Last month, Penny Arcade announced the convention — which drew nearly 70,000 attendees last year — will remain in Boston for at least the next decade, and the group will donate $325,000 in funding during that time to the Massachusetts Digital Games Institute, based at Worcester’s Becker College.

On April 6, the good folks over at Penny Arcade will host a panel about the state’s gaming growth. You can check the full schedule to see all the great events going on at this year’s PAX East, including this panel’s description:

Massachusetts: The Play State
Wyvern Theatre
Friday 10:30am – 11:30am
Massachusetts is getting in the game! Over the past year, dozens of stories online, in print and on the air have elevated the Commonwealth’s visibility within the game industry. Why has the state’s game industry attracted such attention? What’s going on in Massachusetts? What is the state of the state as it relates to the game industry? Come hear game industry executives, government officials and academic leaders talk about all of the above.
Panelists include: Timothy Loew [Executive Director, MassDiGI], Hiawatha Bray [Technology Reporter, Boston Globe], Robert Johnson, Ph.D. [President, Becker College], Ken Surdan [Vice President of Operations, Turbine], Aaron St. John [CEO, Hitpoint Studios], John Mahoney [Representative, 13th Worcester, Commonwealth of Massachusetts], Greg Bialecki [Secretary, Housing and Economic Development, Commonwealth of Massachusetts], Timothy Murray [Lieutenant Governor, Commonwealth of Massachusetts]

It just so happens I wrote an article after last year’s PAX East regarding this very topic. Whether you’re looking for a cheat sheet for this year’s panel, a chance to see how spot-on the interviewees’ assessments were, or just take a stroll down memory lane, the story is pasted below for your amusement.

And remember, if you’re a gamer living in Central Mass. who would like to be interviewed for an upcoming PAX East article in the Sentinel & Enterprise newspaper, drop me a line at redwards@sentinelandenterprise.com. Seriously, we want to hear from you.

———

Editor’s note: This article originally appeared in the Sentinel & Enterprise on March 20, 2011.

BOSTON — The West Coast has long been considered the hub of American video-game development, but Massachusetts is making significant strides in drawing some of the multi-billion-dollar industry’s focus to the Commonwealth, according to industry insiders. Undergraduate game-design programs at Worcester Polytechnic Institute and Becker College have garnered national attention, while developers such as Waltham-based Blue Fang Games are embracing cutting-edge avenues for game distribution.

“I feel like the video game industry is undergoing tremendous change right now,” Blue Fang president Hank Howie said. “My feeling and impression is that there is significant growth in (Massachusetts) around the new gaming platforms and distribution mechanisms.”

There’s a massive amount of money at stake. The Associated Press, citing market researcher NPD Group, reported last week that sales of video-game hardware, software and accessories in the United States totaled $1.36 billion in February, up 3 percent from that same span a year ago.

Blue Fang made its mark on the industry in 2001 with the release of Zoo Tycoon. The PC franchise, in which players build exhibits to draw guests to their virtual zoos, has sold more than “8 million units and counting,” Howie said.

Blue Fang also has an eye on new gaming platforms that offer wider appeal than traditional consoles. The developer has found recent success with popular Facebook versions of The Oregon Trail and Where in the World is Carmen Sandiego?

Howie said new gaming platforms like social media, tablets and mobile phones carry a two-fold benefit for Massachusetts. They help spread games to a diverse audience, and pave the way for recent college graduates to enter the industry without the infrastructure and capital previously required.

Colleges are on track

The growth is being fueled locally by college game-design classes, according to WPI computer science professor Mark Claypool, who is also director of the school’s interactive media and game development program.

Claypool said the school has seen nearly 200 students major in the undergraduate program since it began six years ago, and WPI will offer a graduate program in game design beginning this fall. Students can specialize in technical training, such as AI programming, or focus on artistic elements of design like writing and music.

The Princeton Review and GamePro Media recently surveyed 150 institutions and used those findings to announce the top undergraduate game-design programs in the country. WPI placed sixth, while Becker, also located in Worcester, was 10th. University of Southern California was named the top school.

“In the nation there are some 500 programs that offer game-related courses and degrees,” Claypool said. “To be in the top was an honor, it’s very nice to see. … As the industry evolves, the program will only get better.”

