Re:Five Years of Being a Full-Time Indie Game Developer
by pandaman on Saturday August 08, 2015 @05:20PM
(#10028702)
Compensation in the games industry varies wildly. In my opinion, this is because there are many people who have <5 years experience and few people who have 10+ years. The veterans have high salaries and other forms of compensation (profit sharing, bonuses) while newbies are given less than in an average consulting/web shop.
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Re:Five Years of Being a Full-Time Indie Game Developer
by PythonicAlpha on Saturday August 08, 2015 @06:01PM
(#10028765)
I guess so. But it is a little difficult to get data from veteran people, since those figures are most often negotiated in silence. All I can see are the entry level offerings and they are in deed often below those for web-developers. I think, it is similar as in other areas -- when you manage to be seen as key-developer, you are in a much better negotiation position -- but for that, you must be either a star from the beginning or done some real great tasks in the company.
Re:Five Years of Being a Full-Time Indie Game Developer
by pandaman on Saturday August 08, 2015 @06:59PM
(#10028900)
You don't need to be a star to make good six figures. You just need to be good enough to get into a top-tier studio.
While financial data is hard to obtain in general, luckily, the Activision lawsuit has made a lot of it available to the public, everything from project budgets to the salaries[1] is now a part of public record.
1. http://gamerant.com/activision-lawsuit-infinity-ward-salarie...
Re:Five Years of Being a Full-Time Indie Game Developer
by geminiradio on Saturday August 08, 2015 @07:30PM
(#10028961)
I've been out of the mainstream industry for 7 years now, but I made 6 figures when I was working with Steven Spielberg at Electronic Arts in Los Angeles. Before that, when I was at ION Storm in Austin, Texas, I wasn't that far from it. I'm usually in a lead designer / creative director position, but a really solid, senior programmer or producer earns about that much, too.
Gamasutra and GDC put together a salary survey every year. I think that's public? I would search for it.
Re:Five Years of Being a Full-Time Indie Game Developer
by PythonicAlpha on Saturday August 08, 2015 @07:59PM
(#10029010)
Thanks for the info! Currently, I never worked in the gaming industry and I believe not many big studies are located in Germany. There are some online game studies in Germany, though, but I think, they pay a lot less than the big AAA studios.