of
England. This goes for both development and publishing FTEs.

What proportion of freelancers are there in this industry?

16% of the UK Games industry workforce are freelancers that tend to feature more technical
roles. This includes audio, sound and music (49%), animators (39%), and production (30%).

From a personal perspective, are there any equality and diversity challenges presented by this
sub-sector?

There is a divide within the games industry. From what I have read about in the statistical
report the divide between men and women in the workforce is still ever-present, with women
being discriminated by colleagues and not having potentially the same roles. According to the
published fact sheet women often land jobs as legal experts in the industry, and not as creative
directors.

In my opinion, it is fair that women have the same job opportunities and freedom, as well as
the safety that men do in a workplace. The fact most women feel discriminated upsets me,
and the fact the jobs appear unequally opportune also disappoints me. However, if women
are choosing to be legal and financial experts more so than having technical and creative jobs
simply because that’s what they prefer, that is fine with me.

Task 2: Skills Gap

For this task I have been asked to look at a second piece of information from UKIE, this time a
manifesto. The manifesto contains a load of information about what was asked of the UK government
in May of 2017 that would help enhance and protect the UK games industry.

I shall then give a small overview of each of the 10 points featured in the manifesto, and then suggest
how they would help improve the UK games industry as a whole.
Points
1. The government should support the games industry with more flexibility in their funds.

This would increase the level of standard games are made to by emerging companies, mostly, as they
will have, perhaps, a better way to pay their employees and perhaps hire more people to work in areas
where progress or quality is lacking so that the industry continues to work to a high standard. This
would also help secure the relevance of larger companies whom may have spent more money on a
project, hoping that the game would return a higher value than it did. But, also, hopefully in a sense
of “flexibility” so that there is an average increase of profit from the games industry rather than a slow
decrease in economic status.

2. The Government should conduct a skills review of our nation at the beginning of each
Parliament.

This wouldn’t only help the games industry, but also a lot of other industries. If the Government did
this it would help educational institutions plan to help students meet the needs of employers and that
would help to futureproof our economy, as there then would be a higher rate of employment. This
would mean there would be a higher value to the British pound and so we hold greater value
economically on planetary scale.

3. The Government must prioritise working with the Industrial Strategy to develop criteria that
keeps pace with the rapidly evolving needs of the creative industries.

This would help because it would mean the government pays more attention to what is required of
developing creative minds and to be able to teach them accordingly. This is so that when students
move into work in, for example, the games industry, they are fully prepared for what those companies
expect of them and that the job roles are filled, meaning there are no gaps when a company desires a
certain role to be filled to specific criteria. This would help the industry because that means it can
always advance forward with levels of designs continuously improving and becoming more appealing.

4. The Government should confirm that EU citizens working in the UK after our departure from
the EU will still have writes to remain and work here. [URGENT].

This would allow everyone in the industry from the EU to stay here- even if they aren’t UK citizens-
and work in UK companies. This would help the industry stay afloat, because a lot of members of
gaming companies in the UK are not actually from the UK, specifically. And creative designers are
much more diverse when taken from over the globe. If these people had to leave the UK economy it
would practically sink our ship, since a lot of our infrastructure depends on these people.

5. The Government must obtain a data adequacy decision from the EU so data protection laws
stay similar, and so both the mainland and Europe can still work together online.

This would mean the copyright laws allow both the EU and the UK to share information between each
other and still be within fair use. Since American laws on data protection and such are different to
ours, they are incompatible and therefore don’t interact and share information. This would help the
industry because we could still share valuable data within Europe with the EU (under the guidelines).
This would allow us to have a way to share information with Europe and continue with how the
internet currently functions between both areas. This would help the games industry because it would
mean hiring people from the mainland would be easier, and vice versa.
 6. The Government should ensure future trade agreements follow existing trade freedoms.

This would make sure there are no regulatory divergences in the future that might hinder market
access, in the sense that if we can keep trading as normal everything should continue to cost little to
transfer goods between other nations and our own. This would help the industry as selling physical
copies of media wouldn’t be any more expensive than it currently is, as it does cost a fair amount to
produce discs/cartridges of games as well as trade them around the globe. If this process costed too
much more, it could mean the hindrance of physical media and advertising in stores around the globe
as companies would rather just publish online than in physical stores. Although, physical copies of
games are slowly losing popularity as most games are downloadable nowadays anyway, this is still a
big market as of now, and should not be toyed with.

7. The Government should provide a simpler approach to export and inward investment
strategy.

This would empower the industry to maximise export value through a funded industry-led
partnership, as we would not have to reply on big publishing companies elsewhere in the word to
export produce. This would enhance the industry, as it would allow individual companies to create a
bigger income. (However, I do not fully understand what this is suggesting, I assume this is the rough
idea of it)

8. The Government should provide new funding and supporting industries to support the
coordinated growth of the industry.

