The Creative Coast Alliance and the Savannah (Ga.) Economic Development Authority are offering qualified video game developers up to a year of free rent in a bid to boost the industry's presence in the historic city.
(Credit: The Creative Coast Alliance)They're calling it "the offer," and if you're part of a video game development team looking for a financial boost, it might indeed be hard to refuse: up to a year's free rent in a riverside building in beautiful Savannah, Ga.
The initiative was the brainchild of Brenda Brathwaite, a longtime developer and a professor of game development and interactive design at the Savannah College of Art and Design (SCAD). She says as the recession kicked in and she saw layoffs affecting everyone, including friends and colleagues, she asked herself what she could do to help and stop feeling powerless in the face of the economic storm.
"I wondered," Brathwaite recalled, "'what if game developers had free office space, so...that worry was taken away. It's not a lack of talent that's causing these layoffs."
Given that Savannah and its surrounding area have a number of colleges and universities, including SCAD and Georgia Tech, Brathwaite said there is a plethora of local video game developers looking to get projects off the ground. And so, she took her idea to the Savannah Economic Development Authority where, rather than being politely ignored, her idea was fully embraced.
"Within 24 hours," Brathwaite said, "they said they're going to do it."
In fact, The Creative Coast Alliance, a nonprofit comprised of the Savannah Economic Development Authority, the city of Savannah and Chatham County, had an office building at the ready for the project. And now, the first floor of that building is known as the Game Development and Digital Media Center.
Brathwaite said that in order to be eligible for the free office space--as well as a 30 percent tax credit on "qualified Georgia expenditures"--applicants must be able to demonstrate real potential for making games. That means, she said, that a company has already secured funding, or that it has previously published games. There's no set rules, though. "It's judged on a case by case basis."
And why would a city like Savannah make such an offer?
"It's an opportunity cost," Brathwaite said. Bringing more successful game developers to Savannah will be good for the city, and that, she explained, is worth the investment.
Here's hoping other cities follow suit.
Savannah, Ga.'s Talmadge Memorial Bridge was finished in 1991. It has a span of 1,100 feet and crosses over the Savannah River.
(Credit: Savannah Area Convention and Visitors Bureau)LOUISVILLE, KY.--Two of my favorite things to do are travel and visit bridges.
If you've followed either of my previous Road Trip projects, you might remember that both times, I featured one great bridge project.
In 2006, it was Santiago Calatrava's Sundial Bridge in Redding, Ca., a true masterpiece that brought world-class architecture to a small town far away from anyplace anyone would expect it.
And last year, I returned home to San Francisco after having visited the construction that's been under way for several years to build a new eastern span of the San Francisco Bay Bridge.
Now I'm on Road Trip 2008, and I'm more than 1,300 miles along on the roads of the South. But I've been in something of a hurry, and haven't had the time to stop yet to see any of the great bridges that I know are down here. I know because I've driven past at least two or three of them and seen them off in the distance, seemingly mocking my inability to take the time to stop and appreciate them.
So here's the challenge: I want to run a gallery of some of the best bridges in the areas I've driven through. And I want your help.
Since I began last Monday in Orlando, Fla., I've visited Titusville, Fla.; Kennedy Space Center; Savannah, Ga.; Birmingham, Ala.; and Huntsville, Ala. I've driven through Nashville, Tenn., and stopped in Bowling Green, Ky. Now I'm here in Louisville.
In the process, I've driven long stretches of I-95, US-1, I-16, I-20, and I-65. Sadly, I've been on such a breakneck pace that I just haven't been able to get onto many of the back roads I really love to drive.
So, if you have good photos of any great bridges near the areas I've been through, I am interested in featuring them in the gallery I want to run.
And if I do, I'll give you a photo credit, and for my favorite two photos, I've got something for you: The best gets the choice of a $25 iTunes gift card or a DVD set of either The Tudors, season one, or Brotherhood, season one. My second favorite gets the second choice of those items.
If you want to submit a photo, I'm only able to accept URLs for Web-based images, and you have to both have the right to grant me permission to use the image, and actually give me that permission. I also need a bit of information about the bridge. Please don't send me image files as attachments. Pretty please.
Send your URLs to daniel (*-dot-*) terdiman (-at-) cnet (-*dot*-) com.
I will take any photo down immediately if the actual rights-holder informs me that the person giving me permission didn't actually have the right do so.
Short of those practicalities, I'd love to see your best bridge photos from the regions I've driven through. And if I like them, I'll really enjoy showing the world your art.
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