Home-grown talent will attract new businesses and help create jobs in Massachusetts, said Howie, who spoke in favor of a proposed tax credit for in-state developers.

“It’s a tremendous growth area that’s attracting a significant amount of investment capital,” he said. “People should keep that in mind when they think about industries that they wish to target and have come to Massachusetts.”

Breaking down barriers

As the way in which games are being played has evolved, so has their audience.

Susan Arendt, senior editor of The Escapist, said gaming has undergone a dramatic shift over the past five years and is rapidly becoming an everyday part of mainstream culture. Escapistmagazine.com features an eclectic collection of articles about all things game related, and has seen a steady increase in web traffic in recent years.

“There’s much less stigma associated with (people) saying they’re into video games now,” Arendt said. “They’re everywhere. They’re on your phone, they’re on your iPad, they’re on your TV. They’re just kind of omnipresent. It’s so easy to get access to this broad category of games. For as much as the core audience looks down on Facebook, that, for a lot of people, is the introduction to, ‘Hey, look at me, I’m playing a video game.’”

Massachusetts stepped into the spotlight of the gaming industry last weekend when 69,500 fans from across the country descended on the Boston Convention & Exhibition Center to attend Penny Arcade Expo East.

The three-day event, commonly referred to as PAX East, kicked off Friday, March 11, and drew perhaps the largest crowd in the venue’s seven-year history, according to Massachusetts Convention Center Authority spokesman Mac Daniel. Ticket sales rose by more than 17,000 from the previous year, which saw 52,290 people gather at the nearby John B. Hynes Veterans Memorial Convention Center.

The massive turnout caught some industry insiders off guard, such as Bryan Katzel, creative director for Illinois remote-control toy manufacturer Senario LLC.

“It’s definitely opening our eyes …” he said. “I knew there was a following, an underground following, but I didn’t know what kind of numbers that would mean at mass-market retail. And it’s obvious that video games are a huge push now, just the same as any new movie or animation that’s going to come out.”

The increasingly diverse audience for video games is sustaining that growth. Arendt explained that the long-held stereotype about gamers being exclusively teenage males is no longer relevant. Many adults who grew up playing classic games over the past two decades haven’t abandoned their cherished hobby, she said.

That diversity was on full display at PAX East. Arendt was the moderator of the “Females on Female Characters” discussion panel, which addressed gender roles in modern games. Other panels spanned a wide range of topics, including a demonstration of the latest graphics technology, an event in which fans could pitch their own game ideas and a guide to geek parenting.

A peek into the future

Other sights and sounds from PAX East highlighted various interests among the gaming community. There was a large area set up for thousands of table-top enthusiasts, a sprawling expo hall that showcased more than 100 yet-to-be-released blockbuster games and products, a collection of playable classic arcade units, as well as nightly concerts featuring popular musical acts. Many fans wandered the halls of the cavernous convention center dressed as their favorite video-game characters.

Walter Barr, a 29-year-old digital arts student from Buffalo, N.Y., visited the convention for the first time and said he was blown away by all there was to see and do. Barr was among many attendees who felt events like PAX East help shine a spotlight on a state sometimes overshadowed in the video-game market.

“I know a lot of gamers, and I live on the East Coast, so I’m sure there are a ton of gamers who would definitely like to attend things like this,” Barr said. “If they can keep it coming and bring more conventions here, that would be great.”

Arendt admitted that as recently as a few years ago she didn’t consider Massachusetts to be a gaming hotspot. Behind the success of its college programs, local developers and fan-supported events, however, the Commonwealth appears poised to strengthen its reputation in the industry.

“I do think that Massachusetts was a great choice for PAX East because the East Coast has so much more to offer than just New York,” Arendt said. “It’s great to have something as prominent as PAX be in Boston.”

The New Oregon Trail, with internet memes still intact.

Blue Fang Games announced the release of two new games for Facebook on Wednesday: a remake of the beloved learning game The Oregon Trail and a new Where in the World is Carmen Sandiego game. Blue Fang is developing both games in conjunction with The Learning Company, the publishers of the original Oregon Trail and Carmen Sandiego games. Both games will be released in February.

It is hard to tell exactly what the games will be like, but judging from the trailerThe Oregon Trail looks like it will allow greater customization to the pioneering party than the original (which makes sense given the original was made the 1970s), and include more side games, and most importantly, will have online co-op.

