Best Cities For Video Game Development Jobs

H

HardOCP News

[H] News
Joined
Dec 31, 1969
Messages
0
Where is the best place to live if you are trying to break into the world of game development? This article will help you find the best city, state and country to live in if you want a job in the game industry.
 
With a few exceptions don't work for California gaming companies, if you have a family or a life outside of work. California is the only state that has a law on the books specifically for computer game developers that exempts them from overtime laws. Seattle is a pretty good city (just moved there myself) and it has 40 hour work weeks, which for someone who isn't interested in sleeping under their desk is a great thing.
 
Lump Irvine into Los Angeles since they are part of the same metro and close and LA is the plaxce to be I guess.
 
EchtoGammut said:
With a few exceptions don't work for California gaming companies, if you have a family or a life outside of work. California is the only state that has a law on the books specifically for computer game developers that exempts them from overtime laws. Seattle is a pretty good city (just moved there myself) and it has 40 hour work weeks, which for someone who isn't interested in sleeping under their desk is a great thing.
Click to expand...

yeah thats not just video game companies and not just california. Any exempt employee has the exact same issue
 
40 hours a week is enough as it is!

wont work over 40 hours a week unless (a) the following week id get additional time off, (b) i have some stake in the company, (c) i made a big ol mistake i need to fix, or (d) it was simply my choice.

otherwise, youre just being taken advantage of. the rare "please come in on saturday" is ok if its just that - rare. any overtime request thats even starting to approach somewhat consistent screams mismanagement.

anyhow, irvine? how many game companies are really in irvine? i live right next to it, and theyve got blizzard (ew), and a couple others that product crap games.
 
I have to live in this shit box. Why would anybody move to San Fran Sicko? POS City!
 
Wow, I didn't know Austin is that close to SF as the #1 game developing city. :eek:
 
cinnamonandgravy said:
40 hours a week is enough as it is!

wont work over 40 hours a week unless (a) the following week id get additional time off, (b) i have some stake in the company, (c) i made a big ol mistake i need to fix, or (d) it was simply my choice.

otherwise, youre just being taken advantage of. the rare "please come in on saturday" is ok if its just that - rare. any overtime request thats even starting to approach somewhat consistent screams mismanagement.
Click to expand...

Exactly this. Salary isnt an excuse to hire less employees. If a workload frequently demands an employee to work more than 40 its, it means they need to hire an additional employee.

The sad thing is most people are unwilling to stick up for themselves and they let companies abuse them as a result.
 
I am already a game dev and will be moving to Seattle area for other reasons, its great to know there is so much opportunity there.
 
leeleatherwood said:
Exactly this. Salary isnt an excuse to hire less employees. If a workload frequently demands an employee to work more than 40 its, it means they need to hire an additional employee.

The sad thing is most people are unwilling to stick up for themselves and they let companies abuse them as a result.
Click to expand...

or its the fact that engineers are fairly replaceable, so if you speak up your likely to be let go
 
leeleatherwood said:
Exactly this. Salary isnt an excuse to hire less employees. If a workload frequently demands an employee to work more than 40 its, it means they need to hire an additional employee.

The sad thing is most people are unwilling to stick up for themselves and they let companies abuse them as a result.
Click to expand...

Your ability to stick up for yourself is directly proportional to their need to keep you ... most workers can be replaced very easily, so if you become more trouble than you are worth then it will be "Don't let the door hit you on your way out" ... although some companies can abuse the hours situation, for most it is a reality of a global marketplace ... I have only had four major employers but all have been multinational and my job has required interaction with counterparts in Europe and Asia (generally some overtime is required to accomplish that)
 
VladDracule said:
or its the fact that engineers are fairly replaceable, so if you speak up your likely to be let go
Click to expand...

And then we fall back into the category of the next guy not sticking up for himself.

Until the workforce as a whole demands more from their employers, things wont vastly change.

For me, I am always so good at my job that they just cannot let me go because it would be such a hassle to replace me. I voluntarily left my last job 4 months ago to move to Seattle and they still have no found a replacement with my skill level. I have had verbal and derogatory confrontations with many a boss and have yet to be shitcanned.

When you become irreplaceable yourself it gives you alot more leeway from what you can demand from your employer. Most people dont realize that the employee employer relationsip is a 2-way street.
 
leeleatherwood said:
And then we fall back into the category of the next guy not sticking up for himself.

