Upping the Game Multivarious wants to make Columbus a video game city BY L I N DA L E E B A I R D I M AG E S P R OV I D E D BY M U LT I VA R I O U S
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he 2018 movie “Ready Player One”—and the book it was based on—imagined Columbus as a city in 2045 transformed into a wasteland. Residents found an escape from the dystopian landscape of their lives by playing video games. Chris Volpe, CEO and President of Multivarious—a local company focused on developing video games and creative technologies—has a more appealing vision for how gaming can become part of the city’s future. What if we make video games a signature industry here? What if we think of them not as an escape, but instead as a draw to attract top design talent, innovative thinkers, and world-class competitors? What would that future look like? If Volpe’s efforts are successful, we may soon find out. “There’s no city right now in the Midwest—and in most of the country, to be honest—that has a claim on this industry, outside of like New York and California,” Volpe says. “For seven years I’ve been beating this drum that this can be the place for it.” “Beating the drum” means more than just talking to the right people; it means building coalitions. Multivarious has given Volpe the platform to do both. Founded in 2011, the company has been a leader in the gaming space ever since. It has developed its own games, (including the dinosaurs-meetrobots puzzle game Hatch-It, and the forthcoming Kickstarter-funded No Mercy,) and introduced relevant technologies to partners in the education and healthcare fields. Additionally, in 2013, Volpe founded GDEX, an annual gaming convention that unites players, developers, and enthusiasts from across the country every fall. He credits the Central Ohio Gamedev Group— known as COGG—for inspiring and supporting these projects. 52
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