Above: Pizza Panic, a classic side-scrolling game by Flipline Studios (www.flipline.com)

What is the Northeast Ohio Videogame Initiative?

The Northeast Ohio Videogame Initiative is an effort to promote the interactive entertainment industry in Greater Cleveland. By arranging collaborative projects between area universities and institutions - as well as presenting public events focused on videogame development and related fields - the initiative hopes to foster local development studios and bring a portion of the videogame industry to our region - an industry that Price Waterhouse Coopers estimates will grow to $55 billion globally by the year 2009.

What is required to make a game?

The size and scope of a professional game development project varies greatly, from smaller 'casual' games that can be created by a half dozen designers in 6 - 9 months, to large scale multi-year 'AAA' titles that employ hundreds of designers and cost tens of millions of dollars to complete. They average game studio, however, will employ 25- 50 individuals and release a game every one to two years, and have teams working on multiple projects concurrently.

In addition to computer programmers, game studios employ graphic designers, animation experts, audio engineers, technical and creative writers, and a variety of other specialized, creative individuals.

How do you intend to cultivate the industry in our region?

The Northeast Ohio Videogame Initiative will coordinate projects of scale between area universities, professional game developers and other institutions in the greater Cleveland region. Focusing initially on what is called the 'serious games' field (games and simulations for educational, scientific and government applications), teams of students will report to professional project leads that will act as mentors throughout the game development process. By promoting continuous projects that are outside the domain of any one institution, the Initiative will in effect create a 'virtual game studio' that:

provides real-world team based development experience to the students
produces professional quality games and simulations for area non-profit institutions
acts as an anchor which will hopefully spawn additional local game studios as the pool of experienced game designers grows in Northeast Ohio

In addition, the Initiative will work with local colleges, interest groups and other organizations to create additional opportunities for residents in our region to learn the methods of game design. Of particular interest is the use of game design studies to engage students that may not normally be attracted to studies beyond the high school level.

Finally, the Initiative will host events to promote game development in Northeast Ohio - a quarterly game development contest will begin in June, and an annual videogame 'expo' featuring the works of local game studios and universities will be announced in the near future.

For more information about the Northeast Ohio Videogame Initiative, please contact Dan Carl at daniel@neogameinitiative.com.