Until the workforce as a whole demands more from their employers, things wont vastly change.

For me, I am always so good at my job that they just cannot let me go because it would be such a hassle to replace me. I voluntarily left my last job 4 months ago to move to Seattle and they still have no found a replacement with my skill level. I have had verbal and derogatory confrontations with many a boss and have yet to be shitcanned.

When you become irreplaceable yourself it gives you alot more leeway from what you can demand from your employer. Most people dont realize that the employee employer relationsip is a 2-way street.
Click to expand...

In engineering unless your an SME with PhD level knowledge on a key part of the organization, your replaceable
 
VladDracule said:
In engineering unless your an SME with PhD level knowledge on a key part of the organization, your replaceable
Click to expand...

A single engineer may not be irreplaceable, but what about all or most of the team?

If mostly everyone is sick and tired of working 50-60 hour weeks, band together and wait for an important moment (like the company needing to submit something by a deadline or face losing a huge contract) to voice your demands, they will surely get met.

Sure, the employer may get upset but its actually their fault for creating such a hostile working environment that employees are unable demand standard working hours without fear of getting fired.
 
leeleatherwood said:
A single engineer may not be irreplaceable, but what about all or most of the team?

If mostly everyone is sick and tired of working 50-60 hour weeks, band together and wait for an important moment (like the company needing to submit something by a deadline or face losing a huge contract) to voice your demands, they will surely get met.

Sure, the employer may get upset but its actually their fault for creating such a hostile working environment that employees are unable demand standard working hours without fear of getting fired.
Click to expand...

To expand upon this more, I have successfully used this tactic a couple of times.

The most recent time was when the company was expecting the IT department to be on-call 24-7 and respond to any call received within 10 minutes. Seems reasonable right? Well not if the company is not providing cell-phones or pagers and expecting you to use your own personal resources.

They did this to save money, everyone had pagers but some idiot beancounter IT director decided he could save the department money by getting rid of them. That shit isnt going to fly in my world. My coworkers were upset about it but were too insecure to stick up for themselves about it although they did voice their opinions to the manager on multiple occasions over the course of about 6 months. He just didnt give a fuck.

So, I convinced everyone to send an email to the Manager CC'ed to HR and the IT Director that IT would no longer be on-call 24/7 unless company cell phones or a cell phone stipend was provided.

Next month we received our cell-phone stipend.
 
leeleatherwood said:
I am already a game dev and will be moving to Seattle area for other reasons, its great to know there is so much opportunity there.
Click to expand...

These are these small little companies up there. Microsoft, Value... you probably haven't heard about them before as they are no name companies. ;)
 
leeleatherwood said:
A single engineer may not be irreplaceable, but what about all or most of the team?

If mostly everyone is sick and tired of working 50-60 hour weeks, band together and wait for an important moment (like the company needing to submit something by a deadline or face losing a huge contract) to voice your demands, they will surely get met.

Sure, the employer may get upset but its actually their fault for creating such a hostile working environment that employees are unable demand standard working hours without fear of getting fired.
Click to expand...

Sometimes the squeaky wheel gets the oil ... sometimes the squeaky wheel gets replaced ... the success of this tactic would depend on many factors including how it aligns with the company culture and whether it is a tactic that they think would be repeated ... most tech companies are not unionized and have policies designed to detect and prevent a union from forming ... if they thought this might be a prelude to unionization then they might decide to cut bait rather than fish ;)
 
schizrade said:
Lump Irvine into Los Angeles since they are part of the same metro and close and LA is the plaxce to be I guess.
Click to expand...

Santa Monica too. So, it's LA by a mile with 60 shops.
Next is San Francisco with 46
Bellevue is right across Lake Washington from Seattle, so give Seattle 44 shops, tying it with Austin.
After those 4 hubs you might as well say "and the rest"
 
leeleatherwood said:
The sad thing is most people are unwilling to stick up for themselves and they let companies abuse them as a result.
Click to expand...

I think the sadder part is how companies always thinks that if you stick up for yourself, I will simply replace you with someone else who will do what they tell them to do.

And they always will.
 
oh hey they didn't put in Providence, RI on the list --- everybody knows they state will give you 100 million dollars to develop a game and you won't ever have to pay it back!

yeah.

38 studios. never forget
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top