Playing Wanderer, the locally-developed virtual reality game released today. Image / Supplied
It's a red-letter day for two New Zealand gaming studios, and the fast-growing NZ game sector in general.
This morning saw the release of Wanderer for PS VR - Sony's virtual reality headset designed to be used with its PlayStation 4 and 5 consoles.
It's the first time the console giant has partnered on a Kiwi-made game (which is also compatible with VR rigs from the Facebook-owned Oculus and Steam VR.
Wanderer ($51) a story-driven effort in which you travel through time and space in a quest to prevent the world falling into ruin. From the previews (see below), looks like a welcome distraction from a real-life world that, if not quite gone to ruin, has become dismally Red.
Wanderer was created in a collab between two Auckland studios: M-Theory and Oddboy.
A key moment in the game's genesis was when a team from Oddboy went to Pax East in Boston, in March 2019 - a global gaming conference that, pre-Covid travel restrictions, still allowed the opportunity for the chance encounters that come with real-life events.
Their break came through a Dragon's Den-style pitch competition, which was one of dozens of Pax sessions. A Sony PlayStation rep was in the audience - and the company ultimately came onboard to partner on Wanderer's development.
Ramlu says Sony's partnership involved financial backing, technical assistance and, perhaps most importantly, its marketing muscle. The company has been pushing Wanderer on a number of its online channels this week in the build-up to today's launch (including a post to the 23m followers of its PlayStation account on Twitter).
All up, the development effort cost around $3.5 million.
Other backing has come from a variety of sources, including Callaghan Innovation, Whakawhanake Te Ao Niko (the NZ Film Commission's Interactive Development Fund), which chipped in $25,000, and Ramlu and her colleagues, who chipped in around $200,000 of their own money.
At the busiest phase of development, 22 staff were working on Wanderer full-time.
Ramlu, who is also the co-founder of digital agency Method, says the goal was to create a high production, "feature-length" game. It draws on the classic 80s how Quantum Leap, and the more recent supernatural thriller Dark, for the story behind its first-person gameplay.
Now, Ramlu and her team are nervously waiting for the first round of reviews - which will influence where things go from here. (It's very early days as the Herald types, but the first notices are very positive.)
The plan is for the game released today to be the first in a trilogy. M-Theory and Oddboy also want to expand its platform support from the console-only Oculus Rift headset to the Oculus Quest, which is designed to work with PCs - a larger market.
Ramlu concedes that success today will be a success in a niche.
Estimates vary, but pundits say there are around 50 million VR headset owners today, across various makes and standards, versus more than 1 billion using some form of game console (and more gaming on PCs).
And while they're still pricey (ranging from $400 to $800), VR headsets are getting cheaper and lighter, and some commentators expect the market to double in 2022.
A possible driver is Oculus owner Facebook, which is pouring millions into creating VR apps for its envisioned Metaverse. The first, Horizon Worlds, recently launched an open trial for North American users who are willing to don VR goggles, choose an avatar, then socialise with their colleagues in a 3D virtual world.
Founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg has told investors it will be the Next Big Thing, and that his company has 10,000 staff working on projects in VR, and its sister technology AR (or augmented reality, where graphics are overlaid on the real-world, as you see it through AR goggles).
Zuckerberg's push is probably VR's best hope of breaking into the mainstream after a decade in the wings. And if it does, a much, much larger installed base of VR wearers will have huge spin-off benefits for all companies developing VR apps and games. Apple is also expected to make a big AR push over the next couple of years.
While VR gaming is still in its infancy, the video game industry overall is a powerhouse, and one that's expanded its already huge footprint during the lockdown era. Just witness Microsoft's bid to take over the largest game developer, Activision Blizzard, for US$67 billion.
Here, the games sector employed 1000 and earned close to $300m in export receipts last year, and it's seen heading toward $1b export industry status. Our largest developer by sales, Grinding Gear Games, had, now has annual revenue topping $100m.
While VR is a tiny part of the story so far, NZ Game Developers Association chair Chelsea Rapp says Wanderer will have spinoff benefits, and will serve as a showcase for the local industry's creative chops.
"It's always great to see game studios like Method/MTheory build these incredible titles and partnerships with industry heavyweights like Sony," she says.
"Games like Wanderer help to attract more pieces of the game development ecosystem to New Zealand - publishers, distributors, streamers, investors - which only helps to increase opportunities for new and emerging game studios.
"The New Zealand game industry grows an average of 38 per cent annually, and it's due entirely to the ingenuity and tenacity inherent in the spirit of NZ game development.
"Too often people think that top-tier titles can only come from American and European studios, but more and more you're seeing games with really high production value, like Wanderer and RocketWerks' Icarus, reach a global audience."
Rockwerkz CEO Dean Hall has recently been critical of the Government for failing to match tax breaks offered across the Tasman to the Australian video gaming industry while at the same time offering heavy rebates to movie producers - whose special effects teams are fighting with game studios for the same scarce pool of staff.
Hall said he did not want a handout for his company, but he did want a level playing field, and he did want to see incentives to help emerging game studios.
The Rocketwerkz boss has been backed by Mario Wynands, head of our largest gaming studio by staff - Wellington's PikPok. Wynands says the lopsided tax incentive setup, combined with border restrictions, has forced him to set up a studio offshore.
Ramlu says M-Theory and Oddboy felt the talent squeeze keenly. She says there's probably no greater shortage than in senior VR developers. But they managed to cope through hiring juniors then training them up.
While there was no substantial backing for the video game sector in a draft of a digital industries plan the Government released late last year, Rapp says her association is working constructively with MBIE and Digital Economy Minister David Clark. She hopes titles like Wanderer will help nudge things in the right direction.
"Our sector has certainly caught the attention of Government and we're looking forward to seeing whether support for the industry is included in initiatives like the Digital Industries Transformation Plan," she says.
"By supporting smaller studios like Oddboy and M-Theory, we can ensure that the growth of our weightless, digital exports, and the talented teams that create them, continues well into the future."
'I can imagine people being outraged that TVNZ signed a deal with me.'