EDIT: I do want to thank everyone for their advice of course! I'm obviously leaning hard on the bay for reasons beyond just game dev, but am always considering my plan B or C. My "worst" case scenario is I end up in someplace like Austin, which wouldn't be so bad I have enough money saved up to account for a fallback move.
In my recent experience of looking for my next job in the AAA industry I've found that:
- the majority of game jobs in the USA seem to be in the Bay Area
- the Bay area is super crazy expensive, indeed. I looked into apartment rents when I went out there for an interview, and it was as expected.
- I get the impression that few, if any, studios actually are interested and willing to pay people a relatively higher salary that would match the amazingly high cost of living compared to, for example, Texas. I have a lot of experience in the industry, and I've had a number of interviews, and they all seem to start going bad once salary starts being discussed.
Everyone has their own situation to deal with, but I think for many people the Bay Area is not affordable. People with a family to support, a retirement to save for, or a standard of living they are trying to maintain are likely to never find a job that works for them financially in the area. However, being a young person with few responsibilities and the ability to live cheap with multiple roommates means that the area 'might' be affordable, relative to your needs.
Personally, I'm pretty disappointed that their aren't more studios thriving in areas outside of the Bay area in the U.S. A LOT of jobs have gone up to Canada, and a lot of studios in other places in the U.S. are just are not expanding like studios in the Bay area are.
From my observations, the Bay Area feels almost in decline. Yes there is some growth, but many companies are opening offices elsewhere and either shutting down or reducing their bay area offices. There is quite a lot of concentrated talent in the area, but salaries must be very high, sometimes 1.5x to 2x what can be paid in other cities.
There are many other hubs out there. Austin Texas area, Seattle Washington area, Boston Massachusetts area, Orlando Florida area, and many others have game development hubs.
And as mentioned, quite a few jobs have gone to Canada. Vancouver area in particular is popular. With one office in Seattle or Everett on the US side, and another in Vancouver or Burnaby on the Canada side, studios can access an enormous number of skilled developers from both nations that are close enough to get together for face-to-face meetings with a fairly short drive. While offices in the city centers are expensive the outskirts and suburbs are inexpensive and growing strong.
Unfortunately many of the hub cities are highly educated with a bunch of tech businesses where prices are also skyrocketing. The mix of good education, career opportunities, and low costs is a popular mix, almost immediately the 'low cost' feature becomes 'high cost' due to popularity and demand.
I looked into vancouver, isn't it the highest cost of living city in the world?
Sadly the trend I was seeing is that if you want to get your foot in the door with games (at a place that will actually pay you a salary and isn't just a "startup") you need to live in the most expensive places to live. Austin, TX was one of the cheapest hubs I could find, which is why it seems like things are booming there. I just don't have many connections to that area and I'm really not a fan of texas heat.
Once you have experience it looked like the options open up a lot more. There's a lot of smaller studios or more specialized places not only located in expensive game dev hubs but almost all require industry experience or are the only guys in town (so you better be getting flown in for an interview).
I looked into vancouver, isn't it the highest cost of living city in the world?
No. Vancouver (downtown) is one of the more expensive cities in Canada, but it is still cheaper than London, NYC, LA, and some of the other big ones. Also, Vancouver is small enough that you can live in the cheaper outskirts and get along with a reasonable commute ... but like all major cities, it is constantly growing and the cost is always rising.
Austin, TX was one of the cheapest hubs I could find, which is why it seems like things are booming there.
Yup. As wrote above, people look for three main factors of an education population, career opportunities, and low cost.
First the education starts to grow; costs are still cheap but there are few career opportunities. Then career opportunities start to appear, and suddenly the area gets extremely popular. Then people flock to the career opportunities of a smart city, and suddenly costs skyrocket. Once costs rise it becomes less attractive, and another city that is smart but has somewhat limited career opportunities becomes the next target.
There are quite a few cities that are smaller game hubs but growing quickly. Some of the game industry map sites can help you find them. I'll leave it as an exercise to the reader to match up the cities with their education levels. :-)
