It is becoming clearer and clearer that, like the film industry, there are unmistakable national videogame industries within the international whole. Japan has increasingly idiosyncratic videogames (as if they ever didn’t - plumbers fighting apes, anyone?), and more and more titles never make it to Australian shores, or are even heard of outside of enthusiast circles. The American game continues to look a little like the American film, though its industry is perhaps less all-powerful, at this stage, than Hollywood. Largely, the American game could be characterised as easy-going on violence, though shy on sex. It might be too simple to write the American game off as the standard First-Person Shooter, but on the other hand, there are few so very distinct American genres. Of course the most controversial of developers, as far as violence is concerned, Rockstar North, are in fact Scottish - though that’s illustrative, as Rockstar have also been less squeamish than most stateside developers when it comes to naked bodies and reproductive activities.
So what, then, of the Australian game? This question has in recent times gained increased significance. The film industry in Australia is currently offered a massive 40% tax break if a film is deemed by the Australian Film Authority to be “significantly Australian,” a vague term which encompasses the content, location, nationalities of the filmmakers, and “any other matter”. Australian developers have been asking for the same break for some time now, and while the location and nationality boxes are certainly ticked, some question remains about content. What does an Australian game look like?
Puzzle Quest, one of the most successful Australian games of last year.
At present, the Australian industry does not feature a wealth of distinctively Australian games. Recently, we spoke with Tantalus CEO and Game Developer’s Association of Australia (GDAA) President Tom Crago and Tantalus Creative Director David Hewitt about Australian game design. Hewitt had this to say: “I actually feel as if the contribution of Australian game developers is largely under-credited. It's not an industry that generates celebrities and recognisable faces, and games developed here don't necessarily have Australian accents in them, or Australian scenery in the background. Most players would be surprised at the number of high-quality, high-profile titles that are developed here - they're games with which they're familiar, but their country of origin isn't always obvious. It's a side-effect of the fact that games are developed in Australia for a broad, international audience.”
The impact of globalisation shouldn’t be taken lightly when it comes to videogame development. Indeed, most development companies have always existed in a world where it is incredibly simple to share resources and products internationally. Australian developers are likely to have many team members of other nationalities, and are even more likely to be making their games for an international market. As Tom Crago reminds us, “Australia in fact constitutes a tiny percentage of our overall audience.” David Hewitt adds, “Most Australian development teams have an at least partially international staff, and being part of a small market, we're all forced to step back and look at what's going on internationally, and compete on that level.”
This is where it begins to get tricky to pin down the notion of an Australian game. In an increasingly international sector, it’s difficult to envisage a game made uniquely for Australian eyes. But this is true of other national games cultures - major Japanese releases, such as the Super Mario, Metal Gear, or Resident Evil titles manage to aim themselves squarely at a large market while still retaining a Japanese voice. This globalised situation forces us to look deeper than the superficial. We’re unlikely to get Wii Sheep Shearing or Ned Kelly: The Game. Given the love of war and conflict as source material, it’s a little more feasible to expect something following Australian lads through the trenches at Gallipoli, like the much famed 1981 film. Perhaps a game could even follow in the footsteps of the few Australian attempts at genre film: an outback western, ala The Proposition could be breathtakingly good. David Hewitt, though, is unsure if there’s any Australian videogames that couldn’t have been made elsewhere “outside of the AFL licensed football titles. Even [Ty the Tasmanian Tiger’s] depiction of Australia isn't from a particularly distinctive Australian perspective - it's more Crocodile Dundee than it is The Castle, and certainly created with the wider audience in mind.”
The laneway culture of Melbourne would make for unique gameplay.
Location is another avenue. If not Grand Theft Auto: Australia, then surely it’s time we had a game where we could explore our beautiful cities. If you are the regular, tall-poppy cutting, cynical, cultural-cringing Australian, you’ll probably find many things to criticise about the country, but you’d still have to admit we have some of the best cities in the world. Would they make for good gameplay, though? Maybe. Melbourne has the tall skyscrapers, the winding, labyrinthine back laneways and occasionally grungy atmosphere to make it work. Sydney is Australia’s most recognisable city, and is therefore the more likely prospect, though its low-density makes it a little less game-friendly. Perth has the skyscrapers, but also the sense of isolation outside the city that could make for a really interesting environment.
Importantly, a videogame doesn’t necessarily have to have an Australian accent to be part of a national games culture. Surely themes, moods and approaches to gameplay could be Australian, too? To go with the cliche, let’s say Australians are laid-back, diverse of background, sport-obsessed, skeptical of the powerful, and usually in possession of a self-mockingly dark sense of humour. Can that translate into game design? Tom Crago thinks so. “As a creative industry, we do try to be original and innovate, and maybe there's an inherent 'Australian-ness' to the way we go about that. One thing that's often said is that we're fortunate in Australia to have strong insights into both British and American culture. As Australians, our modern cultural origins are British, and of course our popular culture is largely America. This is a pretty useful mix when it comes to empathising with these markets. So in that there is maybe something unique about the way we design videogames.” It might not be so much a case of what Australian games look like after all, but what they feel like.
de Blob: Melbourne in disguise?
When we visited Blue Tongue Entertainment in Melbourne earlier in the year, Lead Producer Nick Hagger described their upcoming game de Blob as “very Melbourne”. It’s an interesting comment to make, as of course, de Blob bears no overt Australian characteristics. In fact, the game is about an amorphous blob who paints a fictional metropolis multiple colours, and it’s based on an information centre-commissioned reworking of the city of Utrecht in the Netherlands. Intriguingly though, it doesn’t sound as outlandish as it really should. What is “very Melbourne” about de Blob is that it has a laid-back, humourous style of play. The player populates drab urban environments with colour and life. Most of the gameplay is also quite relaxed, despite the occasional appearance of a timer. It’s lightly anti-establishment - Blob himself is referred to by his creators as “part delinquent, part revolutionary.” And most obviously of all, the city itself - named Chroma - is full of contrasting large roads and obscured back-alleys. It isn’t Melbourne itself (and it clearly has influences from other major cities), but Melbourne is definitely there somewhere, in among the evil Inkies.
Not every every game made in Australia will be part of an Australian games culture. Like cinema, the idea of a national media culture inherently indicates the presence of a dominating international culture - in this case, the twin suns of America and Japan. Neither should you expect it to be hugely popular - India possesses one of the few ‘national cinemas’ to dominate the local box office; most others serve as a distinction from the latest Hollywood blockbuster. But it is possible that eventually, gamers at home and abroad will come to see Australian videogames as more than videogames made in Australia. Videogames are not impartial documents, bare under the surface. They are the products of human designers who live in real cities, who lead real lives, and who have opinions and beliefs. It might not be possible to create an overtly Australian mainstream game at the present, and it might never be. But clearly, Australian games do exist, and in more ways than one.
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