Best Game Development City! Thread

Hey everyone!

I've been curious to hear from you guys/gals which cities would you say are the best for game development around the world! They could be ranked by density of studios, friendliness of the community, or whatever else you might come up with.. trying to keep this open for discussion and opinion. How would you rank the city you live in now?

I'll start:
Though I haven't personally lived in either of these cities, I've read that the top 3 places for game development are Seattle, San Francisco, and Los Angeles. I would expand on that, but I'm far more interested in hearing your thoughts on the matter. Let's discuss!

What's the point? Can we really compare cities of different countries and continents? Nobody has an overview of even the best of the best cities because you'd have to live there and be a meaningful part of the community.

In my city that is not in the US I think the situation is very good even though I haven't interacted with the community that much yet. They have their own bi-monthly(ish) game jams and good attendance in global game jams. Plus there are monthly "meetings" or social events that bring together game dev hobbyists, professionals, clubs and companies. This is all very remarkable considering the size of the city which doesn't compare to examples you've mentioned. Having looked into it I was actually very surprised to find such prolific community in such a small city.

Edited by: shadowflar3

The point is to satiate curiosity and perhaps learn about other places/cultures! I would assume that there are also many people here who are studying game development, or considering doing so, that can benefit from broadening their knowledge of video game communities. Looking back now, I regret calling this thread, "Best Game Development City!" as it implies some sort of competition... sorry! I'm really just interested hearing from everyone.

To prove my point, I think that's fascinating! I hope you don't mind me asking what city you live in? Perhaps that's the benefit of living in a smaller city. It must be easier to get in touch with and socialize among the community. I never heard of such meet-ups while living in New York (maybe I didn't look hard enough). Very cool!

I'm living in Hamburg, Germany. It's supposed to be great, since we have companies like Goodgame and Bigpoint, etc. here. However, it is impossible to get funding for a startup and the scene is pretty much closed. You can go to their get togethers, but they are terrible. The organisators of the "Gamecity" are interested in business and not so much in helping young developers. Overall I can only say: terrible games are developed by terrible people here.

I am currently looking to make my exit from this disappointing town for games. There are regions that don't are that overdeveloped, where chances of making something of my own/creating a studio, are much better. I pretty much loved Hamburg when I came here, now I loathe it, because it is so mediocre when it comes to game development, and doesn't know.

Edited by: SinKing

Germany is on the whole quite poor for game development, as are a lot of European countries. France has a fair few decent studios, and there are a couple dotted around in Scandinavia. The UK has a wealth of developers, and the area localised around London and Brighton is heavily populated.

Been wondering this myself which is how I googled up this thread lol. I'll add my own experiences. I'm Australian but left a long time ago for North America so my experience in Sydney is no longer relevant. I'm soon to be heading out to LA which I think is finally where we need to be. The game industry needs to recognize that they are in the entertainment biz first and tech second.

Vancouver - has a game industry, but the culture fit isn't right. The city is more about organic living, yoga and green culture. There is a clash and lack of respect for game developers and anyone else who's a digital creative since it's an "unhealthy" lifestyle with all those hours in front of the computer, and not "outdoors and active". In the early 2000's Vancouver was and wanted to be a "Digital creative" city, movies, games, special fx but the sustainability nazis won out. There are also seriously dysfunctional dating issues in the city if you're a young guy which has caused many to leave on that alone. The film industry has recently imploded when the tax breaks vanished an most of the work is moving to Ontario/Toronto and Eastern Canada in general. This city has well past peaked and is now on its downward slide.

Seattle - Rainy, kinda depressing (not unlike Vancouver) but has Microsoft-land and a lot of old school PC gaming type companies. Game development is more of a software development industry in Seattle vs one that is entertainment. Good amount of jobs and slightly cheaper than California with a long heritage. Not blowing up or going down, just going stead.

Montreal - Awesome vibe, not too expensive and a massive cluster of companies kicking ass. They've seen enough success where even game development support faciltiies like specialized testing labs are around. I would put them in the top 3 these days. The drawbacks is the language barrier, you'll need to speak French (locals may speak English but prefer to use French) and really awful winters. Broadband options can be a bit iffy.

