The game industry continues to mature in Georgia, and our Association pretends to mature along with it. 

Tax Incentive Evaluation: Interactive Entertainment Tax Credit

We started the year with a glowing audit by the state of the video game development tax credit program. The Georgia Department of Audits and Accounts praised the program not only for its economic impact - almost $400 million of economic output in the audited period - but also for “contributing to the development of new forms of entertainment, strengthening the development of the entertainment production industry, and strengthening the human capital needed for the software development industry.” You can see the audit report HERE.

Website Upgrade: www.GGDA.org

We feature the audit on our new website, which has an entire section devoted to the game industry in Georgia. Thanks to everyone for your kind words about the revamped website, as well as your suggestions for continued improvements. We are happy that you have found it easier for starting and renewing your memberships, as well as finding info on news and events. In 2024 we intend to add a members-only section with videos to help improve your game dev journey. Remember that we also have more than 600 Let us know what else you would like to see.

Best in Georgia 2023

Speaking of your game dev journey, we look forward to you building new games at the Global Game Jam in January. The best from each site gets entered in our annual Best in Georgia contest. Professional game developers mentor the teams to help them continue developing their games. At the end, the single Best in Georgia winner wins thousands of dollars worth of professional services to help it get its game to market. This year’s winner, Chew Crew, is well on its way to launch, and previous winner Lightbreak is already racking up game industry awards. 

CIMFest

Like the Best in Georgia award, our Columbus Interactive Media Festival is another opportunity for game devs from around the state. This year we featured game devs, influencers and great games. CIMFest 2024 is March 9 in Columbus, and we will be opening game and speaker applications soon.

Other Conventions

GGDA members supported a number of other Georgia conventions, sharing their games and expertise at Momocon, Southern Fried Gaming Expo, and Dragoncon, among others. These are great opportunities to get new eyes on what you are creating, so feel free to reach out if you want to be part of these or other conventions in 2024. ConPossible Feb. 16-18 in Norcross is the first one we are supporting this year.

Chapter Meetings

This year we had GGDA chapter meetings in Athens, Atlanta and Columbus, with members attending at least one meeting every month. Topics included game art, AI, VR, international sales, playtesting and more. Let us know what topics you would like us to cover in 2024, or if you would like to host a meeting.

SIEGE

SIEGE reached all new heights this year, combining to provide game dev opportunities to our members and the 40,000 attendees of DreamHack Atlanta. GGDA friend Warren Spector returned as a SIEGE keynote speaker and received the Legacy award on his first night in town. In addition to his keynote, he joined panels on breaking into the game industry, game law and more. We are especially thankful that he was willing to play almost all 40 entrants in our annual Silver Excellence in Indie Game Development (Silv-E) awards.

This was our largest field of entrants for both the Silv-Es and our SIEGE Indie Playground. Congratulations to From Nava, which won our Best Game award. Check out all the winners HERE. Congratulations also to RevereXR, which won Best Pitch at our annual SIEGE Investment Conference. Thanks to all the GGDA members who attended SIEGE@DreamHack, and special thanks to our almost 100 SIEGE volunteers who made it the success it was. DreamHack Atlanta 2024 is scheduled for Oct. 4-6.

Economic Contribution Report

We ended the year with our annual Economic Contribution Report, again demonstrating the value of our industry for Georgia. Our first report since the pandemic showed that video game and simulation development generated $1.043 billion in economic activity in Georgia in 2021. We employ more than 5,000 people in 189 studios around the state. If your studio is not on our FULL LIST, please let us know.

2024 Planning

Expect an even bigger and better 2024. The SIEGE Indie Playground showed just how vibrant the Georgia game development scene has become, and we are planning even more game testing and game review events to support everyone’s efforts. The Athens and Columbus chapters are growing, so if you are near those, let us know. Join us at these and, if you are a GGDA member, make sure to introduce yourself in our Discord channel. That is also where we first announce any game development job openings.

• Andrew Greenberg, Executive Director

P.S. You can follow us all year via www.ggda.org, our Patreon, on LinkedIn, our YouTube channel and in the Georgia Game Developers Association group on Facebook.