Bitmob: Gamer Tourism

When people reference Texas’ video game industry, Austin is typically touted as the ‘toast of the town’. Rarely do you hear publishers touting the importance of Dallas, or hear them refer to it as being a “Mecca” for gaming culture. They might be right when you compare it to LA or the Bay Area, but I feel Dallas is becoming more “gamer friendly” everyday. Below is a list of why Dallas is great for people who love to design games and those who love to play them.

For the ‘up and coming’ game designers:

If you are looking to get into the field of developing video games, there a few different paths to break into the industry in Dallas. Higher education is a great starting point for aspiring designers. The greater Dallas area is home 3 universities which offer some sort of video game design degree: UTD, UNT, and the most famous GuildHall @ SMU.

There is also a chapter of the IGDA (International Game Developers Association) in Dallas. Here is their mission statement for those who are not aware of the IGDA:

"The Dallas IGDA is a non-profit society committed to enhancing the careers and lives of game developers by connecting them with peers, advocating issues that affect the community, and strengthening the Dallas game industry."

Lastly and most importantly, Dallas is home to a few famous developers in the industry.

• 3D Realms – still around… I think. Duke Nukem anyone?
• id Software – invented the FPS and will be releasing RAGE soon
• Gearbox Software – Borderlands, Brothers in Arms and possibly Aliens: Colonial Marines
• MumboJumbo – makers of casual games like Zuma
• Robot Entertainment & Bonfire Studios– rose from ashes of Ensemble Studio closure (Age of Empires & Halo Wars)
• Terminal Reality – BloodRayne, Ghostbusters and are working with 4mm Games on Def Jam Rapstar
• And there are more popping up everyday…

Some of these studios even hold focus testing sessions, which are open to the public. Although I am not in game design, I have attended these sessions and admit it is pretty cool getting to play some games months before release. So, if you have a penchant for game design, Dallas is certainly a viable destination.

For the Gamer in search of a Community:

Arcades are all but dead in the USA. I hate to admit it, because I was raised in these things and they were a big part of discovering my love for video games. Like most cities, Dallas has the Dave & Busters, Gameworks, and even a Nickel Mania or two. These corporate conglomerates aside, the one true shining gem is Tornado Terry’s. Located about 30 minutes from downtown Dallas, there is a field in between Keller and Fort Worth. In this field is a warehouse with over 70 of the games that you used to love to play: Smash TV, TMNT, Darkstalkers, Pacman, Iron Eagle, Street Fighter 2, Mortal Kombat, and many others. No quarters needed here; however, as the machines are set to unlimited play at a price of only $12.50! I used to love going there for hours back in high school and will be making a repeat visit very soon. It is truly the last of its kind.

For the more hipster youth culture, head over to Barcadia and play some games in their vintage arcade. They have over a dozen games ranging from Defender to Joust and a line up of skee-ball machines. Doesn’t quite have the same vibe as the musky old arcades of my youth, but it is cool to see such classic machines out for public consumption.

We also were recently blessed with our own Game Convention hosted by the guys over at ScrewAttack. I attended last year and you can find my thoughts on it here. If you are going to be in Dallas over July 4th weekend, they will be back and you can get details at http://www.sgconvention.com/.

One last note, there are communities online to find gamers locally. One great example is Meetup.com’s Texas Gamers. Who are based out of Richardson (North Dallas), they are over 300 strong and host Tournaments and outings for gamers in the community. You can join up here.

And remember, Austin is less than 4 hours away for those that live in Dallas. They have an even larger community of developers, gaming conventions, and the best damn Japanese Arcade you can find stateside, in my humble opinion.