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With a high profile indie title, Retro City Rampage, almost out, Vancouver's Brian Provinciano has founded his own company, VBlank Entertainment. After finally gathering the courage to strike out on his own, he says he loves the city and there's nowhere he'd rather be.
"It's a gorgeous city, surrounded by mountains, water and trees," he enthuses. "Everything within the downtown core is walking distance. I've had times where I would work all morning, then go for a run or skate down the seawall, a trail that wraps around the city with the freshest air and nicest view, then return to the office for a second shift. It's a great way to get fresh air while giving your eyes a rest from the screen for a bit to enable working longer days."
He also says that despite heavy losses to Vancouver's industry, he hasn't lost his indie family. One of his fears in going indie was that he'd lose his support network of friends and colleagues, but not only has that not happened, but his network has increased as locals have rallied around an event called the Full Indie Meetup.
The Full Indie Meetup started with two developers, Grey Alien Games' Jake Birkett and Rocket Bear Games' Alex Vostrov, kicking around the idea of a Vancouver indie gathering on Twitter. So many responses came pouring in that the event quickly outgrew its coffee shop venue. 100 indies now meet every month with 50 waitlisted, and Provinciano says the mailing list has about 1000 members in total.
This tight-knit community means layoffs and relocations hit people especially hard, Provinciano says. He believes that these experiences have deepened the community's resolve and given some of his friends that last push of inspiration that's so oftne needed to try to make it on one's own. For his part, he's enthusiastic about what so much talent forged at triple-A studios can contribute to increasing the quality bar for Vancouver's indie games.
However, Provinciano also says he's a firm believer that large studios remaining open is key to keeping Vancouver's indie community healthy, as he himself learned essential core skills through his time at traditional dev jobs, and feels that experience forms an important foundation.
New graduates may not be able to find the triple-A jobs they hoped for, though. Those devs might end up shifting their attention to attainable mobile gaming goals, though, thereby supporting the city's necessary transition to a base in that arena.
 There'll be jobs in emerging markets, though: Amid all the closures, the fact that Japanese mobile giant Gree has just opened a new free-to-play studio in Vancouver is a bit of bright news. OpenFeint and Google veteran Steve Lin has been tapped to head the new Gree facility, and says the base of talent available in Vancouver is part of why the company chose it.
"When we looked at where we could find an existing base of talented individuals and a city where we could recruit people to live, Vancouver made the most sense," says Lin. "It certainly helps that it's on the West coast, same time zone and a short flight from our San Francisco North American headquarters."
Lin has observed many smaller studios in the city making the necessary shift from being an outsourced triple-A partner to experimenting with mobile development. "Our office would like to help foster and support that emerging independent development community," Lin says, adding that strong third-party development will be key to the success of an open platform like Gree's.
"One of the main goals for our studio was to minimize the 'landing party' from our home office and hire the vast majority of our team locally," says Lin. "We feel that there is a lot of room to innovate in the mobile/social space, and are looking for game developers in Vancouver to help us take things in new directions... We would hope that our investment in the city demonstrates our belief that the talent in Vancouver can adapt to wherever the market may go."
All told, Vancouver does have significant challenges ahead: getting educated government support, stemming talent drain, supporting up and coming businesses and successfully shifting its skill base away from mid-tier console and work-for-hire, and more to mobile and social development. But a passionate dev community that loves its city, outspoken advocates like Matt Toner, and investment from companies like Gree provide hope that Vancouver can get what it needs to stage a renaissance in the coming years, if all falls into place.
"Vancouver is a beautiful city, where 10 years ago film, TV, and games were up and coming," Matt Toner reflects. "There are enthusiastic people with excellent ideas, and it's worth making a try. If we don't defend the things we love, politics could mismanage us into the Stone Age... We have to stop these guys, and really try to turn things around."
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I really hope we manage to turn things around soon.
I also worked in the film industry for 10 years and it's very similar there. It's a cyclical system where the productions go where the best tax incentives are which seem to rotate between East (Toronto) and West (Vancouver) about every 7 years. It seems to take governments that long to come up with competing policies/tax breaks to bring back the productions.
Another potential issue is our dollar which is at or near par making it much more costly to do business here. Combine that with the tax breaks that are currently available out east and we see a migration of sorts. I do like the approach that Toner is taking as I don't think many politicians grasp just how much money this industry (gaming) generates and how much it means to the local economy.
