Best state, city for indie game developer? (US)

~Holiday easy question;


Where do you think is best for solo indie game developer?


Considering rent, tax, neighbors, same industry community, etc etc (+ cute guys)


maybe you can add other countries too ;-)

 

Seattle has lots of opportunity/community. San Fransisco/San Jose as well.

WA state has no state income tax.

 

In the US:

Utah (Salt Lake City and Provo). Growing software development hub. Very affordable rent, low cost of living, as well as Google Fiber.

Austin, Texas, too.

Other countries:

Canada: Montreal
UK: Leamington Spa (Silicon Spa), Brighton

 

oh then, maybe Bellevue..? was beatiful and safe area as far as I remember.
Isn't SF rent horrible? and..what do you mean by opportunity? I mean, we can sell game from anywhere.

 

Sounds good, I'll keep in mind. I'm staying in RI but will move to other state after a year..or maybe not..

 

Cost of living is really high in both Seattle and San Fran, but I have heard time and time again that that's where you want to be if you want to get into game design from people who have worked both in indy and AAA.

 

Until you're making a living with those games you probably have to work somewhere to survive....

For those people who want to work as a developer, this is a great place to be because there is a lot of demand for devs with good compensation at numerous companies. There is a large community of developers and pro game artists which is a great place to network with others and leads to more and higher paying employment opportunities.

 

I live around Tacoma which is south of Seattle, Bellevue and Redmond. Those places are really nice. Tacoma, Lakewood, Fife etc are also nice places, but they have their ghetto areas. WA state is pretty much beautiful everywhere. None of these places are usually more than a hour and a half away from each other by car.

Some towns are very expensive to live in, but the jobs there pay much higher wages also. I commute a bit to get high pay and low rent.

 

I lived just north of Seattle for five years working as a game developer. It's a great place to live. Gorgeous scenery, nice people, and a ton of development people to network with. I love it up there.