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Back
To Campus: Video
Gaming Hot Bed I'm searching for a door. My little Post-It note says I have the right address, my note even says I have the right suite number, yet something is amiss. The hallway is dark, the doors inconspicuous. Where are the dings, the neon glitz, the flashing lights? But my numbers are right, and at least if I choose the wrong door, I probably won't see a "Game Over" sign flash in my face.
Welcome to the mind-bending world of Pipeworks, GarageGames and Buzz Monkey, three Eugene-based video game developers located in nondescript downtown headquarters all within a two-block radius of each other. With three solid game companies downtown, a growing number of tech workers fleeing a traffic-clogged California and the county and local colleges pooling their resources to invest in the game making industry, Eugene is primed for a video gaming explosion.
Dynamix Remixed The game development industry in Eugene prior to 1999 is best summed up by one company: Dynamix Inc. Formed in 1984 by Jeff Tunnell and Damon Slye, and bought out by Sierra On-Line in 1990, Dynamix was a game developer employing about 100 personnel before it closed shop in 2001. The company had a string of successes in the mid-'90s with games like Red Baron, Starseige and Tribes, a popular first-person shooter. Those successes meant bigger projects with larger monetary rewards, but not everybody was satisfied. Mark Frohnmayer, who worked for Dynamix from 1995 to 2001, and is now the president of GarageGames (and son of UO President Dave Frohnmayer), said that as the projects got larger, he grew distressed. "I was the most financially successful as I have ever been," says Frohnmayer, "but I was also the least happy." "For the end consumer, [more expensive productions] might be good," says Frohnmayer, "but for the people making the games, it's just become more stressful with less creative impact in the overall production of the game you're working on ... for us, it just wasn't fun anymore." Those sentiments were made palpable when Dynamix consolidated and cut nearly half its employees in 1999. That same year, seven disgruntled Dynamix employees left the company to launch their own startup: Pipeworks Software Inc. Despite protests from fans, the French media conglomerate Vivendi SA — who owned Sierra On-Line — decided to close Dynamix in 2001, cutting 97 jobs. In the gaming fallout, five startups sprang from the ashes: GarageGames, Buzz Monkey, BraveTree Productions, Tesseraction Games and Fireline Interactive. Some thrived, some were consolidated (BraveTree was purchased by GarageGames in 2005) and some went into remission (Tesseraction Chairman Kelly Asay says they have stopped actively making games in order to focus all efforts on collecting a $1.6 million lawsuit won against their first publisher). Despite the uncertainty it caused, the breakup at Dynamix has proven a boon. Jackie Carpentier, working for BraveTree at the time, said in a January 2002 Register-Guard article that "the closure of Dynamix in Eugene may create the next tech mecca for the entertainment industry." Prophetic words, indeed. Since inception, says Pipeworks president Dan Duncalff, Pipeworks has had a compound growth rate of 28 percent per year. And Barry Drew, art director at Buzz Monkey — a company that has worked on blockbuster games like Tomb Raider: Legend and Syphon Filter: Dark Mirror — says Buzz Monkey has added 47 employees in the last five years.
A Hot Industry It's no surprise these companies, after some initial struggles, have been able to grow so much in such a short time. According to a 2006 Entertainment Software Association (ESA) survey, computer and video game software sales grew 4 percent in 2005 to $7 billion, a more than doubling of sales since 1996. This year Money magazine named software engineering, including game makers, as the "Best Job in America." With an average salary of $80,500 and a 10-year growth rate of 46 percent, it's not too late for a career change (see sidebar). But don't be fooled; it's not the kiddies playing Microsoft's Xbox 360 or Nintendo's GameCube. The ESA survey also found that the average game player is 33 years old and has been playing video games for about 12 years. Perhaps most surprising is the survey's finding that 38 percent of all women are game players, with women over 18 now representing a larger gamer population than men under 17. Needless to say, "the demand for games seems insatiable," says Duncalf. "So from an industry perspective we are still expanding. There is definitely potential for more growth here in Eugene." That potential is exactly what Lane County leaders figured out last year in its long-term economic forecast. The Oregon Employment Department's report reads that the "information [industry] is expected to add 500 [jobs]," a 15.2 percent increase over the next 10 years, "due largely to growth in software publishing." This makes system software the fourth largest category for growth, after the professional services, educational/health services and construction industries, respectively. Gaming software companies in the area would also be promoting the goals outlined in the Southern Willamette Valley's Region 2050 report by developing "a full range of local job opportunities throughout the region with a focus on family wage jobs," and "enhancing 'human capital' in the region, fostering a skilled, educated labor force that can attract high-wage industries."