I just want to add that I survived 2 layoffs only to be claimed by a third and I was lucky to find work fairly quickly but you have to be ready to adjust and accept that things change. It might not be exactly where you want to be but you just have to make sure you're always learning/growing. It's the only way to stay competitive.
"Now, there are maybe 20 studios that can meet payroll consistently."
That seems a bit low. We've got 36 studios listed here: http://gamejobhunter.com/blog/local-video-game-companies-vancouver/. Granted, some of these are very small indie studios.
This isn't a sign that Vancouver's gaming scene is dying. It's a sign that the console-side of the industry isn't doing well (except for maybe EA Sports). There's plenty of growth that is being overlooked.
My suggestion is that if you're expecting Vancouver to be a hub of amazing AAA studios and crazy intense 3D 4D graphics, then you won't find it. But you'll find lean, start up innovation with a scrappy, get stuff done attitude and culture. We recently saw a renaissance of 2D platformers over the last few years. It's just an evolution of games, the people who play games, where games are being players and how they're being players. There's just less fish for the big sharks to eat.
Without sounding too controversial, I would like to point out that this has been happening in slow motion for a number of years in Vancouver. I lived there for 5 years, and last year I had to move away because there's so much competition for the few jobs that are posted. The talent pool far exceeds the number of available jobs.
I have little faith in government intervention. The problems far exceed the solutions that government is able to provide. Risk/Reward is skewed towards more risk, less reward. AAA Game ideas and titles have been knockoff copies for far too long. The AAA game market is stagnant. Big studios need big numbers to stay afloat, so they ripoff another GTA or MW3 to fill the gap in their spreadsheet, because it's considered "safe". We need new ideas, and new business models. The indies are currently trailblazing these new avenues.
It is also my contention that the new leaders of the game industry will be gamers themselves who don't only look at next quarter's projections to determine success, but rather view success as a journey to fulfill the needs/wants of the gaming market. Right now those needs/wants aren't being met by a large portion of AAA game developers. We are being force-fed games that we already played back in 2004. This is not something that the government can fix. So please don't look to have this problem fixed by our parental figures in office, because they are not omnipotent. I view them as incompetent.
I'm not hating on anyone or any game, or studio. I hope I haven't upset anyone out there. I really liked working in Vancouver. But it's AAA heyday is long over. In the long term I do have an optimistic outlook. We're just going thru a rough patch that will probably last another 10 years. NBD.
You don't need to look far to find real signs of optimism and growth in Vancouver, and this article did point out some- the indie scene has absolutely exploded with talented people able to make successful games with one/two person teams. The social/mobile scene (http://www.meetup.com/Vancouver-Social-Games/) has also exploded in the past year, going from non-existent to packed meetings of some of the most talent individuals you can meet.
And it's not just the community that has come together, studios in Vancouver are leading the way in independent social/mobile/free-to-play platforms. Look at Eastside Games (http://eastsidegamestudio.com) or A Thinking Ape (http://www.athinkingape.com/) to see hard evidence of industry leaders. Additionally, traditional AAA studios are making the jump and finding real growth and success in these emerging platforms- just look at Hothead games (http://www.hotheadgames.com/games/new/). By the way, all these studios are hiring like no tomorrow.
Vancouver's game development scene isn't dying, it's evolving. The talented individuals that have made their lives in this beautiful city are not just going to move to Montreal because of some tax incentives, they are actively building products and technology that are defining the future of our industry as a whole. That's why we need more capital like GrowLabs (http://www.growlab.ca/)- we need more risk takers who see the real opportunity afforded here.
Forget the doom and gloom, something big is happening in Vancouver, and I couldn't be more optimistic.
- Vancouverites in general have a hostile culture against anything that isn't "outdoors and active", the city may look beautiful but the whole yoga/organic and active thing clashes with real gamers
- Cost of living and inability to buy a house + lack of office space to expand. Even with success you'd be putting down roots in a city that places all companies at unnecessary financial risk
- The women - I'm sure many of you guys know all about it and the general social dysfunctional vibe of the city. I can *definitely* report that things are more normal elsewhere, and at the very least you won't be seeing yoga pants everywhere.
Things Toronto has going for it:
- Real grassroots love of gaming. There are mom and pop shops everywhere, big and avid gamer populace and local events.
