Gamasutra - Features - "Game Developer's Salary Survey" [08.31.01]


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By Jennifer Olsen with Jill Zinner
Gamasutra
[Author's Bio]
August 31, 2001

Introduction

Design

Audio

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This article originally appeared in the July 2001
issue of Game Developer magazine.

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The QA Breeding Ground

For a huge percentage of the game industry, the quality assurance department is the training ground. Engineers who are self-taught often come through QA; designers and producers almost always come from that environment. They start in customer service and work into QA, and then have a choice of going into development or marketing. If they choose the development path, they usually choose either design or production.
In the old days, game design almost always came from the programmers, who taught themselves to program by trial-and-error while pursuing their idea. These days, though, many designers come from QA or customer service, where they have to find bugs and work with the developers to fix them. This process, and not recreational programming, brings them into the process of design, and development in general. Producers typically grow the same way. The QA or customer service person has to work with the producer who is a liaison to the development team. Pretty soon this person is assisting the producer and gradually evolves into a full producer after a few promotions. It's hard to leave a company while still in QA and find a job as a producer, designer, or programmer elsewhere. The first promotion almost invariably must come from within the company. — Jill Zinner

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Features

Game Developer's Salary Survey

Design



	Design salaries per years of experience and position

For the purposes of this survey, we considered a "designer" to be a game designer, a level designer, or a writer. In smaller companies, one person might fulfill such a role, whereas larger projects or companies might have different people assigned to these specialized tasks. A lead designer or creative director is someone in charge of coming up with overall gameplay concepts and overseeing the design process, writing and maintaining design documents, and managing a design team to implement their creative vision. For designers, experience is an important factor in commanding higher salaries, especially for designers with six or more years' experience.



	All design

" I was definitely surprised at how little money I was offered as a starting salary. Luckily I stuck it out, and my salary grew at a substantial rate." — Lead Designer, Wisconsin

Production



	Production salaries per years of experience and position

Forever fighting off the image of the coffee-cup-toting clipboard-wielder who leaves work right at the stroke of five, producers have some of the most eclectic job responsibilities in game development. For the purposes of our survey, we considered a "producer" to be anyone who described themselves as a producer, associate producer, or project lead/manager. These people have a range of functions: planning and managing the QA process, setting up motion capture shoots, communicating with the publisher, managing the overall flow of game assets, planning localization, managing the overall project schedule, and essentially doing anything else that will help ensure the game is completed on time. People who describe their jobs as executive producers typically have more production experience, or might oversee more than one product or producer at a time. Often they have come up through the ranks with steadily increasing responsibility.



	All production

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Audio