Frohnmayer believes he's in the right business. "I think Eugene would be great place to have as a hotbed of game development," he says. "We've already have the beginnings of a real game business cluster, which is a great start. If we had three or four more game companies, it would be a lot easier for all of us to hire people … because if things didn't work out at one of the companies, potential employees could go to four other places to get a job." But in order for this synergy to be fully realized, people have to be educated in computers, science, math and technical vocations. This is a tall order for a public school system in a never-ending budget crunch. Fortunately, people are working on it.
Schooled in Games When Lane Community College Computer Information Technology (CIT) instructor Jim Bailey went to the Lane County Commission last spring asking for funds to help kick-start a programming curriculum at LCC, the commissioners were more than happy to oblige with a $50,000 grant. "Gaming is one hot subject in the schools," Bailey says, noting that when he offered two sections of a basic programming course in winter of 2005, he had to turn students away. So, starting this year, with the help of the county grant and LCC support, Bailey was able to develop a three-term sequence in C/C++ programming, the most widely used language in the gaming field. Students who complete the three terms will receive a state-approved certificate. But that's only the start. Bailey is applying to the state of Oregon for a two-year degree program in game development at LCC. He hopes to have the application approved so that students graduating in 2008 could have that degree, which will be a joint program with the media arts and CIT departments. Bailey talked with the local game companies and found that they get plenty of applicants with computer science backgrounds but lacking in skills required for a multimedia environment. "We'll be fine-tuning our curriculum to meet the gaming industry's needs," said Bailey.
LCC is working with Lane County schools to offer online materials to teachers and college credit to high-school students who want to take classes in this field. Bailey says this is in no way meant to replace an existing program, but merely to "fill in the holes" where the schools are hurting. In addition to Bailey's mission, Kelly Asay, Chairman of Tesseraction, has been heading up a game development program at Homesource, an alternative education school in the Bethel School District, for the past four years. This is the first year they will be including students from other high schools. And starting next year, Asay and his colleagues will have completed the development of a two-year game development course. Asay intends it to be similar to the Advanced Placement (AP) program, which allows students to get college credit for work done in high school. And with dropout rates hovering around 6 percent in Oregon, according to the Oregon Department of Education, including games in the curriculum may be a way to get students excited about math, science and computers again. Frohnmayer says, "Games are just a great way to teach computer science because it hits all the major areas: graphics, software engineering, artificial intelligence … and they're fun." He says U.S. universities are scrambling to throw together a games program to stem a sharp decline in student interest in computer science. Bailey says that even if the game making industry sours, teaching students a games curriculum provides them with a "solid programming language that is transferable in a variety of jobs, not just games."
The Eugene Attraction The clean air, short commute, close proximity to outdoor hotspots, low crime rate, low cost of living, artistic community, nearby colleges and universities: All of these factors were listed by local game company executives as reasons why Eugene has the potential to attract more game making companies. For many of the employees laid off by Dynamix, moving south to California or east to Austin, Texas, was simply not a huge attraction. Says Buzz Monkey's Drew, "We wanted to continue to live in Eugene and do what we love to do: make games." "Cost of living plays a huge role," adds Duncalf. "It affects the way you live your life … from the size of your home to how you plan on getting to work. We pay less then companies in Los Angeles or San Francisco, but compare the cost of living in Eugene, and this more then makes up for the difference." Having three solid game companies in the area is a start, but more are always welcome. "I'd like to employ as many people as we can," says Frohnmayer. "To create good jobs for motivated and creative people, that's always a worthy goal." And branding Eugene as an alternative to the rat race culture of Silicon Valley and the Boston Corridor won't hurt. "It's no surprise," says Drew, "that when recruits fly in from large metro areas they instantly fall in love with Eugene."
