Top North American Cities for Game Development – Part 2

Paul Teall — Sat, 18 Apr 2009 18:59:17 +0000

A while back, I did a post that attempted to paint a rough picture of which cities had the most game development going on. The idea behind the list was that knowing where the studios are at = knowing where the jobs are at. It’s been several months since I put that together, so I figured I’d do a follow-up post to see how much (if at all) things had changed. Studios open and close (and occasionally relocate) all the time, so I think it’s worth examining again.

As a reminder, this isn’t a scientific research project meant to stand up to any intense critical analysis – I’m simply checking out the number of companies in each city on www.gamedevmap.com. Last time, I just clicked on each city and looked at the total number of entries. Each city seems to have several dead links or are missing a studio, so I’m doing a little internet digging of my own to figure out the city company count. It’s tough to be totally accurate, but I’m trying to get a little closer. Remember – each city includes surrounding suburbs. I’ve also decided to do the top 22 cities (thanks to a tie for 20th) this time, just because I feel like it.

Here’s the list:

20. Pittsburgh – 6
20. Orlando – 6
20. Eugene – 6
19. Phoenix – 7
18. Denver – 8
17. Minneapolis – 9
16. Salt Lake City – 11
15. Raleigh – 12
14. Atlanta – 14
11. Dallas – 17
11. Washington DC – 17
11. Montreal – 17
10. San Diego – 18
9. Toronto – 24
8. Chicago – 25
7. New York City – 30
6. Boston – 37
5. Austin – 40
4. Vancouver 45
3. Seattle – 58
2. San Francisco – 97
1. Los Angeles – 99

Upcoming Video Game Conferences

Paul Teall — Fri, 10 Apr 2009 13:32:27 +0000

As I’ve mentioned before, video game conferences are fantastic places to try and land a new job in the game industry. Some conferences make a career pavilion a showcase element of the show – GDC is the obvious one. Even if there’s not a dedicated career pavilion, conferences offer you an incredible chance to network with a high concentration of game company employees. These are inherently social events, booze is usually flowing at evening mixers, and there’s plenty of opportunities to make new contacts.

http://www.scad.edu/events/gdx/2009/ – GDX, Savannah, GA, April 16-17. “Sponsored by the Savannah College of Art and Design and now in its fifth year, the Game Developers eXchange brings together game developers, educators and students with game development experts who share their behind-the-scenes knowledge of the game industry.”
http://www.2009.loginconference.com/ – Login, Seattle, May 11-14. From their site: “LOGIN is the conference for leaders and innovators of the online game industry. This annual conference hosted in Seattle each May brings together industry leaders to discuss, collaborate, and share advancements about technology, design, business, community and legal areas of online game development.” Login is on Twitter!
http://www.gdc-canada.com/ – GDC Canada, Vancouver, May 12-13. “The Game Developers Conference® Canada covers industry-leading methodologies in game design, production, programming, visual arts and writing for big-budget multiplatform games.”
http://www.e3expo.com/ – E3, LA, June 2-4
http://seattle.casualconnect.org/index.html – Casual Connect, Seattle, July 21-23
http://www.pennyarcadeexpo.com/ – PAX, Seattle, September 4-6. PAX has become one of the biggest fan-focused conferences in the industry. “PAX is a three-day game festival for tabletop, videogame, and PC gamers.”
http://www.gdcaustin.com/ – GDC Austin, September 15-18

I’m sure I’m leaving out a few – I’ll post as I think/hear about more.

The GameJobHunter Blog - Video Game Jobs » Seattle

Top North American Cities for Game Development – Part 2

Upcoming Video Game Conferences