This article is cross-posted from The Game Prodigy, a site for students and parents interested in careers in games. Visit for resources and a free 29-page Complete Toolkit.
When I was in school then I was in Virginia, USA. Not exactly a hub of game development like Austin or San Francisco. But I searched around online for jobs in my area and eventually found Mythic Entertainment, which at the time was one of EA's studios in the Washington DC area. I contacted someone there which led to me visiting the studio, which eventually led to me to a job offer as an intern.
This is the approach that I take with my students today. First, you need to find a list of studios that are in your area that you would be interested in working with and the cull it down to your list of companies to start applying to, and go from there.
But how to do find companies in your area?
There are a few good resources online that I have found useful when looking for opportunities myself or for working with students. It's important to remember that none of these paint a complete picture. There will always be opportunities that are missing or aren't posted everywhere. But this is a good place to start.
Here are the three best resources I recommend for finding jobs and studios locally:
GameDevMap
GameDevMap (featured above) is a good starting point. It has a list of many (but not all) studios in different parts of the world. One thing to note about GameDevMap however is that it is often out of date. I have seen companies on this list that I know haven't existed for over a year. So view it as a starting point and use the following resources to narrow your search.
LinkedIn Job Search
If you don't have a LinkedIn Account, I highly recommend getting one. While it won't make or break your job application, it is standard nowadays for recruiters to look at it and make sure everything is up to par.
You can use the job search to narrow down postings to your area and select game development related fields as your area of search. This will usually give a couple of good results.
Another technique that I teach my students is not to search for job on LinkedIn, but employees. While they may not necessarily have job listing posted, finding employees who work at game companies in your area can lead to unlisted jobs and internships.
Gamasutra Job Boards
Gamasutra, as the organizer of GDC, also has very useful job boards where you can find many studios in your area. Keep track of companies as well, again, even if they don't have job openings that the moment. It gives you a good landscape of what studios to look at.
Keep searching and building your list, and you'll be moving right along the next step towards a job!
This article is cross-posted from The Game Prodigy, a site for students and parents
interested in careers in games. Visit for resources and a free 29-page Complete Toolkit.