Students: So You WantTo Be a Game Maker You've mastered the final level of Tomb Raider: Legend, you're bored with the new titles at Big City Gamin', Dance Dance Revolution tournaments aren't landing you any mates and The Sims are turning out to be a trifle more intelligent than Sea Monkeys: What do you do? Why not start making games yourself? It's not as hard as you might think.
GarageGames is a good place to start. Their Torque line of game-making software allows novices to focus on their overall game design using pre-wired code. Mark Frohnmayer says about 70,000 developers are registered within the Torque community. And it's no accident GarageGames shares a "garage" forename with Apple's Garage Band software. Both are consumer-level tools hobbyists can use to polish their digital multimedia creations, only now the gaming field just got a lot more fun. This holiday season, Microsoft will be releasing the XNA Game Studio Express. The XNA will allow consumers to author games on their PC and then test them out on an Xbox 360 for a $99 yearly fee. Closer to home, GarageGames will be releasing their own version of Torque (dubbed Torque X) that will be XNA-compatible. For the first-time game maker and seasoned professional alike, the future prospects of game play will break wide open. Indeed, at the August announcement of XNA at Gamefest 2006, Microsoft's general manager Chris Satchell said, "We are looking forward to the day when all the resulting talent-sharing and creativity transforms into a thriving community of user-created games on Xbox 360." This community has already been cultivated at GarageGames. Building off the success of social networking sites such as MySpace and YouTube, GarageGames will soon be launching a website geared toward game makers, allowing them to share their latest creations and discuss strategies for improvement (stay tuned at www.garagegames.com for a link). But this technology won't be limited to your desktop. College game development programs, such as the University of Southern California's prestigious Gamepipe Labs, are eagerly hopping on board with GarageGames' and Microsoft's cutting edge tools and technology. But if universities are teaching from the same software you can practice on at home for cheap, is a college degree worth it? Dan Duncalf, of Pipeworks, thinks so. "Formalized education is now a requirement, not optional," he says. Sophisticated game making is highly complex, he says, requiring advanced knowledge in math, physical science, programming, design and engineering. Duncalf recommends focusing "on a solid education," noting that "somebody with a four-year degree in physics, who then takes four or five classes in computer programming, is more likely to get into the field then somebody who goes to an 18-month trade school." But working in game making isn't all just code and computing. Games are becoming increasingly cinematic, requiring animators, story boarders, scenic designers and other media art skills. Barry Drew, Buzz Monkey's art director, says he looks for someone "with a solid understanding of lighting, design, color theory … principles that can be used in multiple software packages." In other words, this is a job like any other: Success requires constant sweat, toil and real world experience. GarageGames co-founder Jeff Tunnell asks in his online article, "Realistic Steps to Starting a Game Development Company": "Why should making games good enough that people want to buy them be any easier than any other artistic profession? I always like to think of making games as a lot like making rock music. It takes a group of people that all have specialized skills and it takes a long time to learn your 'instrument' or craft." OK, say you've been working at a game company, you've finally mastered your craft, but still you're itching for more. Or, in Tunnell's words, you're tired of "kissing corporate ass or dealing with the internal politics of large companies." Is it time to start your own game-making studio? "It's worth starting a studio," says Tesseraction Games Chairman Kelly Asay, "but do your research … You are going to make some great and lifelong friends and you are going to make some enemies. It helps to think of it like a pig sees breakfast, not how the chicken does: You're in it whole hog or you aren't in it." — Chuck Adams
LOCAL GAMING COMPANIES Buzz Monkey. 576 Olive St. Suite 205, Eugene 97401. 484-7030. www.buzzmonkey.com GarageGames, Inc. 245 W. 5th Ave.,Eugene 97401.345-3040. www.garagegames.com Pipeworks Software, Inc. 555 Lincoln Ave. Suite D,Eugene 97401. 685-0644. www.pipeworks.net
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