Ailsa Is Girl To Shoot Down

May 11 2008 By Graeme Lennox

Grand Theft Auto Gamer Has £15bn Industry In Her Sights So You Want A Job In Gaming

SCOTLAND'S own Grand Theft Auto has made a massive killing in the games industry.

But now there's a new Scots game in town ready to start a virtual turf war.

Violent crime game GTA raked in more than £250million in its first week, beating movies such as Harry Potter and Pirates Of The Caribbean.

Edinburgh-based creators Rockstar North are one of the leading lights in an industry worth £15billion - but now a neighbouring firm are wanting a slice of the action.

Game gurus Ailsa Bates, Chris Peck and Ed Wilson raised more than £1million to make their first game armed with nothing more than a few ideas scribbled on A4 paper.

The Ship is a murder mystery game set on board a 1920s cruise ship with sassy girls and deadly hunters. Players are assigned victims to assassinate but have no idea who is out to get them.

It took four years to make but has chalked up 500,000 downloads and 100,000 retail sales.

The firm are now developing a spin-off for a global publisher which they hope will become a massive hit.

Operations director Ailsa said: "We decided to bypass the usual way of getting a game published and do it ourselves. We pitched our idea to anyone who would listen. If we had known then how difficult it was going to be, we would never have gone ahead with it."

Game firms are set to create 2000 Scots jobs in the next three years.

Ailsa, 36, from Edinburgh, was a copywriter for a web firm before quitting to become a founding partner of Outerlight in 2003.

She said: "I was not technicallyminded from an early age but I picked things up as I went along.

"Games are much maligned which is a great shame because it is a fascinating industry to work in.

"Scotland has been producing great games for decades and we have a lot of talent and experience here. Some of the studios have vanished but they have been replaced by firms like Real Time Worlds and it is an exciting time to be involved."

Ailsa says she is a huge fan of Grand Theft Auto but reckons it is unlikely to attract many females to the ranks of gamers.

She said: "GTA is a massive achievement but it is very obviously a male game. The way to get more girls involved is to stop making 'pink,' games for them and steer away from sexist stereotypes like Lara Croft.

"Our games feature sassy rather than sexualised female characters and women can relate to them."

As well as GTA, Scotland's games industry has achieved worldwide recognition for games such as Lemmings and Crackdown.

There are plenty of opportunities for game nuts looking to forge a career. Designers, animators, artists, musicians and coders start on around £25,000 and can earn upwards of £70,000 if they produce a smash hit.

Courses run by the University of Abertay and Glasgow Caledonian see graduates snapped up by major developers.

Ailsa and the team of 20 at Outerlight are about to enter "crunch" time - the dreaded period when sleep and friends become a distant memory - to get their first major game on shelves before Christmas.

She said: "It can be tough but the industry has many benefits. It is casual, the hours are flexible and the games are fun to make.

"Seeing people play your game is a bit like attending the premier of a film you have made."