jayroe

Getting better all the time in Georgia:

In a modern Alpharetta office building, nearly 50 employees at Hi-Rez Studios have been working on a “spyfi” video game called “Global Agenda” for more than two years.

The effort has cost owner Erez Goren millions of dollars. But he’s hoping he’ll enjoy a huge payoff: 100,000 or more players worldwide paying $12-$15 a month for a taste of intrigue in a virtual world.

In the real world, the action centers on the game industry’s rapid growth and where the new jobs will go.

Georgia is eager to be a player.

At the first Southern Interactive and Game Expo — SIEGE — which opens today at the Crowne Plaza Perimeter Hotel in Atlanta, one of the sponsors is the Georgia Economic Development Department, which doled out $10,000 to impress the game enthusiasts.

SIEGE is expected to attract affluent game businessmen, cash-strapped students and hundreds of others over the weekend.

“It’s a big deal,” said Bill Thompson, deputy commissioner of Georgia’s Film, Video and Music Office, a division of the Economic Development Department.

SIEGE was organized by the 2-year-old Georgia Game Developers Association, which has about 60 member businesses and a mailing list of 350.

“We’re looking to make Georgia the new game mecca,” said Clinton Lowe, the association’s co-founder and chairman.

Read more: Georgia a player in booming video game industry | ajc.com

A friend from work and I went to the Atlanta Game Dev Meetup Group last night and had a blast eating pizza, drinking beer and talking about video games. Interestingly enough having spent much of my life as a musician/music teacher, I ended up talking to several musicians and composers who were involved or interested in game development.

I spent most of my time talking with Paul Gilreath, a professional composer, and Zac Armgard, a composer and guitarist from Berklee who wants to get into game sound design.