So I live in Seattle now, and although it may have a smaller population of developers than Los Angeles, it's still gotta be in at least the top 3 game developer cities in the States, and it's definitely a gamer's town, no doubt due to the influence of Wizards of the Coast. I haven't seen CCG's in LA in ages, but here they've got CCG's in Target and I spotted a couple of guys playing Magic in a Starbucks the other day. And the Starbucks turns out to be down the street from a Games Workshop retail outlet.
I also wonder if LA or Seattle has a higher number of world-class developers. LA has Naughty Dog, Insomniac, Infinity Ward...Seattle has Valve, Bungie, Sucker Punch...
So there's been much more activity on my auxiliary blog since I've been talking about the move and stuff.
Welcome to the neighborhood. =]
Posted by: Spec | May 08, 2006 at 12:33 PM
Welcome to Seattle! I moved away about a year ago and miss it quite a lot. It really is a fabulous city.
According to gamedevmaps.com, there are 51 game related entries in Seattle, and 84 in Los Angeles. If you expand to include nearby cities (Portland, Vancouver; San Diego), the score gets to 84 - 96 respecitively. :)
Not sure if you ever got into miniatures or Heroclix or whatever, but WizKids is also based around Seattle.
Posted by: Nabil | May 08, 2006 at 08:03 PM
Hey! You forgot to mention Treyarch in your list of LA world class developers. ;o) I'm in Orlando. Although I do work for a world class developer, it's pretty isolated here when it comes to game making. Not a lot of "gamers" per se, but there is a LOT of football.
Happy to hear you're all settled in. Seattle must be beautiful this time of year.
Posted by: Obi Busta Nobi | May 09, 2006 at 07:29 AM
Jamie, you can use gamedevmap.com to check for other Seattle developers.
http://gamedevmap.com/index.php?tool=location&query=Seattle
Posted by: Dimiter "malkia" Stanev | May 09, 2006 at 07:49 AM
Welcome to Seattle! I moved out here a little over a year ago and I wouldnt want to live anywhere else. Once the rain stops, it really is one of the best places to live.
Posted by: Despayre | May 10, 2006 at 12:05 AM
Welcome to the neighborhood. I've been here for 3 years now. There are several high quality developers here. I work for one, and though I consider them top tier, there are some who might not. :)
My only gripe is the cost of housing, which was much higher than where I came from. Still, compared to LA, this is probably cheap.
If I had to recommend one thing, it would be to move north of Seattle rather than south. Traffic coming north from the south is horrible compared to going south from the north. This goes for commuting to the east side as well. The S curves are almost always crowded.
Posted by: Jay Kint | May 10, 2006 at 09:05 AM
This is unexpected good news! I've been hoping to run into you some day and chat...and now you're a neighbor!? I'm at Sandlot Games now, but would you consider one of my alma maters--Monolith--to be a top ranking studio?
Posted by: Andy | May 11, 2006 at 09:06 PM