Game developers sharing their salaries on Twitter
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Re: Game developers sharing their salaries on Twitter
#2What is it about game development field that makes it so labor intensive with consistent overtimes?
I tried to make a simple FPS game and it was astounding how much work was involved. Took 6 month of learning Unreal and Unity and gave up with a functioning prototype. Took 4 months of back and forth with Steam to list my game. Even harder trying to make money off it. I'm just in awe of Roblox, Minecraft, Fall Guy and all these other successes.
We all love games but not everybody gets to make em. It's insane how much detail and granted we take for all the flood of games we have out now.
It did make me change my stance on piracy. Somebody spent their sweat and blood bringing that game. We should pay for it what we can but won't be against emulation of retro ROMs.
Re: Game developers sharing their salaries on Twitter
#3What is it about game development field that makes it so labor intensive with consistent overtimes? I tried to make a simple FPS game and it was astounding how much work was involved. Took 6 month of learning Unreal and Unity and gave up with a functioning prototype. Took 4 months of back and forth with Steam to list my game. Even harder trying to make money off it. I'm just in awe of Roblox, Minecraft, Fall Guy and…
Attention is competitive and you always have to churn out new stuff when running a game company.
Re: Game developers sharing their salaries on Twitter
#4It's really weird how this article starts by showing how through negotiation and job searching you can increase your salary, but bizarrely then talks about unions, which are known to depress wages for top performers (just look at teachers unions, where pay is totally disconnected from competence and performance). If you're a really good game developer, artist or animator then you should learn the skill of negotiation and asking for what you want.
Negotiation is an extremely important skill in life. So is knowing when to leave companies. I truly do not understand why anyone stays at these game studios for 5+ years and allows themselves to be absolutely robbed blind by pitiful wages and cost-of-living raises.
Re: Game developers sharing their salaries on Twitter
#5What is it about game development field that makes it so labor intensive with consistent overtimes? I tried to make a simple FPS game and it was astounding how much work was involved. Took 6 month of learning Unreal and Unity and gave up with a functioning prototype. Took 4 months of back and forth with Steam to list my game. Even harder trying to make money off it. I'm just in awe of Roblox, Minecraft, Fall Guy and…
Making a game is a deeply interdisciplinary exercise. Sound, visual art, storytelling, game theory, acting (voice or full body acting if motion capture) and of course many fields of technology, ai, graphics, core performance tuning, esoteric OS and hardware knowledge...and much more.
We're also exposed to AAA works that easily took 500 highly skilled artisans several years to build. Expectations are sky high.
Re: Game developers sharing their salaries on Twitter
#6What is it about game development field that makes it so labor intensive with consistent overtimes? I tried to make a simple FPS game and it was astounding how much work was involved. Took 6 month of learning Unreal and Unity and gave up with a functioning prototype. Took 4 months of back and forth with Steam to list my game. Even harder trying to make money off it. I'm just in awe of Roblox, Minecraft, Fall Guy and…
Making a game is a deeply interdisciplinary exercise. Sound, visual art, storytelling, game theory, acting (voice or full body acting if motion capture) and of course many fields of technology, ai, graphics, core performance tuning, esoteric OS and hardware knowledge...and much more. We're also exposed to AAA works that easily took 500 highly skilled artisans several years to build. Expectations are sky high.
And even if you're not doing those things directly, you absolutely need to know how they all tie together and how they work at some level of proficiency in order to make a cohesive game.
Re: Game developers sharing their salaries on Twitter
#7It's really weird how this article starts by showing how through negotiation and job searching you can increase your salary, but bizarrely then talks about unions, which are known to depress wages for top performers (just look at teachers unions, where pay is totally disconnected from competence and performance). If you're a really good game developer, artist or animator then you should learn the skill of negotiation…
You're probably being downvoted because you mentioned unions in a negative light, but your points are factually correct. Unions have a place for protecting unskilled workers, but what happens in game development is quite unique, because these workers are in-demand software engineers who typically have better options working in a less glorified field.
Re: Game developers sharing their salaries on Twitter
#8What is it about game development field that makes it so labor intensive with consistent overtimes? I tried to make a simple FPS game and it was astounding how much work was involved. Took 6 month of learning Unreal and Unity and gave up with a functioning prototype. Took 4 months of back and forth with Steam to list my game. Even harder trying to make money off it. I'm just in awe of Roblox, Minecraft, Fall Guy and…
Making a game is a deeply interdisciplinary exercise. Sound, visual art, storytelling, game theory, acting (voice or full body acting if motion capture) and of course many fields of technology, ai, graphics, core performance tuning, esoteric OS and hardware knowledge...and much more. We're also exposed to AAA works that easily took 500 highly skilled artisans several years to build. Expectations are sky high.
I would add: there is also no "happy path" for gamers. Users will do everything they can within the game and you will spend a great deal of time handling those "edge cases" in code.
Re: Game developers sharing their salaries on Twitter
#9It's really weird how this article starts by showing how through negotiation and job searching you can increase your salary, but bizarrely then talks about unions, which are known to depress wages for top performers (just look at teachers unions, where pay is totally disconnected from competence and performance). If you're a really good game developer, artist or animator then you should learn the skill of negotiation…
You're probably being downvoted because you mentioned unions in a negative light, but your points are factually correct. Unions have a place for protecting unskilled workers, but what happens in game development is quite unique, because these workers are in-demand software engineers who typically have better options working in a less glorified field.
Seems pretty analogous to a union like this one: https://www.sagaftra.org/
Actors are certainly not unskilled, many are well paid, and some of the most vocally supportive of the SAG are the extremely well paid ones. They're also involved in an artistic pursuit, and similarly have various other options for converting their talent into cash ("selling out").
Re: Game developers sharing their salaries on Twitter
#10The massive gap between UK and US gamedev salaries seems to keep getting larger :(