The winners are decided by the peers of the nominees, which makes coming out on top an even greater privilege. Games are a big part of many people’s lives, whether they are fans of Unchartered 3: Drake’s Deception, La Noire, or Partypoker. The talented people who make games like this possible definitely deserve to have their efforts recognised, as this effort is sometimes not easy. The managing director of Havok, David Coughlan, has talked about how honoured he feels to have the company win the Game Developer Front Line Award yet again. He has praised the talented engineers that work at the company to create and polish their products and thanked everyone for their support, including some of the best teams in the games industry.

Havok has been growing since it was started in 1999 in Ireland. They now have offices in San Francisco, Montreal and Tokyo, which just shows how well they have been doing for themselves and how much success they have seen. The games which it has contributed to include Assassin’s Creed: Revelations, La Noire and Unchartered 3: Drake’s Deception. They typically create technology for animations, AI and physics engines and have featured in hundreds of other games as well.

There are also many new indigenous games companies dotted in enterprise centres around the country, with up to 60 of them labelled as ‘high-profile’ start-ups by Enterprise Ireland (Check out what Minister Batt O’Keeffe has to say here).

Well, all in all the future looks bright for the games industry in Ireland, with already 1500 people employed in the the industry. But what about the indie games industry in Ireland? If you’re busy planning your digital game masterpiece but don’t know how to bring it to life, or if you are already developing on XNA, or with Game Maker or C Sharp or whatever, I want to hear from you.

Contact RobotBash about an Indie game you are developing  (or about to launch). Or get in touch about a game you are planning and what you need to make it happen, and we’ll see if we can hook up a skill-set to match.

Irish Indie Game Developers…

Listen to this podcast (XNA DEV CHAT PODCAST) you’ll love it. Interview with the makers of kids game Kissy Poo, a massive hit on Xbox 360. Informative and inspiring.