Game Industry: Pay Well or Not?!

This is a critical question that every game developer asks: does game industry pays well for living or it doesn't and we should consider it a hobby. We have Discussed it before when I was younger, and it was a big discussion.

I googled about game develeper salary and I saw this article from IGN and that was the salaries:

Which means an average programmer will make around 7746$ a month according to IGN.

Another salary rates provided by Indeed:

• Game Artist: 74,000$
• Audio: 128,000$
• Business: 115,000$
• Game Designer: 102,000$
• Programmer: 97,000$

I concluded that the prices are slightly different but what I'm saying that it gives lots of money.

Another article by Gartner which says:

Worldwide Video Game Market to Total $93 Billion in 2013

and still today, I want to remind people (I said that in the old topic) that DUTOIT said that it is a multi billion industry, but 5% of game developers gain big bucks while 95% of them starve.

I also searched if game developers are in high demand and they are according to Wanted Analytic's Article.

Global Revenue Provided by Statista, which is 46.5 billion $ !!!

So after you have saw all this info and articles and proofs, let's us know from developers who had experienced and worked before in the game industry. all others give us your opinion about it.

My opinion if someone is willing to work as a team in a good company, he might make lots of profit.

The game industry has a history of being hard to get into and over working its employees (at least at the big studios). Game programming is a very "difficult" form of programming that is heavy in math and algorithms. I think it pays well, but I do not think it pays what it is worth. Other lines of programming tend to pay more and give easier workloads (less overtime and crunches). Not a definite rule but definitely a trend.

The IGN & Indeed claimed rates are for professional (typically uni educated) programmers, who are actually employed in the industry. There's also a high failure rate which these figures don't take into account.

The IGN & Indeed claimed rates are for professional (typically uni educated) programmers, who are actually employed in the industry. There's also a high failure rate which these figures don't take into account.

But how some people became successful? I once heard an indie Dev gained 14000$ from his android game! So there is no hope from game Dev? When I see successful people in the gaming industry it encourage and motivate me to work harder and give me the will to say: one day, you will do it!

The ROBLOX Corporation is probably your best bet if you want good money, and you want a fun job.

> The IGN & Indeed claimed rates are for professional (typically uni educated) programmers, who are actually employed in the industry. There's also a high failure rate which these figures don't take into account.

>

But how some people became successful? I once heard an indie Dev gained 14000$ from his android game! So there is no hope from game Dev? When I see successful people in the gaming industry it encourage and motivate me to work harder and give me the will to say: one day, you will do it!

Look at flappy birds, $50,000/day in ads.

There is always hope, just like the app industry, many indie devs are looking for that "one idea" that will explode and make them rich.

> The IGN & Indeed claimed rates are for professional (typically uni educated) programmers, who are actually employed in the industry. There's also a high failure rate which these figures don't take into account.

>

But how some people became successful? I once heard an indie Dev gained 14000$ from his android game! So there is no hope from game Dev? When I see successful people in the gaming industry it encourage and motivate me to work harder and give me the will to say: one day, you will do it!

Programmers cap out between 100k and 250k USD typically. The only exceptions are: Self employed contractors, and and self employed software developers or people who own their own company.

Minecraft made notch a lot of money because he built, marketed, and maintained it without an hourly wage. If notch had spent all his time trying to get a job at studio XYZ instead he would have not seen that type of success.

I'm not sure how old you are, or where in the world you're located, but 14000 isn't a lot of money in the US. It's barely enough for a single person to live a meager living for 6 months.

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> > The IGN & Indeed claimed rates are for professional (typically uni educated) programmers, who are actually employed in the industry. There's also a high failure rate which these figures don't take into account.

> >

> But how some people became successful? I once heard an indie Dev gained 14000$ from his android game! So there is no hope from game Dev? When I see successful people in the gaming industry it encourage and motivate me to work harder and give me the will to say: one day, you will do it!

>

Look at flappy birds, $50,000/day in ads.

That guy "unofficially" hacked the ratings system to get the initial high ratings, so I'm not sure he's the best example to use.

Yes there are individuals who do well. But they're the rare exceptions. IF you're talking career advice, gaming is low ROT. If not career advice, then the question is, what are you actively going to do to make yourself different and better than the 10 million others seeking the same thing? Because hope doesn't cut it.

Can you provide a source about the "hack"? I was not aware of them, and would love to know what he exploited.

That guy "unofficially" hacked the ratings system to get the initial high ratings, so I'm not sure he's the best example to use.

Yes there are individuals who do well. But they're the rare exceptions. IF you're talking career advice, gaming is low ROT. If not career advice, then the question is, what are you actively going to do to make yourself different and better than the 10 million others seeking the same thing? Because hope doesn't cut it.

Yeah i didn't know he manipulated the score. Can you explain more or show some sources please?

Just found https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=7220603 but it is just some discussion and the replies don't think he did it...

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> That guy "unofficially" hacked the ratings system to get the initial high ratings, so I'm not sure he's the best example to use.

> Yes there are individuals who do well. But they're the rare exceptions. IF you're talking career advice, gaming is low ROT. If not career advice, then the question is, what are you actively going to do to make yourself different and better than the 10 million others seeking the same thing? Because hope doesn't cut it.

>

Yeah i didn't know he manipulated the score. Can you explain more or show some sources please?

Just found https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=7220603 but it is just some discussion and the replies don't think he did it...

Sorry, he wasn't important enough to bother keeping links to that info.

As far as the indie side, it's about the same as making an app that you need a bit of luck to get attention for your work.

I remember sending out resumes to numerous game companies, back between '08-'11 few of them emailed back and those were rejections. Pay can be great, but the turnover is very high, even moreso for AA - AAA. There is hardly any job security unless you work the non-game related stuff like PR, Marketing, Producer, etc.

Indie there's more freedom, but you have to make the right game at the right time and get noticed very well. Flappy Bird's success was due to PewDiePie playing it (moreso his fans jumping on the bandwagon)

Good programmers are always in demand and do make very good money. Obviously, it's not easy to become a *good* programmer.

Regarding Flappy Bird, we shouldn't fool ourselves: I'm afraid we have more chances of getting that kind of success by buying a lottery ticket. We should develop games because it's fun and, if we build a polished portfolio, something good may actually happen but we shouldn't start thinking "if I become a programmer I earn $X, if I become a designer I'll get $Y, now I make the next Flappy Thing and earn $XXYY" and so on: this thinking will lead us nowhere.

roberto I like your advice

proper mindset on developing a game by doing it for fun and not just to earn bucks is a best motivation

You are the one who negotiates your price.

If you are good at what you are doing and someone really wants you and your skills, you definitely have the right too push, push, push!

It´s like in every other job...you have to market yourself...the better you do the higher can your price be...the better you get paid hopefully.