Game changers

Below: A presentation pack from the Making Games: A Developing Industry stamp issue

Since the early days when ‘video game’ technology consisted of a scant few coloured dots moving slowly across a dark background screen, human imagination has made more of games than what we see on the screen.

We imbue the visuals with meaning and we map stories onto them - even the ones with little written narrative to speak of - so it’s no surprise that a storytelling culture such as Aotearoa’s has always punched above its weight in such a medium. Games developed in New Zealand have run the gamut from multimillion bestsellers to winners of every major international game award, and these stamps showcase a diverse mix of those commercial and critical successes. But what is it about games that makes them so engaging?

The games featured on these stamps task their players with a variety of roles: survivor in a harrowing apocalypse, subway planner for a growing city, and shark. Okay, so ‘shark’ is a simplification - in Digital Confectioners’ Depth, players can take up the mantle of either a man-eating shark or a treasure-hunting diver, pitted against one another in a tense underwater showdown.

Concepts like this are where the video game shines - that perfect blend of social cooperation, interactivity, largerthan-life visuals and a story that simply won’t work as well in a medium like film. A great video game doesn’t simply tell a great story like a book or a movie does;

Below: Making Games: A Developing Industry

$2.00 Bloons TD 6 stamp, $2.00 Depth stamp, $3.30 Dredge stamp, $4.60 Mini Metro stamp, $5.30 Into the Dead 2 stamp it tells a great story that is told best as a game. Choice, pacing, success and failure - these are determined by the player, allowing the story to dig in its hooks and deepen the emotional stakes.

The way we play video games has also evolved since the early days of the Sportronic, a locally produced Pong console that predated the commercial arrival of Atari’s early gaming systems in New Zealand. Back then, a family television took up a decent chunk of the lounge, and any games you managed to acquire couldn’t stray far. Now, with the advent of smartphones and popular portable consoles such as the Nintendo Switch, Kiwis can play games wherever it suits them – and almost two-thirds of them do!

The success of Ninja Kiwi’s riotous monkey-action Bloons and Bloons TD helped put New Zealand on the world map for mobile games, topping the charts for both Android and iOS. Nowadays, a player of Dinosaur Polo Club’s Mini Metro can design their subway system while relaxing on their commute. And a particularly brave player can explore the treacherous depths of Black Salt Games’ Dredge on Nintendo Switch from a real-life boat. Whether you play them to unwind on the bus or plugged into your PC, dialled in on a voice call with a half-dozen of your mates, video games provide a way to relax, to socialise, to explore and to tap in to worlds both weirder and more expansive than our own. No longer are they shunned as a form of nerdy escapism or an impenetrable hobby for kids.

Games made by New Zealanders are played by hundreds of millions of people in every country on Earth, connecting us and our capacity for art and storytelling to the wider world.

Making Games: A Developing

Industry was issued on 6 March 2024. Stamps and first day covers will remain on sale until 5 March 2025.

Bloons TD 6

The Bloons series has always blended frenetic monkey antics with quickthinking action, and Bloons TD 6 shows that developer Ninja Kiwi has rightfully earned its place on the pantheon of New Zealand developers. Players must pop all the bloons by deploying an arsenal of armed-and-dangerous primates.

Depth

Seek your fortune in the murky waters as a treasure hunter or as a literal hunter in Digital Confectioners’ showdown between man and shark. Depth will churn the stomachs of those afraid to go back in the water, pitting player against player. Tension, action and adrenaline find a perfect balance in this battle of teeth and wits.

Dredge

Cryptic townsfolk and strange lights in the sky await those who dare try the smash hit fishing game Dredge from Black Salt Games. Players take on the mantle of a sea captain who must fish to earn their keep, but before too long an ancient, sinister undercurrent becomes apparent in both their catch and the archipelago they now call home.

Mini Metro

This BAFTA-nominated subway design simulator put Wellington-based studio Dinosaur Polo Club on the world map. Simultaneously a minimalist work of art and an engaging, moreish arcade game, Mini Metro tasks the player with drawing colourful subway networks across dozens of real-world cities. How long can you keep the city moving?

Into the Dead 2

More than 150 million people have downloaded PikPok’s Into the Dead series, beloved for both its fastpaced gameplay and its evocative soundtrack. Into the Dead 2 is a frantic race against the clock where players control a character attempting to reach his family while the world comes undone around him in a terrifying zombie apocalypse.