The trailer for the new Carmen Sandiego game looks like it will be a continuation of the series, with players travelling to different places around the globe to hunt for clues and unravel whatever crime Carmen Sandiego is trying to commit.

Blue Fang was founded in 1998 by John Wheeler and Adam Levesque. Their most famous game, Zoo Tycoon, a subset of the Tycoon brand developed by several companies, was released in 2001. A sequel, Zoo Tycoon 2, was released in 2004. The Learning Company does not have any business in Boston, but they used to have the coolest store in Harvard Square where you could go up to the second floor and play learning games until the store closed for free.

Textures hand painted in Photoshop, modeling done with 3dsMax.

All images copyright World of Zoo and Blue Fang Games.

Textures hand painted in Photoshop, modeling done with 3dsMax.

All images copyright World of Zoo and Blue Fang Games.

Textures hand painted in Photoshop, modeling done with 3dsMax.

All images copyright World of Zoo and Blue Fang Games.

For the demo’s nighttime environment, the cursor turns into a torch to provide the main light source for the environment. I also set up all the plants and foliage in this scene to rustle and sway in the wind and the clouds slowly sweep through the night sky.

Textures hand painted in Photoshop, modeling done with 3dsMax. In addition to modeling and texturing, I also rigged the monkey skeleton and crab models for havok ragdoll physics in 3dsMax.

All images copyright Blue Fang Games.

Textures hand painted in Photoshop, modeling done with 3dsMax.

All images copyright World of Zoo and Blue Fang Games.

Textures hand painted in Photoshop, modeling done with 3dsMax.

All images copyright World of Zoo and Blue Fang Games.

That is the message a panel of Canadian investors and software developers had for the gamers of the world Thursday morning at the GameON Finance 2011 conference being held in downtown Toronto’s Design Exchange this week. They want game publishers to know that video gaming is meshing more and more with social networking and they had better get on board, or risk being left behind.

“The real opportunity is on mobile and social, and specifically taking social to the mobile,” explained Hank Howie of Blue Fang Games LLC. ”That isn’t where it is going, that is where it is today and it is only going to get bigger.”

Fans of Blue Fang’s Zoo Tycoon online game will know he is right. Players of that particular online game can send Facebook invitations to their friends directly through the game and send updates on their achievements via Twitter.

Not just niche publishers, some serious players in the global gaming industry are building integration with services like Facebook into their titles beyond the work of much more well known actors on the social gaming stage like Zynga. The big push to social integration is at least partially the result of firms simply following the funding.

“The social paradigm permeates all gaming, make no mistake,” said Marc Jackson, founder of the Seahorn Capital Group, a firm specializing in the financing of interactive entertainment products. ”All gamers, especially all younger gamers under 30, are increasingly social creatures and they want to share their gaming experience with their friends.”

“If it is not a Facebook game it is a mobile game with [Facebook integration], the entire industry is moving in that direction and [funding] is moving there along with it,” he said.

“The biggest investments are going to be in social gaming and online gaming going forward.”

jberkow@nationalpost.com

Read about it in insidesocialgame

Prior to joining Blue Fang Games, Chouls worked at Looking-Glass Studios (Jane’s Attack Squadron and Flight Unlimited III).

Blue Fang’s president Hank Howie participated as a panelist in the NE Games SIG’s December 2008 panel “Playing in the Market – State of the Game Industry in Today’s Economic Climate“.

Check out Blue Fang’s press release for a bit more info about Chouls appointment.

We’d also like to thank attendees for coming out, even despite the snow storm last Monday! And for those who couldn’t make it, below are a few bullets summarizing some of what was discussed. These are just some of the notes I jotted down, so if you have anything to add, please do so in the comments. We’ll also be posting a video from the event soon – stay tuned!

