Hawkes Bay Today
  • Hawke's Bay Today home
  • Latest news
  • Sport
  • Business
  • Opinion
  • Lifestyle
  • Property
  • Video
  • Death notices
  • Classifieds

Subscriptions

  • Herald Premium
  • Viva Premium
  • The Listener
  • BusinessDesk

Sections

  • Latest news
  • On The Up
  • Sport
  • Business
  • Opinion
  • Lifestyle
  • Property
    • All Property
    • Residential property listings
  • Rural
    • All Rural
    • Dairy farming
    • Sheep & beef farming
    • Horticulture
    • Animal health
    • Rural business
    • Rural life
    • Rural technology

Locations

  • Napier
  • Hastings
  • Havelock North
  • Central Hawke's Bay
  • Tararua

Media

  • Video
  • Photo galleries
  • Today's Paper - E-Editions
  • Photo sales
  • Classifieds

Weather

  • Napier
  • Hastings
  • Dannevirke
  • Gisborne

NZME Network

  • Advertise with NZME
  • OneRoof
  • Driven Car Guide
  • BusinessDesk
  • Newstalk ZB
  • Sunlive
  • ZM
  • The Hits
  • Coast
  • Radio Hauraki
  • The Alternative Commentary Collective
  • Gold
  • Flava
  • iHeart Radio
  • Hokonui
  • Radio Wanaka
  • iHeartCountry New Zealand
  • Restaurant Hub
  • NZME Events

SubscribeSign In

Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.
Home / Hawkes Bay Today / Business

Hawke's Bay best place to be for successful game developer

By PATRICK O'SULLIVAN
Hawkes Bay Today·
22 Jan, 2013 12:32 AM2 mins to read

Subscribe to listen

Access to Herald Premium articles require a Premium subscription. Subscribe now to listen.
Already a subscriber?  

Listening to articles is free for open-access content—explore other articles or learn more about text-to-speech.
‌
Save
    Share this article

Hawke's Bay game developer Dave Frampton is on a roll. He has had more than 3 million downloads of his iPad/iPhone games Chopper and Chopper 2 and now his latest hit, The Blockheads, achieved 1 million downloads on just its third day of release this month.

His success has allowed him to quit his previous job creating weather graphics and become a game developer full time, moving to Hawke's Bay with his wife and son.

"We love it here after moving from Wellington last year," he said.

"Working for myself and from home means I can live pretty much anywhere. So we spent some time exploring many regions around the country and decided we liked the Hawkes Bay best as a place to live and raise our family. We really love the climate, and it's just a nice size with friendly people and communities. The surf is pretty good, which was a drawcard too."

He said the negatives of being based in Hawke's Bay were also the positives.

Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.
Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.

"It's always so nice outside that it's hard to stay inside and work. I don't tend to need to meet up with people face-to-face or travel a lot for what I do, and when I do need to travel overseas, it's not really any different from living in Wellington."

He is a self-taught game developer, who decided to "give it a crack" when he was a struggling artist.

The potential for success in his field is vast.

Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.

"There are mobile games out there that have had well over 100 million downloads now - and it's still growing rapidly."

He now employs a part-time person to look after the user forums for The Blockheads.

He said his 1-year-old son was too young to give feedback on any games he might develop.

"I love seeing kids play my games though, and always learn a huge amount from them."

Save
    Share this article

Latest from Business

Business

‘Very concerning’: Kiwi wine industry dealt $112m Trump tariff blow

Hawkes Bay Today

New $750m solar farm for Hawke's Bay: Why is the region turning to solar?

Business

What’s going on with Rocket Lab shares?


Sponsored

Revealed: The night driving ‘red flag’

Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.

Latest from Business

‘Very concerning’: Kiwi wine industry dealt $112m Trump tariff blow
Business

‘Very concerning’: Kiwi wine industry dealt $112m Trump tariff blow

NZ Winegrowers Advocacy says the tariff will go from 10c to around $1.10 per bottle.

04 Aug 10:26 PM
New $750m solar farm for Hawke's Bay: Why is the region turning to solar?
Hawkes Bay Today

New $750m solar farm for Hawke's Bay: Why is the region turning to solar?

28 Jul 06:00 PM
What’s going on with Rocket Lab shares?
Business

What’s going on with Rocket Lab shares?

24 Jul 10:59 PM


Revealed: The night driving ‘red flag’
Sponsored

Revealed: The night driving ‘red flag’

04 Aug 11:37 PM
NZ Herald
  • About NZ Herald
  • Meet the journalists
  • Newsletters
  • Classifieds
  • Help & support
  • Contact us
  • House rules
  • Privacy Policy
  • Terms of use
  • Competition terms & conditions
  • Our use of AI
Subscriber Services
  • Hawke's Bay Today e-edition
  • Manage your print subscription
  • Manage your digital subscription
  • Subscribe to Herald Premium
  • Subscribe to the Hawke's Bay Today
  • Gift a subscription
  • Subscriber FAQs
  • Subscription terms & conditions
  • Promotions and subscriber benefits
NZME Network
  • Hawke's Bay Today
  • The New Zealand Herald
  • The Northland Age
  • The Northern Advocate
  • Waikato Herald
  • Bay of Plenty Times
  • Rotorua Daily Post
  • Whanganui Chronicle
  • Viva
  • NZ Listener
  • Newstalk ZB
  • BusinessDesk
  • OneRoof
  • Driven Car Guide
  • iHeart Radio
  • Restaurant Hub
NZME
  • NZME Events
  • About NZME
  • NZME careers
  • Advertise with NZME
  • Digital self-service advertising
  • Book your classified ad
  • Photo sales
  • © Copyright 2025 NZME Publishing Limited
TOP