New Columbia group brings video-game players, developers together

Calling all video-game enthusiasts: Whether you need help completing that “Grand Theft Auto V” mission or are a developer with a project to showcase, a new Columbia group may be for you.

While sipping on chilled coffee drinks Sunday in the basement of The Wired Goat in the Vista, gamers got together to play each other, offer strategies and techniques or test new projects. It was all part of the monthly “town hall meetup” of Southern Gaming Expo – or SGX for short, which was created by Columbia resident and indie game developer Michael Poole.

Poole, 42, knows the term “expo” often connotes large gatherings.

“We’re working toward that, but for the time being, we’re starting it small by doing what’s called the town hall,” he said.

Poole founded the company Phyersoft in 2005, and said growing an indie company in South Carolina can be difficult when developers have to travel to other states for conventions and expos.

“Almost everywhere you go, whatever major city or capital city there is, there’s some sort of huge gaming event that goes on,” he said. “We’re taking a lot of this money and business to other places – why not get some of that here in our home state?”

Running on a flatscreen Sunday was Poole’s project “Barricade,” in which a race of self-aware robots battle each other in a sporting event called “The Block-Buster Tournament.”

Anyone with an interest in playing or developing video games is invited to bring their consoles, games or memory cards to the monthly meetups. Poole said gamers come from all ages and walks of life, and all are welcome at the monthly meetups.

Dre Bingley, 22, is a postal worker whose route includes Poole’s neighborhood, which is how he learned of the town hall meetups.

“When you’re inside these games, it’s totally like a new world,” he said. “You’re something that you can’t be. Having these games and having communities like this not (only) builds up everlasting friendships but also helps you as a person.”

This story was originally published July 30, 2017 at 7:02 PM with the headline "New Columbia group brings video-game players, developers together."