By Mya Quamie

Copyright newsday

With the Caribbean’s gaming market set to reach 13.2 million users by 2030 and the industry’s revenue projected to exceed US$1billion this year, TT has an opportunity to capitalise on a regional industry surge.

And it’s not just within the region, globally, video games earned around US$188 billion in 2023 alone, surpassing the combined US$118 billion revenue of both the film and music industry.

Now in TT, video game studio Coded Arts, started by a group of UTT graduates, is paving the way towards this economic gold mine.

Founder and director Andy Berahazar-Jr walked Business Day through the journey of the company’s small start to international reach in an interview at the company’s office in Port of Spain.

Starting around 2015, the company began with just five employees from UTT’s animation and software engineering departments, combining their talents for game development.

“We joined a business incubator for a few years and we did what most start-up companies do, we were taking on any jobs to grow the business and keep it afloat, from web design to graphic design and in the background, we were working on our own video game.

“Then around 2019, we reached out to Trinidadians abroad in the game industry asking for help and guidance on how best to position ourselves in the international market.”

Berahazar said that’s when the company pivoted to external game development, taking on work delegated by studios overseas including visual design models, props and environment creation.

“That’s really what propelled our growth to where we are now.”

To date, Coded Arts has expanded to over 30 employees and worked on popular games like IMVU, NBA Clash, NFL Clash and House Flip by Nifty Games.

Berahazar says game development outsourcing is not just a profitable niche for the company, but a promising industry for TT to pursue.

“There’s a lot of work out there that different segments in TT can tap into.

“In the local market, I can see us doing games for education, which is a big thing internationally right now, as well as games for training.

“Some industries have simulated training as a safety factor, for example, people can learn to pilot heavy equipment without interacting with the real-world objects. This is built on the same technology that we use for game development.”

​Potential for TT

With its massive profitability and undeniable appeal, Berahazar sees a world of potential in gaming if TT would embrace it.

“Video games are the largest form of media in the world and to ignore it I think is to be foolish.

“It’s huge, it’s consistently growing and it’s spreading into other industries that it didn’t exist in before.

“Films are now looking to games for their stories, video game soundtracks are selling at the same numbers as chart-topping music, and if as a country we want to view video games the same way it was viewed in the 80s and 90s we’re gonna be left behind in this revolution.”

He said the mindset of video games being trivial needs to change if TT can benefit from the industry in the coming years.

And the source material is already here.

Berahazar sees TT’s culture, artistry and history as potential cornerstones for games made in TT, about TT and for consumption by the wider world.

“There are so many cool stories, so many little small aspects of Trinidad life that I think would make amazing games.

“We may see it as mundane, but think of how many games we’ve played from Japan or North America, where the things that we’re excited about are mundane to them…and they sell, they make money, people are interested.

“It’s just to find your market, your consumers and make content tailored towards them.

“If we’re able to do that with carnival, why can’t we do it with games?”

​But as massive as the potential for profit and creativity are, Berahazar noted the obstacles in the industry.

“It’s still new locally and it’s a bit of a capital-intensive industry if you want to create your own intellectual property (IP), which is why we’ve done service work for other studios. I don’t think the driver for investment into IP is where it needs to be in TT for us to really start capitalising on these things.”

Aside from Coded Arts and a few other small studios that invest in IP, Berahazar said that investment needs to scale up in order for the local and regional industry to profit.

He suggested adjustments to the attitudes of lending institutions and the scope of government grants as a starting point.

“Lending institutions don’t seem to value intellectual property the same way they value traditional assets and hardware…and I would also say that on the governmental level, a lot of the grants are skewed towards manufacturing.

“Some of those same grants that manufacturers have access to, if they were made available to the service sector in gaming and animation, we’d be able to do some amazing work and grow our businesses a lot faster.”​

Powering up the community

Doing their part to build the industry, Coded Arts is not only proudly UTT, but partners with the university to empower the next generation of game developers.

“One of the things we learned early on was we had to be directly involved in the training of staff and a lot of us actually go back to the university and lecture to make sure that the young people coming out have the skillset they need to bring them into the industry.”

Through the Planning and Development Ministry’s Skills For Global Services programme in 2018, Coded Arts collaborated with UTT to bring industry professionals in gaming to upskill students.

“When asked, we try to go back and teach and have seminars and be involved in the student experience as much as possible so we can directly give them the information and guidance they need to make it in the industry, whether it’s with us or even making their own studio.

“Some of those same students have gotten contracts with international companies.

“What stands out to me is the fact that we started this, and now I’m able to look at young people and see that they have an easier part than I did because someone was able to carve out that niche out for them.”

When asked what advice he would give to aspiring game developers, Berahazar said, “It’s about having the drive to get started, going on YouTube, looking at tutorials and starting small projects. Because what you want to do is build a portfolio of your work to show what you can do.”

He encouraged continuous learning and endless curiosity in an industry that’s ever-evolving.

“It’s not the field where you leave school and you never have to learn something new again. You have to stay involved.

“You have to stay on top of things and you really have to have a desire for knowledge to grow yourself.”

​The next level

​As the company evolves, Coded Arts is moving towards establishing a motion capture studio.

Used for making films, training athletes and physical therapy, motion capture digitally records real-life movement and transmits the motion data digitally for a variety of uses.

“In traditional animation, you have to make the character and then an artist has to control that character and move it frame by frame, step by step and creating movements.

“But motion capture allows us to create that character, then put somebody in front of our tracking system and their actions, the virtual character, immediately starts doing so if you wanted to make a short film, for example, we would just need to create the characters, pick two actors and they could pilot the entire film.”

Berahazar said he hopes the establishment of a motion capture studio at Coded Arts would provide a cost-effective and efficient facility to attract advertising and film companies to the creative shores of TT.