TIGA, The Independent Games Developers Association, will kick off
its campaign to place games development on a par with the other
creative industries in the UK at its inaugural meeting, which will
take place tomorrow (Thursday) at the DTI Conference Centre in
London.
TIGA was formed in late 2000 when a group of 12 of the UK’s top
game developers (from Steel Monkeys, Rebellion, Elixir, Blitz
Games, M4, Smoking Gun, Wide Games, IO, Kuju, VIS and others) were
brought together with the assistance of Wired Sussex and the DTI.
The association aims to benefit the commercial and creative
interests of the UK games development industry by:
- Encouraging a climate for investment in games development.
- Providing professional advice, guidance, information, services
and goods for its members.
- Representing the games development industry to the legislative
and regulatory process (e.g., lobbying for tax breaks similar to
those available to the UK film industry).
- Representing the sector in a positive light to government and
the public.
- Improving skills and training, professional standards and
education within the games development industry.
- Facilitating communication between the individuals and
organisations within the games development industry (for instance
by regular networking events).
- Improving competitiveness and innovation within the games
development industry.
OUT-LAW.COM's John Salmon, who represents a number of games
developers, said:
"This looks like a worthwhile development
which will benefit UK games developers in the longer term by
providing an organisation that can help promote games development
on a UK-wide basis."
The meeting will be addressed by Patricia Hewitt (Minister of
State at the DTI), Sandy Duncan (Microsoft’s European VP for
X-Box), Julian Morse (Head of Specialist Technology with Beeson
Gregory) and Simon Terrington (Managing Director of Human
Capital).
Further information is available on the TIGA web site at
www.tiga.org.uk.