This would help the industry as with more money there is greater freedom to create huge and
immersive- thus profitable- games. This is because consumers buy games they enjoy more, and with
more money to increase the enjoyment of a game, but lower the price, the more income will come
back- perhaps not immediately but will come nevertheless.

9. The Government should recognise the economic and cultural impact of the games industry
in the UK and develop plans for expanding the existing games and innovative clusters.

This would mean the government would actively seek to support and grow the games industry within
the UK. This would support the industry as with a bigger industry, there is more incentive to buy and
play games made by it, as there a lot more games to choose from.

10. The Government should have a sufficient ambition for UK connectivity and that by 2025 the
broadband is increased to being able to transfer hundreds of MBps.

This would greatly improve the performance of the industry, and even make way for future
developments. Currently, downloads of games is beginning to reshape the industry. Soon, if they
became fast and more widely available it would completely change the industry and how it performs,
especially online. This is because by increasing the broadband speed it would then increase the speed
of downloads and streams over the internet. Parts of the games industry are even looking to be able
to stream games rather than permanently download them, just like Music and Film. This would
completely change how the industry works and how profits are made.
Finally, I can now move onto the next part of this task, which involves responding to the following
question.

Within the manifesto report the following research is presented; ‘According to a recent industry-
wide survey, 61% of respondent games companies rely on highly skilled international talent, with
EU nationals making up on average 34% of these companies’ headcount’. – What are your thoughts
on this, and which of the manifesto points do you feel will have the most impact in addressing this
issue?

I feel that this point raised by the manifesto are very valid. It should be taken into account that a good
portion of the current UK games industry are EU nationals, and to ensure their roles in the UK industry
is important, as without them, our current industry would be damaged.

The point that highlights this issue most is number 4, marked as especially urgent on the manifesto
and my current worksheet. I believe that ensuring that the EU citizens within the departing UK are
confirmed their jobs is incredibly important to the UK, as if not confirmed they may go and look for
work elsewhere in preparation for when we leave in 2019.

Keeping these citizens within our industry makes our development process unique, in a sense, as a
cultural diversity will completely change how the games look and represent cultures. These things are
also important as games are a powerful medium and it is important that different cultures are
represented appropriately. These kinds of acts increase the press a game might get and therefore,
increase the potential profit of the game.

Task 3: Overall Conclusion

Here I shall use all the information I have collectively gathered over the past weeks to make a decision-
that I will also put at the foot of my webpage- where would I like to head in the games industry in the
future?

1. The sort of job I would like to pursue would most likely be in art and animation. I’d love to be
able to animate and tell stories, as well as create a large array of emotion in characters. It’s
one of the things I often dream at being good at, yet never find I have access to professional
tools for such things other than short gif images.
If I could perhaps utilise my skills in a better way then I’d like to take animation down a more
final path, perhaps. I’ve always loved creating comics and stories, as well as illustrations for
those stories. However, being able to animate those visions would just increase the scope of
my ideas so much more.

2. To work my way up for this job, I reckon it would probably be best to go to somewhere like
university. However, this would require me to find a balance for everything I would like to do
it this time. I’m not sure if there’s much else I can do, but when it comes to looking at further
options, which I imagine is soon, I will make my mind up for sure.

3. The skill that’ll be most useful to gain for this would most certainly be the rules of animation,
as well as knowledge in how to use commonly used animation applications! For example, the
rules of animation include smear frames- something I have not really gotten around to
practising- and commonly used animation applications like Autodesk Maya or Adobe Animate.
 4. The work pattern I’d most likely follow would probably involve some kind of schedule, for
example, being full-time employed. However, I could write my own schedule if I manage to
find enough work doing something like free-lancing.

5. If I wanted to further my career after learning animation and such, within the UK, I would
probably have to move towards one of the more major cities around the area that I live,
namely towards the south, since I’m already in one of the largest game producing regions. But
I would look into moving towards the work, should I find it.

6. Originally, I wanted to be an artist of some kind and create great games to tell good stories,
or perhaps share a bit of fun, and that’s probably what I’ll look towards, should I ever need or
attempt to create an indie hit. However, I have managed to perhaps strengthen my plans if I
manage to get employed or targeted by a company that I want to focus more on digital
graphics and higher-class animation. For me, that’d be great.
So, to sum up if it changed my plans by doing all this research; probably not. This is because I
only broadly imagined I could create stories and games before. Now I can imagine how I might
be able to take a place in the industry in quite a vivid way. Although I can’t imagine getting
there will be easy.

And there is my final conclusion. I will have to just remember to work hard and aim High if I always
want to have a shot of success. These past few weeks studying the games industry have been long,
but I have learnt a lot and not understand where I could be in the future, so this has been an overall
positive experience.