This Dublin-based games studio will make it easier to create an army of zombies

THE GLOBAL GAMING industry is worth roughly $80 billion, give or take a few, and a two-year old Irish company has its eyes on taking home a sizable chunk of it.

Artomatix is a Dublin-based firm that develops software which automates the design of in-game art such as landscapes, terrain and characters.

While the company only launched its first product in March, that offering has already got the attention of the industry – touted as one of the best tech developments at a recent international conference.

That product is Artomatix Materialize, which is designed to help developers map out terrain for video games, while Artomatix is also working on another 13 technologies that will make game designers’ daily chores less mundane.

Speaking to Fora, Artomatix co-founder and chief executive Neal O’Gorman said the software the company is developing could be used to cover a mountain with grass and rocks or create an army of zombies at the click of a button.

“We’re here to help the artists not replace them. We do more of the mundane and tedious tasks, but there is still inspiration to the software,” he said.

“Let’s say you’re making a lots of zombies. If you wanted them all to be unique you would need an army of artists, but with Artomatix the artists only need to create three, four, or five zombies that have different traits.

“Then the software can exploit these nuances to create an army of individually unique zombies.”

Recognition

At the recent international Game Developers Conference (GDC), which is essentially the gaming industry’s answer to Davos, Artomatix Materialise was touted as one of the top-ten emerging technologies to watch, putting it on par with new offerings from the likes of Sony and Microsoft.

O’Gorman said the GDC conference was a real springboard for Artomatix and that the company is now in talks with a number of big studios as a result of the recognition gained at the event.

A lot of Artomatix’s work is shrouded in secrecy due to the nature of the gaming industry, however he did reveal the company is already working with “one particular large studio on the west coast of the states” and collaborating on “big triple-A projects”.

Although the GDC has been a big help to Artomatix, the company has been around for a while – first coming together in early 2014.

After entering a string of competitions to help finance the company, the company has a bulging trophy cabinet. One of the more-notable accolades was a $100,000 prize collected at chip maker Nvidia’s Emerging Companies Summit last year.

O’Gorman said the award was a “game changer” for the company that took it to a “new plateau”.

“We had won some competitions before that, but this was a competition from people in the industry who know the space. That’s opened quite a number of doors and was a significant moment for the company.”

Focus on gaming

The next product in the pipeline, which will build on Artomatix’s underlying technology and allow designers to automatically generate unique 3D items and characters for games, is due for release next year.

O’Gorman said it will be “the holy grail” and will have applications well beyond the gaming industry, although that was where the company would initially focus with the offering.

“The gaming industry is a good influencer into other markets and people in gaming like to adopt new technologies. But the beauty of the tech is that it is data agnostic and ultimately the tech can be used for non-art related items.

“As an example, and just to keep it tied to games, not only will we be able to make every bad guy look unique, but we will be able to make them sound unique and move uniquely also.”

In the immediate future, however, the company is concentrated on closing a seed round in the coming months to keep Artomatix ticking over and according to O’Gorman “focus on what businesses should focus on, which is selling our product”.