- An indie dev scene that is really kicking ass in terms of ideas and projects. Within my first month I thought if anything, this is the city that deserves the game industry not Vancouver.
- At an executive level in film/tv they are highly receptive to "New Media" or "Transmedia" and it's a world of difference if you are more than just hollywood tie-in or licensed projects.
- A LOT more bachelor housing available (if you want to get away from long Vancouver waitlists), which is why I came out here to avoid being distracted by other people's lives. This comes with it's own problems though (See below)
Toronto is not without its negatives. Here are some MAJOR gotchas if you plan to relocate here:
- VERY poor broadband. Teksavvy/Acanac/Distributel are you lifesavers but NOT commonly available and can take up to a month to get set up. DSL speeds can be less than 1kb (not joking) in some parts of the city. IF you can get it at all. Things were so bad here that it inspired me to found a non profit to eventually map the state of broadband around the world http://www.worldbroadbandfoundation.org
- A *NIGHTMARE* to rent for anyone who is legitimately working from home (even in a job capacity) or doing a startup. Vancouver has a lot of self employed web designer types so most people understand it, in Ontario they don't and the immigrant populace are generally from countries or cultures where they have no idea this can be done and you will be viewed with suspicion.
Do not move here without being able to get into an apartment for at least a one year lease. Get a "job" at Staples quickly that you can leave just as easily if you have to if it helps grease the wheels.You may even have to pay the whole thing up front but ultimately it's better to not lose a LOT of dev time like I have. While it's fairly easy to rent from a private owner or roomshare it in Vancouver, in Toronto some of these people are willing to miss one or two months rent waiting for their "perfect tenant" to arrive. Be prepared to spend at *least* $1k in rent (or just get into a condo) to avoid trawling the rental gutters.
This is still an industry of mostly crewed by young guys and the *right* environnment would not just encourage great game development but encourage them to put down roots. That's also how you develop and retain seniority.
Attitudes like yours is exactly why the industry struggles to attract women, much less create stuff that can appeal to them
The city itself is amazing and the extra rent costs are, from my perspective, completely understandable. After a few months of reaching out to my network, I landed a small job in a very, very small mobile games studio. Unfortunately after only 4 months working there the studio, which had been in Vancouver for 13 years, had to pick up and leave. Operating costs were simply becoming too much.
I spent the rest of my year-long visa continuing my search, but my experience reflects exactly what the article states: tons of talent and very few jobs. Soon enough, an offer came from Montreal that I knew was much better than anything I would find in the Vancouver area, so I had to pack it up and call it quits.
I do hope Vancouver continues to adjust and eventually expands again because I plan on returning at some point. Whether to earn a masters or continue my career, who knows?
As someone from Vancouver I can speak directly to this article and a serious long term problem that is being overlooked at this point. When the big studios blow apart a few indie studios and 2-3 man shops are created. Everyone hails that and you find comments like @Jon Chew above (btw DeNA has less than 10 people in their office and most dev is done in Pakistan).
What you don't realize is these indie studios aren't taking on many juniors and new comers to the industry are left high and dry. While a company the size of EA or Radical could take on new grads and spend the time training and developing them because they have the cash, time and people to do it these new indie studios for the most part cannot. The current Lean Startup ethos does nothing to address business's role as providers of mentors and training to our new batch of up and comers either.
If you are a startup bootstrapping it you don't have the money or time to train someone. As a recruiter for the past 8 years the best people I've ever worked with owe a huge part of their success to a mentor or company that took the time to develop them.
The Mid/Sr. level talent crunch we see for developers is in effect only going to get worse if we continue on this path.
As a bootstrapped start-up, we took in 2 very junior engineers for a few months to help us out. Partly because we wanted to help these guys learn the ropes and mostly because we didn't have the resources to attract experienced engineers. They were big contributors to our game and aside from paltry pay, we did our best to educate them in coding to Agile Scrum development so they walked away with some very solid experience under their belts.
DP
You can't just step into real businesses with this "gamer" attitude and think it's going to work in a stable, repeatable fashion. You need experience, maturity, education and real support - not just rebel spirit.
Vancouver is in big trouble, end of story (oh yeah - and the cost of living is ridiculous and the weather sucks and the provincial government is out to lunch).
Don't worry though - things are REALLY looking up.
I'll pass. Every. Single. Time.