The region, encompassing Las Cruces, New Mexico; El Paso, Texas; and the bi-national city of Juarez, Mexico, is collectively known as “The Borderplex.” This term promotes the region and attracts a more extensive and dynamic workforce, according to Carlos Parra, Director of Marketing for the Mesilla Valley Economic Development Alliance, based in Las Cruces.
One of The Borderplex’s key offerings is a film credit program with significant advantages, especially in the realm of digital media, particularly content emerging from the video game industry.
“On the Las Cruces, New Mexico side, we have aggressive film credits that provide a 30 percent tax incentive for the entire film production within the digital media and video game sector,” explained Parra. “While traditional film productions can contribute to an area’s economy for about a year, attracting video game producers presents an entirely different opportunity.”
The reason for this distinction is straightforward: the production cycle of a single video game can span from four to ten years. Parra highlighted, “We started looking to attract larger companies like Sony and Microsoft, especially with New Mexico State University offering a robust engineering program where students can learn C++, a language widely used in game development.”
For instance, “Fortnite, one of the biggest video games in history, uses the Unreal engine developed by Epic Games. NMSU students are being trained to use this engine because of its popularity, creating more significant opportunities.”
Parra further explained that in the video game industry, when a project concludes, the game’s creators often move on to other studios, including writers, concept artists, and animators. Therefore, “Our goal is to attract independent game developers and build a community. We want our workforce to have options when one project ends, ensuring they have a place to transition.”
In addition, there’s a strategic approach to nurturing the community’s component consisting of students, young creatives, freelancers, and talented individuals in career transitions.
“Ultimately, these contractors and emerging companies may evolve into major players, like Bungie, which began with a small staff working on games for Macs,” Parra noted. “Over 20 years, it grew from 50 employees into an international company with 3,000 employees. It takes time to cultivate studios and we understand how incentives can help with the growth of these game studios.”
Therefore, if Parra and his team can cultivate and support these smaller teams through the Borderplex incentives, they could very well be on a path to significant success. “With the tax incentives offered in Las Cruces, it gives the studio longer development times, opportunities to hire more talent, and the freedom to build a game that will succeed and resonate with players.
The most recent development is the groundbreaking of the Creative Campus at NMSU’s Arrowhead Center, which will house the Las Cruces satellite campus of the New Mexico Media Academy. It will also include new film and media education facilities, such as classrooms tailored for graphic and web design, game design, virtual reality, animation, cinematography, and more, serving both NMSU and Doña Ana Community College.
For more information on game development in Las Cruces click here > Gaming | NMBorderplex
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Expansion Solutions Magazine
