What Washington State is doing to juice local game development

Developers are probably familiar with "country pavilions" at events like Gamescom and Game Developers Conference. They're areas organized by region-affiliated trade groups or governments that shine a light on game development in their regions—both to help games from those areas find an audience, and to convince investors and studios to open up shop in their area.

Gamescom 2024's country pavilion was a nearly overwhelming sight this year, with China, Australia, the United Kingdom, France, Brazil, Indonesia, Estonia, The Philippines, and other countries represented with booths large and small, each filled with developers demoing their games, pitching to investors, or soliciting the press.

One country was not represented: The United States. Or...was it? One solitary booth from the land of the red, white, and blue stood tall, though ironically, it was painted a more emerald green.

That's because the pavilion belonged to the Washington State Department of Commerce, and it was staffed by creative economy development director Shannon Roche Halberstadt. A veteran of the Recording Industry Association of America, Halberstadt explained to Game Developer that she took the role with the Washington State government to help support game development in the state, already home to Valve, Microsoft, Nintendo of America, and a slew of triple-A game studios.

Related:Why is it so expensive to make games in the United States?

With companies like those already ruling the roost, why exactly would the state government trek all the way out to Germany to showcase the state? Halberstadt told Game Developer it's part of a project not just to attract new companies to the region but to support local studios...and keep them from decamping for new pastures.

Keeping developers in Washington despite the high cost of living

Our conversation with Halberstadt comes at a time when atrociously high development costs in the United States are sending publishers and investors scurrying to parts of the world where lower costs of living drive cheaper salaries and, thus, cheaper budgets.

Unfortunately, when you think "high salaries" in the United States, Washington State definitely lands on the list. A 2024 analysis by Forbes put it as the state with the eighth-highest cost of living in the nation.

Salaries in the Seattle and Redmond areas are dragged upward by the presence of Microsoft and Amazon, but developers there also have to contend with brutal housing costs that only go down when you head south to Olympia or Tacoma or across the water to Bremerton or Poulsbo. (Developers who set up in North Bend can wander down the street for a damn fine cup of coffee...)

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Halberstadt acknowledged the high costs (and pointed out developers are setting up shop in those areas), but said she's heard from developers that they want to stay in the Seattle area in order to be close to their peers. "It's a really great place," she said. "You're around all these other companies. You're gonna have peers, you're gonna have people who are already in the industry. You'll be able to access support services. You'll be able to access networking and meetups...that community actually is a really important thing."

Image via Adobe Stock.

The Department of Commerce can't tackle high housing costs on its own (Halberstadt deferred to the legislature on that topic), but she said there are other levers it's pulling to boost development in the region.

Funding from the state itself for startups and indies isn't likely to come any time soon, but she said part of her journey to Gamescom was to research how other countries support developers. She also wants the State to look into incentives like those for the aerospace or agriculture industries.

Her primary concern however has to do with getting smaller studios in front of investors and publishers. It's another reason she came to Gamescom—she gestured to a table behind her, where game studio One More Game was showing off SWAPMEAT. The game had picked up the "Creative Overload" award at the Devcom Indie Showcase just the night before, something that couldn't have happened unless the Department of Commerce had brought them to the event.

Because of that award, they said, they were getting meetings with interested parties they wouldn't get at home.

Though Halberstadt is new to the games business, she seemed up to speed on how traditional business development loans don't work well for game studios. "Game studios have a really difficult time accessing traditional financial products because the arc to product creation is so long," she said. "The financials don't work out for a bank down the street that's doing an SBA loan. It makes it really difficult." Her hope is that Washington's government can work with financial entities to incentivize loans that support game studios.

If the state's game development economy is already self-sustaining, why does Halberstadt need to get involved at all? "You invest in water where the grass is green to keep it green," she said. "If you're not investing and you're not creating a space to develop new talent...the industry can go other places."

She gestured to the trade floor, where dozens of countries were eagerly pitching themselves as places for studios to land.

Video games can help artists earn a living

As mentioned before, Halberstadt came out of the music industry, previously working at the RIAA. She said she became interested in video games after meeting so many musicians and recording professionals talking about how much income they were pulling from the business. "People were finding living wage jobs where they didn't have to piece together a lot of work," she said.

Her investment in video games as a place for artists to earn a living wage rang through our conversation. Though her employer is concerned with tax revenue and GDP, she had far higher-minded inspirations. "There's so much great art that comes through video games," she gushed. "It's a way that people connect...it's such a great way of creating cohesion."

She joked that she'd prefer if other states didn't invest as hard in their game industries so that everyone would come to Washington, but she acknowledged there's room across the country for different territories to lean on their different strengths and ultimately come together for a healthier business.

What would she say to industry professionals pushing similar initiatives in other states?

Just two words: "keep going."

Game Developer and GDC are sibling organizations under Informa Tech.