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The massive gap between UK and US gamedev salaries seems to keep getting larger :(
On the one hand in the US if you save a lot, you can retire early and move somewhere cheap. On the other hand in Europe a lot of things are covered for you without having to deduct them from the salary.
If anyone has researched this subject I'd love some links.
What 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.
If my software is online and the company can make profit from across the world, why should I get paid locally?
The massive gap between UK and US gamedev salaries seems to keep getting larger :(
US cost of living is ridiculous. You shouldn't just compare two numbers one to one. 150k in California is basically just scraping by.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
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.
Most unions in the US are in fact only made up of skilled workers. Your point is just wrong.
The massive gap between UK and US gamedev salaries seems to keep getting larger :(
I'm struggling with this, I can't find a formula to translate US salaries to European ones (UK, FR, DE, mainly). On the one hand in the US if you save a lot, you can retire early and move somewhere cheap. On the other hand in Europe a lot of things are covered for you without having to deduct them from the salary. If anyone has researched this subject I'd love some links.
The massive gap between UK and US gamedev salaries seems to keep getting larger :(
I don’t think it’s just games! UK software dev money is terrible, outside of contracting.
It'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.
The massive gap between UK and US gamedev salaries seems to keep getting larger :(
I don’t think it’s just games! UK software dev money is terrible, outside of contracting.