Expect more video game ideas, creation and business to come out of Edmonton for the next few years.
On Wednesday, U.K. games tech startup Improbable announced Aaryn Flynn as its general manager of games business in North America.
LISTEN BELOW: Aaryn Flynn speaks with 630 CHED’s Ryan Jespersen
Flynn is a former GM of BioWare and a key mind behind the development of the Dragon Age and Mass Effect game franchises.
He will be based in Edmonton, Alta. and a new Improbable office is being built in the downtown core, the company said.
“To make games you need tools: the developer with the best tools will always have an advantage because they will be able to get closer to their vision quicker and iterate more quickly to turn that vision into a successful game,” Flynn said.
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“I believe that SpatialOS is going to transform how people make and play games, and with this new office, we want to help that to happen.
“We’ve chosen Edmonton because of Alberta’s experienced development talent, and the new developers produced by several excellent schools in the province.
“We have some plans for our next steps, and we’re looking forward to talking more about them as we grow,” Flynn added.
The team at the Edmonton office will focus on SpatialOS — Improbable’s platform for game development.
“It allows a swarm of hundreds of game engines, running in the cloud, to cooperate together to simulate a world much larger, richer and with more players than any single engine or server could,” the company said in a news release.
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In an interview with Global News on Wednesday at noon, Edmonton Mayor Don Iveson said the tech firm’s decision to make Edmonton its new home will bring dozens of new jobs.
“I was talking to Aaron Flynn, who’s one of the principals behind it, this morning about why they chose downtown Edmonton.
“We’re building the kind of city that can attract and retain the kind of talent that global investment in those kinds of industries is looking for.”
Edmonton’s reputation in the tech world has been on the rise of late. Last year, the artificial intelligence (AI) firm DeepMind — acquired by Google in 2014 and now part of the Alphabet group — announced it was opening a research office in Alberta’s capital.
READ MORE: Prominent artificial intelligence firm to open 1st lab outside UK in Edmonton
In June, TEC Edmonton and TusStar announced a new six-month program, with residency in both countries, that will provide training and support in areas including language, intellectual property policy, regulatory issues and business etiquette for Edmonton-area firms looking to access the Chinese market and for Chinese firms looking to expand in Alberta.
READ MORE: Edmonton partners with Chinese tech incubator on program to expand business opportunities
“Our digital media talent is making Alberta proud — attracting international attention and investment. That’s why we are helping this sector grow, with thousands of new tech spaces at our colleges and universities, and with a new tax credit,” Alberta’s minister of Economic Development, Deron Bilous, said.
“Improbable is changing the way the world develops interactive digital media and as they open their first Canadian office in Edmonton, they’re proving that Alberta is the best place to do business.”
“Aaryn Flynn has an incredible pedigree in game development, and Edmonton is a great place to establish this new North American office,” Herman Narula, CEO of Improbable, said.
“Making tools and game content is the next logical step for Improbable, as more developers go beyond the limits of dedicated server architecture into a word of unprecedented scale, complexity and persistence in game design.
“This is a new world for game development, and I can’t think of a better guide than Aaryn and his team.”
Also joining the Edmonton office is Neil Thompson, who will serve as senior development lead.
Thompson has worked for Psygnosis, Sony Liverpool, Bizarre Creations and most recently, BioWare.
For more information on the new Edmonton Improbable office and to check out job postings, click here.
Improbable, which described itself as a company dedicated to providing game developers with the technology to design “powerful visual worlds and simulations,” is headquartered in London, England.