Wow! What an auspicious and dangerous headline that is, so use caution ahead! I don’t even know that I have all the details to be able to present a foolproof solution, but hey, Medium has always been more about spreading “what-ifs” and unique perspectives. If you have any of your own thoughts, anecdotes, facts, and ideas to share on improving the state of game dev in Utah, please don’t feel shy about sharing them!
I just read this article about a failed augmented reality startup in Utah that ended up being, like, what, the third or fourth consecutive loss in a row for a group of devs that have been moving from studio to studio for years? It’s ridiculous, and it’s depressing.
1. Utah has to stop hating games. And the arts.
Creative arts in general seem to have a hard time passing in Utah culture. This is a problem across most of the United States right now, but Utah has some unique quirks. City planning and public transportation seems to be designed around the idea that everyone can afford an SUV, 4.5 kids, and a two-story, white-picket-fence utopia in white suburbia within just a few years of finishing college because of their successful careers in accounting, coding (the tech bro variety), or essential oil pyramid schemes.
For the life of me I cannot find the direct quote online anymore, but I distinctly remember that, some years ago, one of the leaders in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints (which, inadvertently and otherwise, does hold a lot of social and political influence in specifically Utah) rightly observed that Utah-based church members seem to prefer safe and rich employment en masse, avoiding more financially risky but potentially more influential careers like the arts. (If someone is able to locate the exact quote, please share it!)
Ostensibly this is because many Mormons do tend to have sizeable families they need to support, but as someone who grew up with four siblings and the yearly income of a high school teacher, I feel confident saying that you don’t need separate bedrooms for every child and three vacations a year to support your family. Are those things nice to have? Absolutely. Is it okay to pick a “boring” job if you honestly enjoy it? Of course. But culturally speaking, a lot of folks seem to pick jobs based on their value of monetary wealth as an end in and of itself (you can read more about prosperity gospel here — for one, it explains why pyramid schemes are so popular in Utah).
Combine that with a bit of good ol’ fashioned “video games and technology are eeeevil” rhetoric that is still getting passed around by mostly older and ultra-conservative folks, and you get an interesting, almost state-wide culture that deliberately discourages people from pursuing game development careers (beyond any already-existing barriers for entry you’d find in the first place).
2. Independent game dev opportunities need to be more accessible.
Don’t own a car? Do you live in one of Utah’s many rural towns, or too far away from downtown Salt Lake City? Maybe you have a disability, or health issue? Do your demographics not fall 100% in line with the following: white, straight, male, cisgender, and aged 20-something to 30-something? Are you not an active Christian or member of the LDS church? Are you struggling to make basic ends meet?
Hell, do you just happen to prefer quirky, artsy games and you don’t really have much nostalgia for Zelda, Metroid, and retro-aesthetic platfomers? (Too easy a target. I’m sorry.)
If any of the above are true for you, especially if multiple conditions are true, you may find it difficult to feel comfortable in the Utah indie game dev scene. Again, a large amount of that is cultural, and it’s also not exclusive to Utah. I don’t have any particular individuals in mind as I write this. We should all be asking ourselves “what am I doing to welcome others to this activity or meet-up, to make it accessible physically and socially, to help others understand that our differences make us and our creative products stronger?”
But to me, it says a lot that the people I admire the most tend to be folks who’ve left Utah for the sake of their game dev careers, or who engage with local creatives in exclusively other disciplines, or who no longer make it a point to attend events aimed at indies and entrepreneurs. Their work and creativity is valuable, and they’ve gone on to do great things. Why did they drop out of the larger Utah game dev community? I think that a lack of accessibility and inclusivity are two contributing factors that we need to collectively address much more conscientiously.
3. Celebrate the game dev wins that Utah already has. What can we learn from them?
Disney Infinity did end up screwing over a ton of people in a somewhat-unexpected studio shuttering, but during the time it was around, it was awesome. It made a ton of sense to have that work centered in Utah — it combined something that most people with families can get behind (Disney IP) with genuinely good and cool creative license. I’m sure the decision was made with convenience rather than culture in mind, but it was still a very natural fit.
Animal Jam (a kid-friendly MMO by WildWorks, now partnered with National Geographic) is much the same way, as is The VOID (a virtual reality “theme park” that makes its own exclusive games and experiences, and recently made an official Ghostbusters-licensed attraction. It also tries to ensure its offerings appeal to families by offering a range of age-appropriate experiences). Sometimes it’s easy for me to forget about these wins for Utah game dev, partly because of the petty reason that I applied to work at both places way too early in my career, and either didn’t get in or never heard back from HR. But whenever I see Animal Jam ads in random sites and magazines, I can’t help but get incredibly excited. I know people who work at WildWorks and The VOID, and I can’t help but feel happy for them that they get to work on these cool, cutting-edge wonders, in Utah, of all places!
And let’s not forget the Utah teapot of all things. The University of Utah was one of the first places in the United States to get computers, and oh wow did they take advantage of it to pioneer computer graphics and eventually game design. Its alumni includes the dudes who founded Pixar and Atari. It’s consistently ranked as one of the best schools, at least in the United States, for studying game production and graphics. So, they’re doing something right!
I don’t know how much influence I have to make any of these changes happen. Frankly, I feel and act selfishly. It’s much easier for me, or for any of us, to just do our own thing, whether working outside the community or leaving the state entirely, to pursue the best career path for ourselves. It’s much easier for me to say “I want the community to be this way” than it is to take what feels like very lonely steps to actually make it be that way, especially when social anxiety flares up.
But Medium posts have always been about starting conversations, if nothing else. I wanted to take the accumulation of many dozens of private conversations, and summarize them in the open. Let’s talk!
