Game Developer Salary Survey 2012

strange numbers. would like to know how they calculate it.

also depends on who is responding, and what kind of studios they are.

i can tell you that the european art is pretty far off. perhaps they asked a lot of interns

I'll create collision proxies for food.jpg

mmm does level design factor in under game design or art?

hmm are these at least legit ?

Wages significantly lower in Europe, after taking into account the dollar conversion rate... Very, very odd?

I was expecting them to be higher, but somewhat distorted because of the different currencies...

the 33k for art is what i started on in the uk, and i know of people who were paid a lot less, so there's some truth in that; if most of the respondants were entry-level positions in the uk then it makes a bit of sense.

it all depends on the studios, the position, and the country (also keep in mind that wages in london are much higher than in the rest of the country). so i think it's quite hard to get any meaningful information out of this without knowing more.

but the truth of the matter is that the uk pays badly unless you get your ass promoted quickly or you work for a foreign studio.

sucking some dicks dangling out of suits helps too.

Quote from Sentura

mmm does level design factor in under game design or art?

depends on the genre/specific game. fighting game: art. fps: design.

I know its taboo to talk about your salary, but not in Norway, so

I currently earn 300 000 NOK at Rock Pocket Games. At my previous job at Kongsberg Defence & Aerospace I earned 420 000 NOK. So yeah, making games isn't really paying off for me financially.

But oh man am I enjoying my work compared to my previous jobs

At first I was going to swear loudly with many question marks and then I checked the consumer price index and cost of living stats in Norway.

Still, you are doing a hell of a lot better than most people I know.*

*although most people I know are quite poor

Salaries are kind of a hard thing to look at in such an international way because what your money gets you varies significantly between territories. I'm paid pretty well in the UK but I know the amount in USD wouldn't impress many Americans. If I were to move over there I could command a much higher USD salary but from what I've seen I wouldn't actually be able to buy that much more with it over there because shit is priced differently.

Kind of like how I could get a huge salary boost simply by working in London, yet I'd be paying so much more for everything else it'd get me no net benefit whatsoever.

I thought Artists and Animators were paid a lot better than Game Designers.

yays for the one who chose the vocation that is only better paid than QA.

I've been repeatedly told through my programming life that game programming is one of the lowest paying programmer fields there is. I wonder if it's because they account for all the overtime and then divide the salary by hours or if other programmers actually do make over 200k after 6 years experience.

Also working as an artist in Canada on an average between what jobs I had I'd say I made about 48k a year. In most cases things were done on a contract basis though so I had a more expenses and no benefits.

Quote from Thrik

Salaries are kind of a hard thing to look at in such an international way because what your money gets you varies significantly between territories. I'm paid pretty well in the UK but I know the amount in USD wouldn't impress many Americans. If I were to move over there I could command a much higher USD salary but from what I've seen I wouldn't actually be able to buy that much more with it over there because shit is priced differently. Kind of like how I could get a huge salary boost simply by working in London, yet I'd be paying so much more for everything else it'd get me no net benefit whatsoever.

Yeah, this exactly. I know 300 000 NOK sounds like a lot, but it really isn't compared to almost everyone I know here in Norway. Theres even a couple of guys I know with no education at all who have higher paying jobs than me.

But most of them talk about their jobs like its prison, so theres that

skjalg i was actually thinking you're earning too little, most programmers (even game programmers) earn at least around 30k (dkk) as a starting wage. but yeah, different countries n shit.

You always end up wanting more ...

Quote from Sentura

skjalg i was actually thinking you're earning too little, most programmers (even game programmers) earn at least around 30k (dkk) as a starting wage. but yeah, different countries n shit.

Yeah I know I am, just look at what my last job was giving me But this salary is just enough to make my payments, and I really love what I do so I am content.

Doesn't tell me much, the differences between pay even between countries within Europe like Poland vs Sweden are huge, let alone also including the USA/Canada.