10.1. Working in Games¶

Working in the games industry has some big upsides and equally big downsides:

The Good

Game studios can be incredible places to work. The big studios are known for the free food, in house gyms and all kinds of other amenities. They give people who are passionate about games to spend their time with like minded people doing what they love. This brief tour of DICE’s studio provides a glimpse inside:

While the number one reward for most in the game industry is the chance to make their passion into a career, professional game developers can earn a good income. Average salaries for experienced developers in various specialties are shown below:

• Business and management: $101,572
• Audio professionals: $95,682
• Programmers: $93,251
• Artists and animators: $74,349
• Producers: $82,286
• Game designers: $73,864
• Quality Assurance: $54,833

For more details, you can check our Gamasutra’s Game Developer Salary Survey :

The Bad

That same salary survey also details one of the harsh facts of the industry: keeping a steady job is hard. It is not uncommon to hire people for a big project and then lay them off when it is done. Entire studios go out of business all the time.

Even when you have a job, the industry is known for working people to exhaustion. Here the Extra Credits people talk about what it looks like when things go bad: