Made in Ireland

Void

I noticed recently that Xbox games - Halo for example, have a "Made in Ireland" tag on the back. Is this warranted? The CD and box/manual are possibly printed/manufactured in Ireland, but the software which you are shelling out all that money for sure as hell isn't!! Does this strike anyone else as somewhat misleading?

I may be a tad biased here as I'm a games programmer who can't ply his trade in his native country. Also, I don't have any special love for Microsoft, and so I intend to lodge a complaint with the ASAI. My biggest fear is that people may be led to believe we have a thriving games industry here. Anyone else care to lodge a complaint? It's worth it just to give Microsoft a black eye

deadl0ck

I think they mean the Physical part of the game, ie. CD, box (and localisation of software) etc is made in Ireland...

I don't think they mean "Developed in Ireland"....

What type of games have you written and for what platform(s) - I'm a programmer myself (but I haven't any games experience)?

Funcom had a development house in Clonskeagh at one time but I think they're gone now....any other development houses in Ireland ?

monument

Microsoft's euro HQ is here and yes Funcom have left Ireland

KdjaCL

The games are made in ireland the actual product you hold in your hadn is made in ireland so its not wrong its actually the law to state where it was made not developed.

We make nearly allPC games and software for Msft and have to stick made in ireland on all of them.

kdjaC

leeroybrown

Also trading law states that it is sufficient for a product to have undertaken any of it's physical production in Ireland to be declared as Irish produce.

theciscokid

Originally posted by monument
Microsoft's euro HQ is here and yes Funcom have left Ireland

no way have they ,

i remember they did a racing game on playstation years ago , and then went on to do online games or something

i remember the translation for one of the previous final fantasy games took place in dublin, or was it the music score?, - i dunno it was something important :rolleyes:

any other games houses that people know about in ireland?

sceptre

Originally posted by theciscokid
no way have they ,

Yes they have.

Closed in August 2001

The game you're referring to is Speed Freaks (which I still enjoy), the last thing they developed in Dublin was Jet Sprint for the X Box (though they didn't get to finish it in Dublin). They're currently based in Switzerland, Norway and North Carolina

theciscokid

Originally posted by sceptre
Yes they have.

Closed in August 2001

The game you're referring to is Speed Freaks (which I still enjoy), the last thing they developed in Dublin was Jet Sprint for the X Box (though they didn't get to finish it in Dublin). They're currently based in Switzerland, Norway and North Carolina

aye now i remember , i was in the new offices of sony at the time testing it out , :P

along with ridge racer 4 and a few others

DiscoStu

some of the music for metal gear solid was done in ireland if i remember correctly.

Goodshape

Originally posted by DiscoStu
some of the music for metal gear solid was done in ireland if i remember correctly.

wow. thriving or what? :rolleyes:

Doodee

If i remember the article correctly the irish government went to Australia and paid for programers equip like SDK's and stuff to try and build up the games industry in Ireland cause they suddenly realised that theres money in it.

Dont worry though,
the best games company the world will ever see will be irish, and it will be made up of the Ludo B class of 2002/2003.
You've been warned
hehehehe

I'll be incharge of PR, accounts and 3d Maxey stuff...

spooky donkey

Originally posted by Goodshape
wow. thriving or what? :rolleyes:

Yeah i rember thinking that the music sounded vert irish influnced at the end of MGS 1.

I am currently helping on the play testing of an online rts game made and developed by 2 lads from Drogehda, and its bloody class, an di dont like rts games a lot normally. But this game rulz. I cant say the name as im not allowed under the rules, but i hope these lads go on to do great things and they are out own so i wish them the best.

Also if i rember correctlly i think speed freaks for the psx was made by an irish guy, though im not sure about this!

BLITZ_Molloy

We're some of the Final Fantasy games localised in some place near Galway? I rememebr hearing something like that when FFVIII came out.

KdjaCL

we distributed 1700 Dev Kits for xbox a few years ago and i remember going tru the Address list and one guy in Ireland got one.

Wonder what he did with it cost him £70,000


kdjaC

bugs

Originally posted by KdjaC

Wonder what he did with it cost him £70,000

Probably just cried a little when he got the bill

DeadBankClerk

The Computer Science Society in Trinity have just bought ourselves a PS2 Linux Dev kit.

:P

Ludo have just bought a new VB compiler?

Balfa

I playtested Speed Freaks for funcom, and thought it was crud The guys doing the programming (who were mostly scandanavian working in dublin) mostly thought it was crud too. I never actually played the final product, but the test concept of continually repeating the same levels and the goal of the game being to acquire as many powerups as possible seemed ludicrously boring

Greenbean

I think that complaint comes more under boring because of the nature of playtesting, than the nature of the game. Everyone else had the choice of playing the game where you didn't

Thorbar

Kapooki Games are/were based in Ireland. I remember hearing about them a while ago through my sister-in-law who met a rep of theirs on a trade envoy to Japan of all places. Anyway their site seems to be functioning but I've no idea if they're still around or what they're working on. Havok are Irish too aren't they? A pile of games use their physics engine.

Dazzer

Torc Interactive is based in ireland and a few people from the Boards work for/own the company. Freak Bruther is one of them and I think there might be a couple more. www.torcinteractive.com is the webbie I think and they have an OLD tech demo available for download. They even have a board on this website in the community section. When I finished working for them they had just started a new game, and as far as I know they secured a publisher.

tHE vAGGABOND

its amazing the amount of irish people at various levels of the games business over here in the UK too...

monument

Originally posted by Thorbar
Kapooki Games are/were based in Ireland. I remember hearing about them a while ago through my sister-in-law who met a rep of theirs on a trade envoy to Japan of all places. Anyway their site seems to be functioning but I've no idea if they're still around or what they're working on. Havok are Irish too aren't they? A pile of games use their physics engine.

We bumped into one of the Havok people at ECTS in London, they are Dublin based, with offices in the US and UK.

here is a bit from their website...
"Havok was founded in 1998 by CEO Hugh Reynolds and CTO Steven Collins and has its origins in the computer science department of Trinity College Dublin, Ireland. Havok's team of 50 people includes 35 engineers, computer scientists, mathematicians and physicists. Havok has offices in Redwood City (California), Guildford (England) with its engineering headquarters in Dublin (Ireland). "

malachyduffin

canDo are another Irish company that currently focus on smaller 3D games for the budget and browser markets...

http://www.candomultimedia.com/games/demos.htm

... and here's a link to the beta of their new game...

http://www.candomultimedia.com/3dStressBall

Mal