BR’s growing video game market

• By MICHAEL FARRAR
• Special to 2theadvocate.com
• Published: Jun 20, 2008 - UPDATED: 4:05 p.m.

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Computer gaming is a global industry that is taking Baton Rouge by storm. It's not just in the hands of the thousands of players or the dozens of local stores that sell games; there are also several local companies in the city that produce games.

Among these companies is Yatec Games, which released "I.Q.: Identity Quest," a game that hit No. 1 in the brain teaser category on Big Fish Games on April 1, 2008 -- less than a week after it's release date.

Meanwhile, Tesseraction Games has "Enigma Rising: Hotel De Volta," which is an add-on to its growing series of alternative history games featuring naval battles. In the original “Enigma: Rising Tide,” players controlled a variety of surface ships and submarines.

So, how does a hit-making gaming companies establish its headquarters in Baton Rouge?

Yatec Games, for example, was created after Hurricane Katrina when a New Orleans software firm decided to start a new computer gaming company to utilize Louisiana talent in the emerging digital arts field.

Heather Rousse was the first designer hired at Yatec after she earned a degree in Visual Arts with a concentration in computer animation from the University of Louisiana in Lafayette. Rousse is still excited that she got the job. The young designer thought she would have to leave the state to work in her high-tech field.

"My biggest fear when I graduated was that I was actually going to have to move out of state to pursue this career,” Rousse said. “But with this opening up and other companies trying to get started here, I think it's great."

Resurgent Entertainment founder Chuck Bush said Louisiana's digital tax incentives have attracted gaming companies to the state and also helped him acquire Tesseraction Games, which he moved to Baton Rouge.

He also feels quite lucky to have secured a company that already had a successful game. “Enigma: Rising Tide” sold 300,000 units, and he intends to build on that product market success.

Baton Rouge video game companies also build business ties to other companies around the world. That includes Oberon Media with offices in New York; Seattle; London; Tel Aviv, Israel; Tokyo; Seoul, South Korea; and Singapore. According to Yatec General Manager Hayden Middlebrook, Oberon Media published Yatec Games' wildly popular "I.Q.: Identity Quest."

Oberon Media (http://corp.orberon-media.com) offers their expertise in game publishing and distributing to game developers like Yatec Games. When Oberon Media began advising Yatec, there were considerable changes for the company’s second game, which was originally called "Brain Drain."

"They took the game, which we felt was complete, [and] they put it through their testing process and gave a lot of feedback, comments and ideas," Middlebrook said. "So, we went back, and in a sense went through a second phase of development and came up with what we now call “I.Q. Identity Quest,” which looks much different than the first game, “Brain Drain.”

While Yatec Games' focus is on computer games, Resurgent Entertainment came into the gaming world through founder Chuck Bush's TV and film experience.