Give meaning to playing

A Dunedin game development studio has Europe in its sights with a new game that can be used to train beauty and fashion students.

Straylight Studios chief executive Tim Nixon said the new game, which uses the company's proprietary graphics technology, was the company's most ambitious yet and had received an enthusiastic response after a showing in Dunedin recently.

While not wanting to reveal too much detail yet about the new game, Nixon said the game was a simulation that would be of huge interest to beauty and fashion students around the world, and he was heading to Europe next month in an effort to secure sponsorship from large European beauty and fashion companies.

The products of companies that come on board will appear in the game. New Zealand Trade and Enterprise will help market the game in Europe.

Straylight was started four years ago in a Dunedin flat by four guys "with a love for video games who wanted to create cutting-edge technology to attack design problems".

Now the company employs 15 staff and has just opened an Auckland office.

The new game builds on Straylight's already strong portfolio of work, which includes The Kitchen, a game that teaches food preparation and hygiene in a commercial kitchen.

The game is used throughout New Zealand.

The company's other high-profile title is the Small Business Game, which teaches students the ins and outs of running a small business, and has been sold to Australia, Wales and Britain, and is widely used in New Zealand.

Straylight's partner, The Small Business Company, is about to release the game in Ireland.

The games are all a product of Straylight's Meaningful Play concept.

Says Nixon, "We thought about different ways that games could be used to add value. What we have developed are games that have the accessibility of casual games but the content of simulations.

"We hope that players walk away from playing our games with knowledge and getting something out of it." 

- © Fairfax NZ News