Peak 10 Sponsors Game Building EventBy Justin Lee, theWHIR.com
June 26, 2007 — (WEB HOST INDUSTRY REVIEW) — In recent years, computer and video game sales have thrived, racking up $7.1 billion in 2005 in the US alone. The game industry has solidified as an important medium in the entertainment world, and many hosting providers are eager to participate.
As with other industries, third-party organizations have emerged to help regulate the business and impose quality guidelines.
The International Game Developers Association (igda.org) is a worldwide non-profit organization that strives to strengthen and promote the video game industry, often hosting regional events to facilitate these goals.
One such recent event took this month in the Triangle area of Raleigh, North Carolina. Hosted and sponsored by Peak 10 (peak10.com), the first-ever Triangle Game Jam (trianglegamejam.com) brought together nearly 200 senior game developers to the data center operator’s headquarters.
Engineers, designers and artists from such gaming companies as Emergent Game Technologies, 3Dsolve, Red Storm Entertainment, Epic Games and Destineer Studios attended the meeting.
Peak 10 helped support the IGDA’s goals of experimentation and innovation in the game development process by providing a secure environment within its data center, giving the group access to high-speed Internet access, power and other basics. According to Dana Cowley, co-founder and Triangle chapter coordinator at IGDA, the sponsorship was a considerable success.
“It seemed like a natural fit because they were very hospital with our organization and supporting of the game development,” says Cowley. “Peak 10 had also sponsored similar efforts in the past.”
“[We have a] great relationship,” adds Greg Rollet, vice president and general manager of Peak 10 Raleigh. “The gaming industry is a user of the types of services that Peak 10 provides. We will always put forth an effort to host and sponsor organizations that want to move technology forward and move the reputation of the Triangle area forward in the marketplace.”
Taking its cue from similar events in Oakland, California, Boston, Massachusetts, and Toronto, Canada, the game jam was designed to develop as many games as possible under a common theme and technology platform over the course of two days. Games were developed around the theme “Triangle” using Microsoft’s XNA Game Studio Express platform.
During the two-day event, the development team brainstormed 19 game concepts before voting on which would progress to the prototyping stage. The team then wrote the initial programming for the eight selected games, until five games emerged as being playable and complete by the end of two days.
The five resulting games from the Triangle Game Jam were then displayed at last Thursday’s IGDA for the Triangle Chapter meeting in Raleigh, which was sponsored by Altruent Systems and GamePal.com.
The Triangle Game Jam event has further established a strong business relationship between Peak 10 and the IGDA, and is likely to spawn several similar events within the near future, Rollet says.
“The gaming community in Raleigh and the Research Triangle area is really starting to take off,” says Rollet. “We always want to be able to offer our services to those types of organizations that are emerging and establishing a positive reputation, and give them an environment conducive to being creative and collaborative in advancing the industry as a whole.”
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