Video games have become serious business not just in the Asia-Pacific region – which is expected to earn about US$30 billion in revenues by 2016, according to research conducted by Ovum – but in the Philippines, in particular. The game development sector in the country has already earned an estimated US$70 million; and that’s just from late 2011 to early last year. 

Most of the talent pool in the country’s game development sector handle console game services. About 15 % work on game design consulting, quality assurance (QA), and game community support and the remaining percentage are those that work on social and mobile games. 

Jobs in this sector include iOS, Android, and C++ developers, Java developers, Actionscript developers and PHP and MySQL developers. These are jobs that need talent that are “relatively difficult to find” according to Alvin Juban head of operations of Secret6 and president of the Game Developers Association of the Philippines (GDAP). These jobs, Juban added, require educational background in computer science, science or mathematics, and information technology. 

Those that are interested in a career in the game development sector but have no IT or computer science background can consider employment as a game designer. “A game designer is neither a programmer nor an artist. He or she is someone who knows video games very well, gameplay, and can write very well,” Juban said in an article published in the Philippine Star.

Producers and sound engineers also play important roles in the game development sector according to Juban.

GDAP figures indicate that there are around 3,000 professionals – representing about sixty companies – in the game development sector.

Juban added, “We’ve had the best two years of work. Before, we’ve had gaps between projects. Now what happens is when you end a project, you receive two, which is a good sign.”