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| 07.26.2007Latin American Game Development
I wanted to note, in light of the recent article on moving to and working in Japan, that Latin America has a burgeoning game industry with a lot of potential, and a lower barrier to entry in terms of cost and language. Currently, Argentina is the major game development center, with Buenos Aires in particular being a major hub. Montevideo, Uruguay, is right down the coast from BA, and is host to a variety of companies working in the casual/web sector. Santiago, Chile is home to Wanako Games, a company that is licensed to develop on every major console and was recently aquired by Sierra.
Obviously Asian culture is of interest to a game developer, being the home of manga and certain iconoclastic styles of games, but Latin America's culture is much more familiar in comparison. Furthermore, Spanish is MUCH easier to learn than Japanese, just get those conjugations down and re-learn half your vocabulary, the other half consists of words highly similar to their English counter-parts.
Monetarily, Latin America is a much better choice, since the exchange rates convert favorably. Since there aren't a lot of jobs for foreigners currently, a move to Argentina or Uruguay (Brazil and Chile's currencies are much closer to parity with the dollar) makes a lot of sense for independent developers looking to gain competitive advantage through cost-cutting.
Last of all, you can have just as much fun in Buenos Aires or Montevideo as you can in Austin or Montreal, I encourage developers struck with wanderlust to research these countries and decide for themselves. -Patrick Dugan
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Letters to the Editor
