While I consider both pro and con of game and animation, I find gaming industry is rather underdeveloped in Malaysia, which is reasonable as United State and Japan are dominating in this area. Also, I find that consumers, or called gamers have limited acceptance in new games from independent developer and newcomer in the business. So far the best selling games are either shooting game likes Halo, Call of Duty and Mass Effect or adventure game called Mario. The only new genre of innovative game that caught my eyes is Beyond Two Souls, a game which mainly focus on the story telling with multiple ending. Another issue in game industry is piracy, a game would probably cost around RM 200 and it is not as affordable as people in western countries and Japan have stronger currency which cost the game lower from their living standard. This lead to illegal download for gamers who wish to play the particular game. The game companies might have second thought in set up new branch in Asia countries as they fear content of game leak leads to money loss. Government needs to lend a helping hand to game industry with tougher regulation in piracy crime and tax exemption for international company who wish to set up new division in Malaysia.
While not all hope lost, the gaming market for smartphone is constantly growing in fast pace. Freshly graduated students with game related degree can find ways to show their brilliant idea in game apps that may lead them to even more success path with world wide recognition, for example, candy crush and flappy bird. Both games have billions of players and they are willing to spend money to buy extra tools to upgrade their game level. At least now we know major game companies are not the only place to get a job to be a game developer.
On the other hands, animation is reaching toward mature state. They are many animation studios in Malaysia as some of them even win some awards from oversea. The first one called Upin dan Ipin, a 3d Malay cartoon of two children daily life in a village. The cartoon is funny and relatable to both kids and adults in Malaysia. The second studio called Rhythm and Hue, a company who is a branch of the headquarter in United State. The company is famous for accepting award from Oscar with best special effect on the film Life Of Pi. The company proves that visual effect industry can merge into film making to create masterpiece. Although it is an unfortunate event that Rhythm and Hue is filing for bankruptcy in United State as they unable to manage the company financial issue.
Overall, animation and game industries are intersecting with each other and it is hard to break these two apart, which serve as the element of my inspiration. I can still work in game industry in the future even though I choose my major in animation as the course structure and career perspective have a lots of common values. But now I am very much inspired by the animation film as I am more on the storyteller's side now. I wish I can produce animation film that as good as the Disney film with amazing music composition. I am very inspired by Walt Disney, the legend of Disney Studio as he build the most successful animation studio in the world. He shapes the work of animation with clear procedure to guide new animators.
In the end, I believe if we work hard on our assignment and portfolio, we can apply jobs in anywhere, even oversea companies. They are many people who work in different studio from different industries like game, animation, music and film. They are all connected and interacting with each other. But at the moment, I set my heart in animation as I want to be a VFX artist.
