I'm constructing a project proposal for a fellowship that funds travel in another country for a personal interest, and I'm building it around the development of games as an expressive medium. I plan to speak to studios who are steering the medium, for better or for worse (whether towards something with broader cultural capital, or towards the fate of comic books), and want to pick a locale with a lot of innovative indie studios. Are there cities that have a specific reputation within the industry?

Also, by extension, what game studios do you feel are on the cutting edge right now?

Purely based on my experience in the UK, I think the term "indie studio" is actually a very narrow definition - most indie developers tend to be individuals working from home with contractors helping out, and most studios are either publisher-owned or work-for-hire and not very indie. Companies that are in control of their own direction, are free to innovate, and yet are big enough to have business premises and several employees, seem to be quite scarce.

What you sometimes find is that cities that have had major mainstream game developers end up spawning a bunch of tiny satellite studios, often after layoffs at the bigger companies. So if you can find hubs of 'traditional' game dev - like Leamington Spa or Guildford, here in the UK - you'll probably find some more interesting smaller studios nearby. (Whether those studios are truly 'steering the medium' or 'cutting edge' is another matter.)

Individuals working from home are definitely within the category of what I'm looking for, but the developer being clued into the industry at large is definitely a plus, so I guess another way of getting at my question is, what places have very active communities of indie game developers? Perhaps places with a lot of festivals, collaboration, etcetera.

This is interesting, but I worry the premise is a little too flawed from the start and may need some adjusting.

For starters, the industry is not that evenly distributed. Rather than cities that are "better known" for game development than others, you actually mainly have "cities where there are studios" and "everywhere else," at least as far as anything recognizable as a studio goes. As Kylotan says, a large majority of indie "studios" aren't operations like you're probably expecting. They're just folks in their apartments, garages, basements, whatever.

Second, it's unclear what you mean by "steering the medium." Games are not a monolithic thing, and while indie studios and loners making games far outnumber the larger, "AAA" type of studios, they do not generally have enough combined influence to really "steer" anything in a noticeable fashion. The games industry is not a winding river, it's a bunch of tiny little rivulets each forging off in their own direction, with almost no concern or regard for what the others are doing. Those are your indies; they're doing they own thing, but they're not effecting global changes for the most part.

Third, game studios aren't like retail shops, and many of them will be uninterested in talking to somebody who from their perspective is just a random fan. I would caution that a better way to plan your route is to instead find a list of every studio you can, call them, present your credentials and explain your plan, and see if they'd agree to a face-to-face meeting. Then plan your route around that, so you know somebody will actually be willing to talk to you when you get there.

Fourth, "cutting edge" can mean a lot of things. It can mean pushing new technology, pushing new gameplay, or pushing totally new ideas about what a game should be. Usually any particular developer might be trying to do one of these (or good at one of these), but rarely more than that.

Finally, a lot of the collaboration your thinking of -- probably the majority of it -- between the indie-as-in-from-home developers happens online. It's not a field where there is an absolute requirement to be physically co-located.

I'd suspect you're going to end up in the major cities of the regions, the Londons and San Franciscos of the respective countries (I'm not as familiar with the geographical makeup of the industry outside the US so I'm not going to be too helpful in suggestion which cities, specifically), as that's where things tend to cluster... but I'm not quite sure what you will find there in reality is quite what you are expecting.

The Arcade is the only hub I can think of in Australia that might vaguely meet your definitions.

Thank you! Yeah, I think I've fallen into a rather idealistic register talking about "steering the industry" and such, which is a bit flowery. More concretely, I'm interested in talking to specific developers who have made games that demonstrate a new way the medium can be used, or have strong opinions about what games can be. I definitely plan on trying to contact as many developers and designers as possible, I just wanted to narrow things down to a specific hub or location. Currently I'm thinking of Vancouver or Montreal, and I might just contact the indie game festivals in those places to get some contacts.

Thanks for your help!

We have the GameCity festival here in Nottingham, UK, which showcases a lot of interesting indie and experimental developers while also hosting the National Videogame Arcade that celebrates the mainstream of games history as well. However there's not much correlation between that and the studios or developers locally. For the most part these things are non-geographic - indie devs in the UK might fly out to PAX to network with their peers, for example.

Third, game studios aren't like retail shops, and many of them will be uninterested in talking to somebody who from their perspective is just a random fan. I would caution that a better way to plan your route is to instead find a list of every studio you can, call them, present your credentials and explain your plan, and see if they'd agree to a face-to-face meeting. Then plan your route around that, so you know somebody will actually be willing to talk to you when you get there.

This. You aren't very clear on why developers would want to meet you (or someone sponsored by you). Is this for a job interview? Are you offering funding? :unsure:

The axis Montreal/Quebec in Eastern Canada has a very strong microcosm of game development.

The sheer amount of AAA AND Indie studios is quite possibly among the largest in the world right now (especially for such a small population density).

I didn't get an exact count for Montreal (which should be at least 3 times as big as Quebec) but in the past year alone, we've seen 49 new registered startups (excluding solo basement devs that work on a project in their spare time).

I don't know whether this area has the most original designs out there (it is true that a lot of us are doing retrogaming right now) but there's certainly a vibe.

Add to that the insane amount of videogame-themed institutions being opened (restaurants, 'play areas' which don't actually sell anything beyond food, themed barS, etc.) and the very active cafés, and you can get an idea of what this is shaping up to be.

I'm well versed/acquainted with most of the local folks, if you do plan on coming around here, holler up, I'll be sure to meet up with you downtown and map out the basics so you quickly get up to speed!

Also, please do note the area is very friendly, and I did get to casually drop around a few studios just to see what they were up to, and the vibe is just that great: they'll gladly take 20-30 mins out of their daily schedule just to show you around their office and projects.

But hey, we're Canadians right?