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Will I be able to find a position in Game Designing on the East Coast?

#game-development is the field I want to study but I'm not sure if I want to live on the West Coast where companies like Google, Microsoft, and Apple are located.

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Mark’s Answer

Short answer is: yes, if you have the skills.

There are plenty of studios along the East Coast, including a little shop called Bethesda. :)

While I have never worked back East, I regularly see job openings in studios located in New York, Georgia, and Florida. If you haven't already, sign up for the career newsletter from Gamasutra.com.

All this said, the West Coast still has a higher concentration of studios than anywhere else in the US. If you are willing to relocate, even temporarily, you will have a much better chance of breaking into the industry. Once you have a few years' experience, you will find it much easier to move to a state in which you want to settle down -- assuming it has any video gaming industry to speak of.

Good luck!
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Jasen’s Answer

For context, I went to college to focus on Game Development as a major and got a Software Engineering degree. Graduated in 2008 but I'm now working on mobile apps.

To answer your question, it's very possible to work on the East Coast if you're looking for work in game development. One tool I used a lot when looking for companies when I got out of college was https://www.gamedevmap.com/. That was ~12 years ago so I'm happy to see it's still up and running :).

In my experience, It was a combination of location and what types of games I wanted to work on. I started the search in California and Arizona (I grew up in that area) and then focused on companies that worked on console or PC games.

Hope that helps!
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Walt’s Answer

These days many if not most software engineers are working remotely from their homes. So it doesn't matter so much where the offices of the game company are. You will see many job postings that say things like "100% remote" which means you will not need to go to the office at all. Other jobs are "Mostly remote" which means you might need to fly or drive to the office a couple of times a year. I would say don't worry so much about where the company is when looking for a job, just be ready to ask about remote working flexibility when you are interviewing, then decide if you want to work for that company.

By the way, I have seen recently game development companies popping up in really small towns like Charlottesville, Virginia. These companies use many remote workers, so their offices don't need to be in a big city. You should have a lot of choices in where to work, with more opening up every day.

Cheers!
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