The UK game industry has come a long way, but we’re just getting started

At Tiga, the association for developers and digital publishers, we are in the business of helping game developers grow their businesses. We help developers build successful studios, connect with investors & publishers, network with the right people, save money and access professional business advice.

Yet sustainable growth depends on accessing and retaining a highly talented team. We believe that the future of the UK is as a high skilled, high productivity, knowledge economy. This means that we should enhance our universities and invest in our people.

The UK game industry competes to a crucial extent on the quality of its developers. There are actions we can take as an industry which will further enhance our talented workforce.

For seven days only from Monday October 14th 2013, we all have a chance to offer our view on where game industry funding should be spent in order to ensure that the new generation of developers, designers and studio founders in the UK is as successful as our current one.

Creative Skillset are seeking game industry employers to sign up to an online panel by October 13th. The members of the panel will then receive a special online survey via email to be completed October 14th – 21st, through which they can offer their views on where investment is most needed and what kinds of training and skill development ideas would work for them.

Those who take part will receive advance results from the surveys and there is even a £100 John Lewis for one lucky employer that will register by October 13th, but the value of taking part is so much more. It is vital that the panels fully represent the game industry, so that all of us can benefit from the significant funding being made to continue to help develop game development in the UK.

We have come a long way in strengthening the industry in the UK. At Tiga, we have convinced the UK Government to adopt games tax relief which – once the EU Commission gives the green light – will increase investment, job opportunities and original games in the UK. We operate the Tiga games industry awards to shine a spotlight on the most incredible achievements in the industry (this year held at Pinewood Studios on November 6th), and we have launched TIGA Students to enable students to unlock a career in game development.

We couldn’t do this without the hard work and immense successes of TIGA members and UK studios generally.

We need to keep up the good work to keep this going. We need to focus on training and skills development, and we need to help advise organisations like Creative Skillset on how their funding should be spent, where resources need to be applied the most.

That’s why I urge every single game industry employer in the UK to sign up to the Creative Skillset online panel and answer the survey in October. To sign up couldn’t be easier and takes only a few moments: www.creativeskillset.org/employerpanel.