• Nowadays, consumers are looking for new ways to buy and consume games – not just relying on retail purchases. They are looking to get a bigger bang for their buck, so used games are becoming more and more popular.
• Casual games are actually doing really well, as they have a lower price point to the consumer, and lower development costs, compared to some ‘AAA’ titles.  At the same time, the casual games market is cluttered with lots of options for consumers, but, unlike some more traditional titles and with MMOs, there is a huge untapped audience for casual games.
• Having games based on an established IP, and with existing brand awareness in the marketplace, makes a huge difference with the success of a title in a rough economy.
• We are seeing a variety of different business models with online games – free-to-play, monthly subscriptions, ad supported, download to buy, and microtransactions. Regardless of business model, compelling content is what will lead a game to succeed.
• PC shelf space at retail has diminished significantly, but retail game cards for online games are selling very well (especially with kids that don’t have a credit card).
• Consumers are spending more time at home, but are still spending money on entertainment – the number of TV viewers has skyrocketed recently (evidence of this trend).
• Due to the economy, the panel predicted that the next generation of consoles will not come out until at least 2011 – a cycle that is a lot longer than in year’s past.
• In the coming months, the real innovation in the industry will not necessarily come from graphics or technology, but with distribution and marketing. Companies will have to get really creative in their marketing, to break through the clutter and gain mindshare.
• In closing, the traditional game market is definately feeling the effects of the current economy, but there are and will continue to be many opportunities particularly with mobile, casual, and online games.

Since I last posted, I’ve taken on two new jobs. The first, as kind of a side gig, is that I’ve begun to write reviews for Game Revolution. My first review, of the game 1942: Joint Strike, should be posted soon, and I’ve been working on another one this week for Bionic Commando Rearmed. I’m just doing Xbox Live Arcade games so far, since it’s easy for GR to send me a redeemable code, and so far I’m just getting free games out of it, but hey, free games!

On a more career-oriented note, in eleven days I will be starting work in QA at Blue Fang Games. It’s entry-level, sure, but it’s a foot in the door of the industry in which I’ve wanted to work since I was five years old, drawing old Nintendo Power-style level layouts for imaginary platformers. (I created multiple concepts for a Calvin & Hobbes game of which I was particularly proud.)

Blue Fang is known for the Zoo Tycoon series, which I’ve always respected for the fact that it took the “tycoon” name, which often guarantees a game is shovelware, and actually made a quality franchise to go along with it. It joins Roller Coaster Tycoon and Railroad Tycoon in that respect, so it’s in good company.

Needless to say, I’m thrilled. Blue Fang is based in Waltham, MA, near Boston, so I’ve spent the last week or so looking at places to live in the area. At this point, I’ve missed the September 1 move-in, but I’m heading back down to the city tomorrow to keep looking.

So between everything that’s been going on, I haven’t had a whole lot of time to spend on The Literary Gamer, or even gaming, for that matter. (Although I did finally unlock all the weapons for my medic and pyro in Team Fortress 2, that was like, two weeks ago.)

Don’t worry, TLG is not dead, and I expect my posts to become a bit more exciting now that I’ve actually kick-started a career in the games industry.

This particular SIG is the brainchild of Michael Cavaretta member of the business-only law firm Morse Barnes-Brown Pendleton. Last summer The Boston Globe’s Hiawatha Bray wrote about how Boston has emerged as a video gaming hub, challenging similar regional hubs in Seattle and Austin. In his work, Michael sees many of the deals – both investment deals and development / publishing deals – being made by local game companies. Since the Boston-based game industry has historically operated in stealth mode, Michael formed this SIG as a way to promote the success of these local companies.

This meeting’s subject ‘Getting Started and Succeeding’ was addressed by a stellar panel of successful local game company CEOs including:…Jeff Anderson, Game Nirvana; Hank Howie, President, Blue Fang Games; and Omar Khudari, former CEO, Papyrus Design Group (and my boss at my last gig at Cecropia.) Game industry guru Rob Sebastian, CEO & Key Operating Partner, Ghost House Digital Studios flew in from LA and did a great job as moderator. Zeemote sponsored the night, providing plenty of food and drink as well has hands-on demonstrations of the world’s first compact wireless thumbstick for mobile gaming.

The good news for the audience was that we learned the details of how these folks raised money to start their successful ventures. The bad news was that – given the tremendous amount of consolidation that has happened in the industry, as well as the tremendous increase in the cost of developing a single game – the ability to raise funding today is a far more difficult challenge.

Our next event will take place on March 3 and will bring together industry executives such as Michael Cai, Woody Benson of Prism Ventures, Kai Bond of SwitchGames.com, Hank Howie of Blue Fang Games, and James Jones of Hasbro, to discuss how the current economy is affecting the game industry.

For more information about the March 3rd event or to register, please click here.