Outside of Summer’s regular posts, sometimes our loyal supporters don’t know everything we’re up to. In fact, I’d say that the majority of what we do on a day-to-day, or even week-to-week basis goes on without most people knowing about it.

The newsletters, email alerts and event notices are mainly for telling you about things we hope are of value to YOU. Things we hope you can plug into and benefit from knowing or participating in. But in terms of the businesses we may be working with to help grow or the attraction projects we are working on, we don’t really spread the word for a variety of reasons (confidentiality chief amongst them.)

Either way, it occurred to us that there are some initiatives underway that we could share. In that light, (and since the cat’s out of the bag already), I thought I’d go into one of our latest endeavors: Fishin’ for Game Development Companies.

The Atari 2600 controller.

As most of you know, our mission is pretty simple: We exist to help create, grow and attract higher-wage jobs and knowledge-based businesses in Savannah, furthering the development of a an innovation-driven economy.

Game Developers and Designers certainly fit into that box (for lack of a better word.) More importantly, we (as in Savannah) have a few competitive advantages. In addition to the regular Savannah sell (great quality of life, lower cost of doing business as compared to Austin, LA, etc), there are a few other things to consider.

In a word: SCAD (Savannah College of Art and Design).

What you may not know is that while Georgia Tech offers programs for Computer Engineering, SCAD offers interdisciplinary majors for undergraduate and graduate students in game design and development. What’s also interesting to know (something I just learned) is that both are included in “America’s Best Colleges” by US News and World Report - and most importantly - on the LA Times list of top 10 schools in the world favored by game industry recruiters. (Both, on both!)

To expand on that a little: SCAD, has a very large Interactive Design and Game Development department. In fact, it’s one of their largest. To boot, they’ve got an industry heavyweight running the show over there, in form of Brenda Brathwaite (been in the game industry since 1981 and has shipped 22 commercial titles.) As you may have guessed she is one of the few females in the industry.

All these things (talent pool desired by the industry, great quality of life, low-cost of doing biz, etc) help make Savannah a more viable location for these kinds of businesses, but we needed a couple more things to sweeten the pot a little. Enter SEDA (Savannah Economic Development Authority) and the first floor of their office building and GDEcD (Georgia’s Department of Economic Development) tax credits.

Most notably, SEDA has agreed to offer up to one year free rent on their first floor to qualified (as determined by us and industry consultants) game development companies. In an shaky economy, that’s something we think makes a statement and provides considerable value. “One free year” might not sound like alot in the realm of typical economic development incentives, but when you’re paying hundreds of thousands of dollars a year to lease space in LA/New York/etc, it’s a pretty hefty chunk of change.

In addition to the free space available for up to one year, GDEcD recently expanded the Georgia Entertainment Industry Investment Act to offer animation, interactive entertainment and video game development companies a 30% tax credit on qualified Georgia expenditures.

Taking all this into consideration, we think it makes for a pretty good offer. And that’s what we’re calling it, “The Offer.”

Says Brenda,

“Savannah has what game development companies need in talent, tech and quality of life. In today’s economy when so many developers are laid off and looking for that silver lining, the Savannah offer is incredibly welcome and offers developers a chance to start a studio on more stable footing.”

So what are our plans? We plan to sell this little goodie bag of treats (”the offer”) as hard as we can. We’re blitzing the Game Dev press with information. We’re working Brenda’s connections and following up leads. We’ve got Brynn (our Executive Director) and Brenda (mentioned above) going to GDC (Game Developers Conference) this week in San Francisco. GDC is THE conference for game developers and designers and with Brenda by her side making the intros, we’re confident Brynn can sell the pants off Savannah better than anyone.

We’ll keep you posted. :)

P.S. Check out the most recent press:

Local/Regional

Incentives offered to to lure gaming companies to Savannah
http://savannahnow.com/node/691461
 

Game ON To Attract Gaming and Interactive Companies to Savannah
http://savdailynews.com/main.asp?Search=1&ArticleID=22658&SectionID=14&SubSectionID=156&S=1
 

Savannah Offers Free Rent to Video Game Developers
http://www.globalatlanta.com/article/17215/
 

Nationally/Globally

Savannah’s offer: Free office space for game designers
http://news.cnet.com/8301-10797_3-10220997-235.html?tag=newsEditorsPicksArea.0
 

Savannah giving one year of free work space to qualified developers
http://www.joystiq.com/2009/03/02/savannah-giving-one-year-of-free-work-space-to-qualified-develop/
 

Savannah, Georgia Has Game Development on Its Mind
http://g4tv.com/thefeed/blog/post/693681/Savannah-Georgia-Has-Game-Development-on-Its-Mind.html
 

Savannah Woos Game Developers with Free Office Space
http://www.gamepolitics.com/2009/03/03/savannah-woos-game-developers-free-office-space
 

Savannah, GA Offers Free Space to Game Developers
http://bbrathwaite.wordpress.com/2009/03/02/savannah-ga-offers-free-space-to-game-developers/
 

Creative Coast Alliance offers free rent for new game studios
http://www.digitalbattle.com/2009/03/02/creative-coast-alliance-offers-free-rent-for-new-game-studios/
 

Savannah, Georgia offers free office space to developers
http://www.vg247.com/2009/03/04/savannah-georgia-offers-free-office-space-to-developers/
 

Georgia Asks Game Devs - How’s 20%+ off Taxes and Free Rent Sound?
http://www.stageselect.com/News/NewsViewer.aspx?NewsID=3605
 

Savannah, Georgia Offers Free Office Space To Developers
http://g-frag.com/2009/03/savannah-georgia-offers-free-office-space-to-developers/
 

Free Rent Offered in Georgia Game Development Center
http://georgiagamerz.com/blog1/2009/03/04/free-rent-offered-in-georgia-game-development-center/
 

Free Rent Offered in Georgia Game Development Center
http://www.gamers.com/news/view_4612.html
 

Savannah Offers Free Space to Games Developers
http://www.incgamers.com/News/15341/Savannah-Offers-Free-Space-to-Games-Developers?gr_i_ni
 

Savannah Announces Free Space for Game Development Companies
http://games.ign.com/articles/958/958761p1.html
 

Oficinas gratis para desarrolladores por un año en Georgia
http://www.meristation.com/v3/des_noticia.php?id=cw49ae62d601479&pic=GEN

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