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Winnipeg Free Press - PRINT EDITION

Game developer going through growth spurt

By: Murray McNeill

Posted: 07/19/2012 1:00 AM | Comments: 0

Ruth Bonneville / Winnipeg Free Press From left: Jonas Van Niekerk, Frano Sailer, CEO Noah Decter-Jackson and Adrian Cheater of Complex Games just scored a federal power up.

MANITOBA'S largest video game developer is going through a growth spurt, adding workers and moving to larger quarters as it cashes in on the burgeoning demand for games for smartphones and other mobile devices.

And the good news doesn't end there for Complex Games Inc.

On Wednesday, the 10-year-old firm announced it has been awarded $478,044 in funding from the Canada Media Fund to help cover the costs of developing a new video game of its own, called Iron Skies.

"That's a huge deal," said Sarah Zaharia, market access officer with New Media Manitoba, the non-profit association of industry professionals that provides support for Manitoba's new media players.

Zaharia said it's a big deal not only because of the amount of money involved, but because Complex Games is the first Manitoba company in more than a year to receive CMF funding for an experimental project.

Complex Games co-founder and president Noah Decter-Jackson said the $900,000 Iron Skies project will take about 18 months to complete. And it will hopefully lay groundwork for Complex Games to eventually start devoting all its efforts to developing its own video games rather than producing games for other companies, which is its bread-and-butter business at the moment.

He said producing your own games is where the big bucks are, because creator/developers get to keep most of the revenues and royalties generated from the sales of products.

"That's the big dream," Zaharia said.

But Decter-Jackson agreed it's the game-development work Complex Games has been doing for other companies, such as Sony, Sharp, CBC, Corona International and Mega Brands, that fuelled the company's growth over the last six months.

That growth includes adding six more full-time workers, which boosted its staff to 18 employees from 12, and moving last week to new 2,500-square-foot quarters on Hervo Street.

Decter-Jackson said the new studio is three times bigger than the space Complex Games had in the University of Manitoba's Eureka Project and in another small studio in the Wolseley area. It's also big enough to allow the firm to continue adding workers -- likely at least three or four before the end of the year.

He said Complex Games started focusing on developing mobile video games for other companies about three years ago. And the success of a free-to-play game it produced for U.S.-based Skyvu Inc. (formerly Skyvu Entertainment) helped it land mobile-gaming contracts with a host of other international companies.

"They're already at 1.75 million users," he said of the Skyvu mobile game. "It's been a phenomenal success and has been a great showcase for our ability to deliver on sales and quality and to bring a lot of recognition for our clients."

He said most of the company's employees will be dividing their time between the Iron Skies project and developing mobile games and applications for other companies.

murray.mcneill@freepress.mb.ca

Republished from the Winnipeg Free Press print edition July 19, 2012 B3

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