April 29, 2009
By Chris Cowperthwaite
http://cary.mync.com/site/cary/news%7CCommunity%7CSports%7CLifestyles/story/33207/game-industry-becoming-a-hub-in-the-triangle
RALEIGH, N.C. -
Hundreds of game developers and industry experts are gathering in Raleigh this week for the first annual Triangle Game Conference.
The area has slowly become a hotbed for game developers, with 30 different companies here employing more than 1,000 people.
Experts say the Triangle has carved a niche for itself, particularly in game engines.
"Game engines are the technology that power video games," said Alexander Macris, president of the Triangle Game Initiative, which is hosting the conference. "Beneath the graphics and the processing is the physics and graphics engine, which lets the developer focus on the game play."
Sometimes people make the most advanced technology sound so easy, but for a lot of games, the easier it looks, the more work went into it.
"It's made our area a center for innovation for the entire game industry," said Macris.
Organizers had originally hoped for 400 attendees, but more than 600 people showed up at the inaugural conference to network, recruit and demo new ideas.
The Triangle started becoming a hub for the gaming industry some 40 years ago, thanks to early computer graphics programs at North Carolina State University and the University of North Carolina.
"As the companies came here, more individuals, developers and artists came," said John Austin, vice president of Chapel Hill's Emergent Game Technologies. "We started to build a community and things just kind of grew from there."
Now, a lot of future developers are flocking to the area.
"The gaming industry is still growing and still strong, so it's really cool to see all these job opportunities around us," said Anthonie Jones, a student at Raleigh's School of Communication Arts.
As the technology expands, many Triangle developers are keeping ahead of the curve
"Companies in this area have elevated into 'serious games.' So they're taking game technology and they're applying it to educational purposes, to medical purposes, and to military purposes," said Macris. "So we have games being used to save lives or train soldiers."
The game industry actually has job openings, and some prospective developers came into town from all over the southeast hoping to get hired this week.
It's a serious game for an industry that's faring better than most during the worldwide recession.
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