Local company shows games are not just on sports f

Upstairs in an old Wanganui building, five people are quietly using the latest technology to make interactive games for punters at the Rugby World Cup.

They're employees of Wanganui business Inc Creative, and director Kai Teng Lim said they were in the final rushed days of perfecting three games for the ANZ Dome at Party Central in Auckland.

Visitors to the dome will be able to kick a virtual rugby ball and see where it goes. They can also dodge a charging virtual player, or have their photograph meshed with a New Zealand landscape scene of their choice and emailed to friends or put up on Facebook or Flickr.

To make the games, Inc Creative staff members are using technology developed for Microsoft's new generation Kinect games. Mr Lim has been told that his business is the first company in New Zealand to purchase the right to use it.

The technology senses motion, which connects to what happens on the screen without the player using a keyboard, mouse or controller, or wearing any special equipment.

Inc Creative was hired to make the games by Orange Production, an Auckland event company working for the ANZ Bank, one of the Rugby World Cup sponsors with a presence at Party Central.

As well as the games, the ANZ Dome will have 30 iPads, which visitors can use for a range of purposes while they are inside. Inc Creative is also supplying two large LED screens imported from China.

"The gear is up there now. We did a mock instalment about a week-and-a-half ago, and this week we will be going up again," Mr Lim said.

A staff member will be rostered to stay with the equipment for the six weeks of the cup, as technical support.

Inc Creative has five staff apart from Mr Lim, plus two part-timers when necessary.

Originally from Malaysia, Mr Lim studied computer graphic design at Wanganui Regional Community Polytechnic from 1991 to 1996. He returned to lecture in video and new media from 2002-07 - at what had by then become the Wanganui School of Design.

He started Inc Creative after that, and the company is now based in an old two-storey building in Ridgway St.

The company has no public face and only two Wanganui clients - the Sarjeant Gallery and Silks Chartered Accountants. But it has made interactive displays for Puke Ariki in New Plymouth and has just got its first job with Te Papa Tongarewa, New Zealand's national museum in Wellington. It was also responsible for the Khaki and Black exhibition that will be on display at the National Army Museum in Waiouru during the  Cup.

The company usually went well under the radar in its hometown. 

"Nobody actually knows too much about us, but we have brought a lot of money back into Wanganui,"Mr Lim said.