Monthly Archives: August 2008

Top North American Cities for Video Game Development

Posted on by
7

Update – this page gets a lot of visits, so I wanted to point people towards our more recent lists of game companies by city.  Check out this page – video game cities.

I was looking through the site http://www.gamedevmap.com earlier, and it had me wondering – which North American cities had the largest concentration of companies involved with video game development?I’m sure there’s more accurate information available somewhere online, but I didn’t let that stop me from putting together this highly unscientific list.It would be interesting to track which cities rise and fall on the list over time, so I’ll probably come back to this a few times a year to see how things are shaking out. (*Edit – since writing this post, I’ve started putting together local game industry profiles)

Disclaimer – to put the list together, I simply clicked on the cities that I knew to have a decent grouping of developers, and jotted down the number that Gamedevmap had listed for that city.Each city also includes surrounding suburbs, so Seattle actually includes Redmond, Bellevue, etc. They list companies that fit the following categories – Developer, Publisher, Developer&Publisher, Organization, Mobile/Handheld, Online Developer.I didn’t subtract things like IGDA chapters or check to make sure all of the developers were still in business.Also be aware that Gamedevmap relies on its users to submit entries, so the list is anything but comprehensive.That being said, it’s a nice sampling and is interesting to take a look at.Just take it with a grain of salt.

First, I’ll give you a minute to mentally arrange your top 5 or so.I had the top 5 cities right, but I only had 1 in the right spot.I’ll distract you with this image so you can think without seeing the list:

www.gamedevmap.com

www.gamedevmap.com

Ok, on to the list. I’ve got the top 15, and we’ll count down from 15 to 1. The number on the right is the actual number of companies in that city.

15. Salt Lake City – 14

14. Atlanta – 16

13. Dallas – 17

12. Washington DC – 18

11. San Diego – 20

10. Montreal – 23

09. Chicago – 25

08. Toronto – 28

07. New York City – 40

05 (t). Boston – 41

05 (t). Austin – 41

04. Vancouver – 44

03. Seattle – 70

02. San Francisco – 100

01. Los Angeles – 104

I had LA 3rd on my list, so I was shocked to see it at number 1. What do you think – did I pull a boneheaded move and miss anyone? Any major surprises? Other cities that were close were Raleigh, Denver, Phoenix and Eugene, to name a few.

Welcome to Junction Point and Renegade Kid

Posted on by
Reply

We’ve had a few new companies from Austin recently post their jobs – big welcome to both Junciton Point and Renegade Kid! For those not in the know, Junciton Point is Warren Spector’s new studio, and is part of the Disney Interactive family. They’re working on something top secret, which I’m sure will be very cool. As for Renegade Kid, they’re a relatively new dev house that’s recently released the survivial horror title “Dementium” for the DS. They’re also working on some Wii titles. Check out the available jobs here.

Good news for Baton Rouge

Posted on by
Reply

I’ve got a bit of a double connection to this story, so I was excited when I heard about this yesterday.  I started in the game industry as an EA tester, and my day job now is with one of the companies (TurboSquid) that was integral in bringing the entertainment tax credit to Louisiana.   What could “EA tester” and “Louisiana” have in common, you might ask?  Well, the city of Baton Rouge and EA announced the formation of a QA testing facility set to open in the near future.  This is huge for Baton Rouge/Louisiana, and a smart play for EA.  By partnering with a university like LSU, EA will have access to a steady stream of ideal testers – educated, young, technically savvy, sports-minded students.  Students who get a job at the facility will have an excellent opportunity to see what really goes into making a game, and will be able to evaluate a great potential career path.  QA is a great “foot in the door” job within the industry, and can be a beneficial move for students looking to work in any specific discipline – programming, art, production, etc.

Great news for everyone involved!

Game Industry Layoffs

Posted on by
1

Over the past few weeks, sizable numbers of video game staffers have been laid off.  Cuts have been seen at studios like Midway, NCSoft, High Moon and Radical Entertainment.  This is unfortunately part of doing business in the video game industry, and just about everyone will be impacted at some point in their career either directly or through someone they know.  When news like this breaks, it should serve as a reminder of the things you can be doing now to make things much easier if you ever find yourself suddenly looking for a job:

  • Be an aggressive networker.  If you’re put off by the “have your guy call my guy” image of networking, it’s time to move past that.  Networking doesn’t have to be cheesy or insincere – just stay in touch with people you’ve worked with, keep an eye on where they might end up.  The adoption of tools like Linkedin by large numbers of game industry employees makes it almost inexcusable to not stay current with co-workers past and present.  Knowing which companies might have a friendly face employed can be invaluable when you’re on a job hunt.
  • Be aware of what’s going on throughout the industry.  Attend a local IGDA meeting, keep an eye on new studios that have opened, broaden your idea of what the game industry is, check out sites like www.gamedevmap.com to see what other studios are in your area.  All of these will help you keep your finger on the pulse of how many opportunities there actually are in this industry.  With the rise of casual games, mobile games, virtual worlds, etc., there is a crazy demand for new employees in great companies that are outside of the traditional AAA developer/publisher mold.

If you’re ever in that unfortunate situation of having been laid off, just remember – as an experienced developer, there WILL be LOTS of companies out there wanting to talk with you.  Put yourself in the shoes of a small studio looking to hire – they might have an HR staff of only one person responsible for hiring, insurance, paperwork, etc..  Are you confident they’re going to have the time to find you?  Following some of the previous pointers will have you in a much better position to get your resume to the companies who are looking for you.

Updates

Posted on by
Reply

We’ve had a bit of activity over the past few days.  First off, we want to welcome Collision Studios to the site.  Collision is a relatively new developer in California that shipped the highly successful PSP title 300:  March to Glory. Check out their listings on GJH!

We’ve also had a few new ads posted from both Tiburon and Kaos.  I’ve been told to expect even more postings from these two studios over the next few days, so keep your eyes peeled.

GJH Blog

Posted on by
1

Hey all – first off, thanks to everyone who has been using GameJobHunter so far! We’ve been doing a little to promote the site over the past few months, but we’re looking at updating quite a few things over the next few months. The first thing, obviously, is adding the blog page. We intend to use this space to welcome new companies, post conversations with industry friends about job hunting and comment on any relevant industry news.

We know there’s several nice game job sites out there, but these do NOT provide an accurate snapshot of the current available job listing in the industry. When these postings run anywhere from $250-$500 per ad, you’re going to see companies being selective with when and what they post. By offering FREE basic ads at all times, we hope to attract a much wider range of companies to keep their listings current through our site. With that being said, look for several new companies to be added over the coming weeks!