Austin - There are game companies but it's one of those cities where if you make it into the industry you hope to cling to the job/studio as long as you can doing whatever it takes. Origin basically gave birth to the industry here but unfortunately nearly everone is trapped in those Origin/Looking Glass glory days. When I was there everyone was complaining and wondering why Boston was kicking their ass out of nowhere starting with BIoshock but at the same time people kept failing and getting rehired into other companies since the old boy network > competence. I also had to get on a website, The Game Illuminati just to get a job at the time. Seriously One cool aspect is that they have a game history museum and game industry successes can be found on display in airports etc.

Toronto - Ground zero to build from. Only one major company, Ubisoft Toronto if you're looking for a job. Fantastic indie scene, one of the best if not the best in North America and a huge grassroots love of gaming and nerd culture. The tax breaks are new and basically it's better to be building a new studio in Toronto than looking for a job. That being said, the broadband infrastructure is the worst in Canada and if you are going indie it is VERY hard to rent in Toronto in general. Shitty housing stock, unenforced laws of all kinds (not just rental) and landlords deeply distrustful of startups and anyone who works from home. Most of Toronto's winners have been govt funded indies and there's an expectation that if you are starting something, first you need to get govt funding.

NYC - Skip completely. Not much going on here to justify the cost of living. Most of the studios here have packed up for Montreal or are on their way there. NYC has a strong startup scene but this doesn't translate to equal support or success with the game industry.

LA - Have visited but haven't lived or moved there yet, but I see a lot of game companies all clustered around the Irvine/OC area. It does seem expensive to start here but I hope the favourable weather/living and proximity to the entertainment industry and also up-and-coming startup hub status with accompanying capital balance it out. Lots of major leaguers like Sony Santa Monica, Blizzard, Riot, Gaikai and others in town and a bajillion local gaming meetup groups along with E3 etc. I hoep it works out

Raleigh - Haven't lived or worked here but CliffyB recommends it and I think Epic are staying there because living costs and housing prices are quite low. Seems like a good place to be an indie and it's a hard choice between here and LA, I may "Fail into" Raleigh if LA doesn't work out. Epic and Red Storm are in Raleigh but its' far away from the action and even for those guys they are feeling the sucking sound of Montreal and LA. If you don't need to be around lots of other companies for the sake of finding another job when you get shitcanned or your title gets cancelled, Raleigh seems like a good place to do your own thing.

SF Bay Area - Doesn't really need introductions. The startup and VC capital of the US. Lots of game companies but that seems to be a result of legacy rather than inherent advantages. REALLY expensive. I can't see how anyone could go indie here. Place is overly hipster and my own opinion is that culture fit is better in LA and SoCal in general vs NorCal.

Edited by: munly

Northern Utah - From Logan, UT to Salt Lake City to Provo - The Salt Lake Valley and surrounding areas is quickly becoming a hub for software development. There are a few game devs here, but cost of living is crazy cheap, and Provo is very close to getting Google Fiber. Perfect summers, cold winters, but overall a beautiful place.

I cannot make a comparison as I haven't been in a community that isn't from my place. I currently live in Malmö (Malmoe), Sweden and from my opinion things are great here. From time to time some company hires a bar for the evening and invites fellow developers both from Malmö but also Copenhagen (Denmark) to join up for a drink or two, the danish devs does the same with something called "Spillbar" (Game bar). The amount of companies in the vicinity are increasing each year and I have a feel that this part of Scandinavia has a bright future for game developers. Mentionable is that we also have Nordic Game Conferance and last year UNITE was here too.

I can't say if this place is suitable for indies (economy-wise) or not but I work at an indie studio and I some other indie devs here, so it seems like it's possible at least!

Overall every developer I've met here (with a few exceptions) have been really nice without any notion of rivalry.

Sjonsson wrote: From time to time some company hires a bar for the evening and invites fellow developers.

This happens in just about every game development city