“Despite the sluggish US economy, the Massachusetts video game industry keeps growing, according to a survey by Massachusetts Digital Games Institute (MassDiGI), a state-sponsored game development center at Becker College in Worcester.
The survey found that Massachusetts game companies directly employ 2,041 workers, up 78 percent from the number found in a 2009 survey by the Massachusetts Technology Leadership Council. On average, these jobs pay $90,000 a year, for a yearly statewide payroll of over $234 million, including benefits.”
Click here to read the full story in the Boston Globe.
“As the High School Senior Class of ’13, it is you who will build a path to the next generation of gaming. Already, the ideas in your head will be for games that no one can conceive of in this day and age. You will build a new path of the new games and amazing stories yet to come.” Click here to read the full story at G4.
“If you are looking for evidence that video games won’t turn your brain to mush, pay a visit to Becker College in Worcester. For students like Andrew Niemi, gaming — as it is called — is a career path and the fulfillment of a lifelong dream.
“I played (video games) and always dreamed of owning my own company,” says Niemi, who will be a junior at Becker this fall. “I was playing Mario Brothers, and I always wanted to make a game like that.”
He is getting his chance. So are many others who look at video games in a whole different way than many of us. For them, the games are a learning tool that can save lives — literally.
Worcester Polytechnic Institute senior Cordell Zebrose, for example, is working on a “serious” video game called “On Call.” It’s being designed in collaboration with UMass Medical School to improve communication between nursing and medical students.
Niemi and Zebrose are two of 18 students in the Summer Innovation Program (SIP) at Becker College’s Massachusetts Digital Games Institute (Mass DiGI).” Click here to read the full story at Worcester Magazine.
“Chris Gengler traced his finger across the screen of an iPad, guiding a cloud of black particles down a white corridor, evading machine gun bullets.
He was playing a video game called Nanoswarm. Just a few months ago, it was nothing more than a cool idea. Today, it’s nearly finished — an impressive achievement, considering that Gengler and his fellow game designers are not professionals, but undergraduates at Becker College in Worcester.
They were among 18 students, mostly from Massachusetts colleges, participating in a state-sponsored summer program aimed at developing the next generation of video game designers.” Click here to read the complete story at the Boston Globe.
To read the press release, please click here. To read the story at Telegram.com, please click here. To request a survey, please email info[at]massdigi.org. Thank you.
Alexander Sliwinski of Joystiq and Tim Loew from MassDiGI talk 38 Studios and games with Emily Rooney on WGBH’s Greater Boston. Click here or watch the video below.
One of Racketboy’s PAX East 2012 interviews, this episode features Timothy Loew of the Massachusetts Digital Games Institute talking about how it is bringing together the state’s academic institutions and various large and small companies in the games industry to foster a successful environment for people to create exciting new games, find careers and success in the industry, and advance knowledge about gaming and its economic and cultural influence. Click here to listen.
“As we all know, the state of Rhode Island loaned 38 Studios $75 million on the condition that the video game developers create 450 new jobs over the next three years. As we also know, 38 Studios could either make a payment or keep its staff, but not both.” Click here to read the full story at Forbes.
“The ongoing events in Rhode Island concerning Curt Schilling’s star-crossed 38 Studios and state loan guarantees have focused attention on the regional video game industry as well as video game-related economic development policy. Schadenfreude aside, the circumstances offer an opportunity for Massachusetts policymakers to learn lessons and educate themselves on the job creation potential of the industry.” Click here to read the complete op-ed in the Boston Globe.
