[LINK] "Small gaming firm makes play for big success"

[rfmcdonald]

This Oliver Moore article in The Globe and Mail caught my attention.

With a hugely popular game for Apple Inc.'s iPhone under its belt, a small video-game studio in Prince Edward Island has now come up with its first original offering.

Other Ocean Interactive has done earlier work on console games including Ultimate Mortal Kombat for Nintendo DS and the Wii game Ten Pin Alley 2. But this new game remains its intellectual property and the company will reap the benefits if it takes off.

"Creating your own [intellectual property] and making it successful, that's the holy grail of the game," said Newfoundlander Andrew Ayre, owner of the company. "That's the home run. That's the grand slam."

The company's strong ties to the region are evident in the new DS game, an educational offering for children that has about 10 hours of play. Puffins: Island Adventures has original music by Alan Doyle of the Newfoundland folk band Great Big Sea and artwork based on the Witless Bay Ecological Reserve in Newfoundland.

The new game, expected out next month, is the latest sign of strength from the small but flourishing cluster of companies lured to PEI by a province eager to create its own video-game industry.

Mr. Ayre's previous company established a presence to PEI in 2006 and Other Ocean was spun off the next year. It recently opened a studio in St. John's and has also started Sculpin, a games-testing company, in Charlottetown.

"We were really recruited by the provincial government," Mr. Ayre said. "They put together kind of a customized incentive program to help us recruit people and help us get started."