Siobhan Keogh: Why do local games lack Kiwiness?

A still from Elliot Collis' game Desolate. Photo / Kickstarter

A couple of weeks ago I wrote about whether or not video games should be offered Government funding. One of the reasons the Labour party was in support of Government funding for games was that they can contribute culturally.

But how, I wondered at the time, can games contribute culturally to New Zealand if they ignore their Kiwiness, as most local game companies do? While New Zealand companies are now producing quite a few games - many of them quite successful - there isn't much in most of them that reflects our culture, art or landscapes. And this is despite the fact New Zealand is the location du jour for Hollywood.

And then, a week later, I stumbled upon a Kickstarter page for a game called Desolate. The 2D puzzle adventure game is being created by a New Zealander, Elliot Collis, living abroad in Japan.

Desolate is inspired by Collis's own experiences growing up in New Zealand, and his journey of self-discovery and acceptance. (Disclaimer: I have contributed to this Kickstarter, because I love this artsy indie stuff and want to play the final game.)

At first glance, you can tell that Desolate is inspired by New Zealand and its scenery. The Tongariro Crossing is particularly prominent in the art which is handpainted by Collis. Collis is coding the game, too.

The game will also feature some masks inspired by Maori carvings and moko. The music is scored by another New Zealander, Ben Tolich.

When I asked Collis why he'd chosen to draw inspiration from New Zealand's landscapes, he said it seemed "silly" to use anything else given his home country is known for having such beautiful landscapes.

"I spent some time when I was younger snowboarding at Mount Ruapehu, so when thinking of where the most desolate kind of place I know is, the Tongariro Crossing seemed so perfect," he said.

So perfect, but many companies prefer not to acknowledge where they come from at all. That's not a criticism of those companies - they're not required to by any means, and many of them are making fantastic, successful games - but I did wonder why when it seems like it's a differentiating factor.

"I think a lot of the New Zealand game development is still drawing inspiration from overseas, either doing similar games or trying to crack certain marketplaces and [they] make games that cater to that," says Collis.

"I guess the main reason is because that is the largest marketplace."
There's no doubt that many Kiwi games are inspired by Western-style games. Path of Exile is New Zealand's answer to Blizzard's Diablo (although there are definitely nods to the homeland), and Gameloft Auckland produces games based on American intellectual property like My Little Pony.

Collis supports Government funding for indie developers in New Zealand, and believes this funding would allow for greater diversity and more Kiwi culture in games. He'd like such a fund to be similar to the Nordic Game Program, which directly supports game development as well as marketing and distribution. It's an idea I can get behind.

But even under Labour's new policy for funding interactive media, the little indie developers who might be interested in "New Zealandness" - people doing it out of love, alone, in their free time - likely won't reap the benefits.

Collis is looking for $12,500 to finish a game he's already been working on for a year. As the New Zealand Game Developer Association's Stephen Knightly pointed out when I last wrote about Government funding, a game could require a budget of at least $1 million to apply for a grant. When Double Fine, a much larger American game developer with a history of making adventure games, Kickstarted a game, they only initially asked for US$400,000. A million dollars is a lot of money to make an adventure game if you're a one-man band, and if you want to make enough money for New Zealand to see an economic benefit on top of a cultural one, you're going to need to sell a lot of copies.

Desolate's Kickstarter is still going, and at the time of writing nearly $2,300 had already been pledged. I think it's a game that's onto something - I would love to see more games showcasing our unique country and its culture, and I doubt I'm the only one.

- nzherald.co.nz