By Kenicia Francis
An Antiguan citizen and their team recently made their debut at a leading annual conference for video game developers in California.
Xen Ayra, child of Observer Radio host Franz DeFreitas, was among almost 30,000 attendees at the GDC conference in March.
Ayra, who lives in New York, is the artist on the team.
“I got involved because one of my team members is a friend of mine who I met in an extracurricular activity. She knew I was an artist and reached out to me to get on board,” Ayra told Observer.
The game the team created was inspired by marching bands, and uses vibrant depictions of characters playing various instruments.
The conference presented participants with opportunities to showcase games they’re developing to investors, and studios willing to finance or publish their projects.
It also hosts a variety of educational events where attendees can learn from industry titans on game-related topics like programming.
After showcasing their team’s project, Ayra suggested Antigua should be more proactive about getting young people involved in the industry.
“I think it could be implemented in two ways. The first method could be that the government has some type of annual application process to send a team of around 10 or so young game developers to the conference to display their projects,” Ayra said.
They continued, “The second option would be to have universities both facilitate video game development courses, and also to send students to GDC themselves.”
The proposal being UWI, ABIIT, and State College implement these courses and fund the best team to showcase their project at GDC, because “this would further incentivise higher education”.
Locals involved with the gaming community here backed both suggestions as the game development industry is worth billions of dollars and Antigua and Barbuda has a strong gaming community.
According to Forbes magazine, the global gaming industry generated an estimated US$184.4 billion in 2022.
Elijah James, who previously worked with the Ministry of Education teaching game development in a summer camp, revealed, “There are people who have already developed games here, but many of them have been quiet in their own corner because of lack of support.”
He also stated, “I am confident if it was an affordable course with good access they would easily have over 200 to 300 people sign up for it. And that’s just me being conservative.”
Karl Harrigan Jr, founder of Dadli Gamers, an event where gamers across the country can meet and compete in real life, stated, “The first method would garner a lot of interest and success. If persons know this is something they can work towards, even outside of their academic studies, teams would be formed and the programme would have steady participation.”
He continued, “The second method would be a bit tricky when it comes to State College, as their courses simply prepare you to take the CAPE exams. ABIIT and UWI could find more success in implementing game development courses.”