BELFAST BRIEFING:Gaming start-up's project highlights need to give more support to fledgling entrepreneurs

TWO CHILDHOOD friends inspired by the final scene of a Star Warsfilm could be set to make 2010 the year Belfast becomes a galactic star – at least in the applications universe.

John Owens and Liam McGarry are part of the next generation of savvy, success-hungry entrepreneurs in Northern Ireland. Belfast-born Owens and McGarry, who went through school together, are the games genius and business brains behind Wee Man Studios, a Northern Ireland-based start up which devises 3D games for Apple’s iPhone.

They first set up their company in 2008 before downloading applications became a way of life for iPhone enthusiasts. Owens and McGarry could see the potential the market offered. But few shared their vision, so they had to come up with the money themselves to get the business off the ground.

Two years later and they have no shortage of fans despite the fact that Wee Man Studios has yet to launch its first product – Galactic Racer. The game, which is expected to be released within the next couple of months and which will be exclusive to the iPhone, has become one of the most hotly anticipated launches in the industry.

According to Owens and McGarry, it was inspired by the last scene in the Stars Wars film Return of the Jedi,where the Death Star is destroyed.

The game features a 3D flying racer which will debut previously unseen sophisticated control options based on physics.

Wee Man Studios is in final-stage discussions with iPhone regarding the release of the game and the price of the app, which they hope will be less than £3 to download.

Owens and McGarry’s enthusiasm about the prospect of their business dream becoming a reality, particularly when it was dismissed so quickly in the beginning, is hard to contain.

They are part of the new hi-tech entrepreneurs’ club emerging in the North, keen to harness the “local talent”. But McGarry is also a realist.

He knows the statistics about business failures when it comes to start-up firms and the vulnerability that an “independent” company such as his can face.

It helps considerably that Wee Man Studios not only develops games but the underlying game technology, a factor that could also prove to be a big earner for them down the line.

McGarry is aware that the future success of Wee Man Studios depends on their ability to capture the imagination of iPhone users, who have the opportunity to choose from hundreds of thousands of apps. Why should a small but ambitious start-up in Belfast succeed against the giants of the industry and multimillion-pound corporations?

Well, why should it not?

What Northern Ireland needs now as it looks forward to a new year and a new decade is more entrepreneurs like Owens and McGarry who are prepared to take a risk.

Wee Man Studios wants to be the number one mobile games producer in this corner of the world by 2012.

Its strategy is to expand quickly by “exploiting subscription and licensing opportunities” to appeal to gamers, game developers and businesses.

From the quiet surroundings of offices on Belfast’s upmarket Malone Road, it may appear that Owens and McGarry simply share lofty ambitions, but aspirations often become profits on the balance sheets of tomorrow.

If Northern Ireland is to encourage more entrepreneurs and help more companies like Wee Man Studios to flourish, it needs to wake up to the economic realities of 2010.

Terence Brannigan, the new chairman of the Confederation of British Industry in the North, is warning that the economic recovery over the next 12 months will be slow. Brannigan is director of the North’s largest private sector employer, Resource, which employs more than 15,000 people in Britain and Ireland. He says no one, and particularly not the Northern Ireland Executive, should take the fragile economic recovery which is starting to emerge for granted.

Brannigan is urging the North’s Executive to continue to support the local economy and “nurture” it in 2010.

It is unembellished advice which it would do well to heed.

Owens and McGarry may hope that the "force" will be with them as they prepare to launch Galactic Racer, but they and entrepreneurs like them in the North will need more tangible help and support if they are to thrive and flourish in the difficult months ahead.