It’s been a decade since Scott Balaban relocated his Gameblend Studios to Wilmington. It was always hard for his company to find local talent – University of North Carolina Wilmington doesn’t have a game design program, for example – but “there is great quality of life” here, he said. And he’s been able to work with developers nationwide.

Over time he’s seen the Port City’s tech footprint expand considerably.

“It is accelerating,” he said. “I’ve set up space at tekMountain. It’s nice to see that there is a huge growing tech community here.”

And as Wilmington changed over the past decade, so has the gaming industry. Mobile devices and app stores have completely upended traditional game models and customer expectations.

“I miss the fact the people used to actually pay money for a game,” Balaban laments.

More of us play games on our mobile devices than our computer screens or TVs these days. And while we used to plunk down $40 or more for a Tetris cartridge at Best Buy, now we scoff at paying $3.99 for anything on the app store.

And that’s changed the way games work.

It’s a difficult space to find success, but thanks in part to deep roots in the industry that go back to his days at Hasbro, Balaban and Gameblend are still here.

“I’ve seen all the trends cycle through,” he said.

And he’s hopeful recent signs point to more of us again being willing to pay $5 or more for a game up front.

Still, the app store has leveled the playing field in many ways, making it relatively affordable for any young coder with a dream to put out a game for others to sample.

“With mobile you can get a single college student or a guy in his garage come up with a very wacky idea and get it on the store for a very minimal amount of money,” Balaban said.

And hopefully the coolest and most innovative of those games break through.

While Gameblend still creates its own products – it hopes to release some children’s games in early 2017 – it’s spent much of this year consulting on a “big high-profile game” whose name Balaban couldn’t reveal.

The mobile model means successful games must always be adding new levels, worlds and features to keep players from moving on, and that can mean steady work for companies like Gameblend.

Balancing consulting work with in-house innovation is a model that works for him for now. But Balaban, who concedes he may be an “old guy” by industry standards these days, is ready for whatever challenges await.