Top Game Creators in Singapore
Singapore’s location makes it an ideal travel hub between east and west. Visitors can attest to its rich culture with stories about its array of international cuisine. Besides food, however, Singapore has so much more to offer such as its flourishing art industry, particularly in animation and graphics.
Several gaming and animation studios have divisions based in Singapore. It is not a secret that the Asia Pacific region is still in its infancy stage when it comes to the gaming industry. Singapore already has several studios. With so many animation and gaming companies, we narrow down a list of some of the biggest in the international gaming scene.
- Ubisoft Singapore, which opened in July 2008, began only as a studio supporting the development of other game titles. Its first full game was Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Turtles in Time Re-Shelled. The success of the Assassin’s Creed series made Ubisoft Singapore a big contributor. They were given their biggest project yet in the development of all naval battles in Assassin’s Creed III. Now it is the biggest studio in Southeast Asia with a team of multicultural talents.
- KOEI TECMO Singapore (KTS) was established in August 2004. Their first hit was Romance of the Three Kingdoms Online. Since then, they have created games for mobile or handheld platforms.
- Electronic Arts was founded in April 2008 as a regional center of EA in the Asia Pacific. Its main function is the localization of English games in Asian languages for distribution in the region.
- Lucasfilm Animation Singapore is part of LucasArts. This Singapore hub specializes in mobile, handheld and console games such as Star Wars: The Clone Wars – Jedi Alliance.
- Razer (Asia-Pacific) Pte Ltd is the regional headquarters of the US-based company. It serves as a research, development and logistics office in the Asia Pacific. It was established in December 2003.
While it might be enticing to start a career in the gaming industry, the current conditions might not meet expectations. The gaming industry in Singapore is fairly young even when there are over 40 companies to date. The work opportunities and compensation might be scarce.
However, its reputation as an economic force in Asia makes it an ideal place to start expanding in the Asia Pacific region. Despite that, outside of Japan, the Singapore studios have to overcome a small market for games in Asia.
There is still hope if you wish to pursue a career in the gaming industry. In Singapore, DigiPen’s first international campus was opened. DigiPen was the first to open a degree in game development. Singapore shows a lot of promise with its pool of local and international talents.
