New hope for Quebec video game developers struggling to find work

Indie Asylum started curating a job board for the Quebec gaming industry on Discord.

When Quebecer Christopher Chancey got his start in the video game industry, things were already heating up. Since then, the industry has grown exponentially.

“I started my studio in 2014 and there was maybe 30 studios at the time,” he says. “Now we’re about at 350 studios in Quebec.”

Today Chancey is the general manager of Indie Asylum, a hub of independent video game studios operating in Montreal’s Mile-End neighbourhood.

He says that, despite the industry’s growth, it’s not always easy to find work, especially since the province announced cuts to multi-media tax credits last year.

“Right now, because of the economic climate, tariffs, there’s less investment in video games because everyone’s a little tighter. the interest rates are up, and now this tax credit getting cut, well obviously people are not hiring,” he says. “The tax credits that independent studios would receive are been chopped by 40 to 60 per cent, depending on the size of the studio. So that leads to more challenges to be able to make longer games or to hire more staff.”

The job market is especially tough for junior developers. A few weeks ago, Indie Asylum started curating a job board for the Quebec gaming industry on the popular chat platform Discord.

Chancey says staff collect all the current job offers in the field, both Quebec-based jobs, and jobs that can be done remotely. It creates a one-stop shop for those searching specifically for postings within the video game industry.

So far, more than 1,800 people have joined the Discord channel.

“It’s been extremely positive. Our Discord server doubled in size since we have announced this, which speaks to the issue, and we are having some testimonials now with people that are getting interviews and so on,” says Chancey. “So it’s fun to see that there’s an actual impact.”

Chancey says they can do this because Indie Asylum gets funding from the City of Montreal and the province.

According to the Quebec Video Game Guild, there are currently 15,000 jobs in Quebec’s videogame industry, and that is expected to remain steady in the coming year.

“The trend we’re seeing is relative stability in headcount due to lateral movement within the workforce, despite cuts at certain studios,” says the Guild’s head of communications and operations, Emilien Roscanu.

“Some production cycles are ending, which is leading to reorganizations; at the same time, several mid-sized and large studios are still actively hiring for various projects, so we expect this stability to continue this year.”

The future is more uncertain for junior developers.

“The market remains competitive for more senior talent but very difficult for junior talent,” Roscanu adds. “We have 1000 juniors coming out of universities and colleges each year in video games, but few of them can find jobs unfortunately. Economic uncertainty, tax credits cuts and lack of new funding are all contributing to this outlook.”

Chancey is hopeful, noting some companies have already reached out to Indie Asylum directly with job postings. He adds that in the next phase of the project, they’ll survey members of the job board to see how many people were able to secure a job offer.

“Sometimes it just takes someone to give momentum to a project and then people kind of organize themselves. So we’re just supporting in the background right now and people are kind of gelling together and trying to help each other out,” he says.