New Mexico: Las Cruces game development company, Ganymede Games

New Mexico is known for its chile and the film industry, one thing it could be known for is game development. One small gaming development company is setting roots in southern New Mexico drawing inspiration from the Land of Enchantment.Video games have changed in the last 50 years; they don't all look like they did in mall arcades.“There's no book on how to make a great role-playing game in 2021,” said Jerry Prochazka, CEO of Ganymede Games. The video game studio Ganymede Games is closer to releasing its first game. It's called Xenotheria and it's being made in Las Cruces.The head of publishing, Rob Thompson said, “I think New Mexico is a great place for creative inspiration. Our game takes place on a desert planet with a lake in the middle and for one of our biomes we actually use the Chihuahuan Desert as an example.”The majority of Ganymede employees come from big video game companies that are pretty well known.Many of those in big cities, with big competition, that's something the CEO says can take a toll on people.“We want to keep our teams as creative and engaged as possible. And crunch can just literally drain that away from them. And we don't want to start a studio that way,” said Prochazka.One reason to come to New Mexico is the cost of living.“Why did we choose New Mexico? A lot of crunch is driven by deadlines and budget constraints and the way to avoid that is to decrease the cost of development, it's critical. And New Mexico to me might be the very best place in the United States to do that,” Prochazka said.But one of the main reasons is because of the film industry incentives the state offers. Prochazka said, “The big draw to New Mexico overwhelmingly is the digital media incentive inside the overall film credit. It's actually, I think, a little-known gem. When we discovered that, that really put New Mexico in the lead.”Before choosing to settle in Las Cruces, they also considered cities like Santa Fe and Albuquerque. Thompson says the best thing about setting roots in New Mexico is the ability to create a unique game. Thompson said, “The main protagonist is a character named Mr. Squiggles. He's an alien octopus race. His buddy is Lobster Norton who is a lobster race.”There are other gaming studios in New Mexico however, Ganymede hopes to inspire more people to come here.“We're excited to do what we can to spread the word and to bring more game development reputation to New Mexico,” said Thompson. Their first game Xenotheria is expected to be released at the end of 2021 on PC with other gaming consoles to follow. To keep up with Ganymede Games click here.

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