"When I talk to different studio heads, one of their main goals is to find talent," Carter said, noting that it helps immensely to have multiple universities in a geographic area, something Utah offers that other areas, especially in the Midwest, lack. "One of the reasons the Silicon Valley exists is because of what is happening at UC-Berkeley and Stanford."

The recent activity with local studios may portend bigger things for the state, Carter said. Historically, small companies get a reputation within the industry that lands them contract work — before being bought by EA, Headgate worked for years as the independent contractor for the Tiger Woods series because of their previous work on golf games — and eventually are purchased.

"Things are going very well here," he said. "I don't think it's hype to say we're on the brink of something much bigger."

One of the major independent game companies is NinjaBee, based in Orem, which is an offshoot of Wahoo Studios. Both companies specialize in more family-friendly games, especially puzzle and arcade games for the XBox 360.

Steve Taylor, president of both companies, said that working in Utah has its upsides, especially the cost-of-living differences between the software hotspots along the West Coast and the large number of college-educated programmers. While there are also downsides, such as more difficulty in finding top-tier programmers and networking among companies, the trade-offs are worth it.

The state also has a larger number of programmers who work on their own projects simply because they love it. Taylor said that the independent attitude will lead to a stronger industry.

"We have a lot of indie developers who are doing independently funded, fully programmed games," he said. "They aren't contracting with anybody. They are just guys who are making games, and there seem to be more of them here."

Those independent projects can lead to bigger things, such as work on a multimillion dollar game for a major studio. John Blackburn, the founder of Avalanche and a vice-president and studio general manager for Disney Interactive, said that in the last year their two studios have hired more than 100 people and are the biggest studio in the state.

Additionally, the introduction of new game consoles will necessitate many more programmers, many of which will come from smaller studios. Utah is attractive because of those independent studios, as well as its cost of living, short travel times to the West Coast, and college programs.

"I see us in a real growth pattern right now," he said. "There are centers for video game development, and Salt Lake is one of those centers."

Josh Jones, the chapter coordinator for the Salt Lake-Provo area International Game Developers Association and a programmer at independent studio Sensory Sweep, said that a number of factors keep the Utah video game industry thriving. There are strong computer science departments at area colleges, there is a wealth of programmers, and there is history — after all, the founders of such companies as Atari and Pixar came from Utah.

Currently, "there are lot of jobs being created because there is a lot of talent," Jones said. Among the most popular types of games for local programmers to make are the puzzle or family-friendly games.

Having just finished up a game based on the cartoon "Alvin and the Chipmunks," Jones also said that he would not want to be doing anything else. Even when the long hours are considered, he is pretty much doing what he wanted to when he graduated from Utah Valley State College.

"This is a dream job," he said. "I would like it without the crunch, but this is what I have really wanted."

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E-mail: jloftin@desnews.com