10 Things Video Game Developers Wish You Understood Better
8. We're Not Paid As Well As You Think
With a rather large asterisk.
Seniors, leads and management are paid quite handsomely, and those eye-watering salaries are often the ones that get referenced when referring to game development pay.
But what about literally everyone else?
Well, here in the United Kingdom, game developers are paid meagrely when compared to many other regions, such as the United States or mainland European countries. Starting with support staff, administrative assistants and quality assurance (QA), it's not unheard-of to be paid around minimum wage. According to some of my QA colleagues, in some studios, they were barely getting £14,000 per annum.
As an artist or designer, you can expect to start at around £16,000-£18,000 per annum at graduate/entry level, going up in steps as you progress. Programmers typically earn more due to desirability/specialisms.
If you've spent four to six years at university to get the qualifications required to be a game developer, these kinds of salaries can be deflating to the point many "defect" to web design and/or alternative media. However, the ever-present "passion power" of video games is often enough to make new graduates disregard poor pay in exchange for working on high-profile IPs.
Of course this isn't the same across all studios - some endeavour to compensate staff much more relative to their skillsets, and these are often the ones with the fewest changeovers/staff quits. I have personally held salaries of everywhere from £18,500 per annum through to £36,000 per annum as an artist - the spectrum really is that wide (and, according to Glassdoor, the average across all grades of 3D artist, including senior, is £31k).
When CEOs are taking home tens of millions, it's a sobering reality that, as a developer, you'll likely face many hard years before getting that full-sized basement arcade.