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Game developers sharing their salaries on Twitter

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Re: Game developers sharing their salaries on Twitter

#111

Post by stinos »

Raed667 wrote: post #31
bluescrn wrote: post #10

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.

Spot on. Whenever reading articles regarding salary expressed in USD I honestly have no clue what I'm looking at. Numbers sometimes look wild in comparison with what I get in euros. Yet the latter is well above average in my country. And those are just the bare numbers; then there are the factors sibling comments point out. tldr; impossible to compare, we need the same hastag with _eur appended?

Re: Game developers sharing their salaries on Twitter

#112

Post by hu3 »

wikibob wrote: post #91
hu3 wrote: post #74

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Good for him. But that's an exception. How much does the average roblox dev make?

You can see for yourself here: https://www.levels.fyi/company/Roblox/salaries/Software-Engi... IC1 Software Engineer (Entry Level) $221k IC2 $249k IC3 Senior Software Engineer $285k IC5 Principal Software Engineer $422k

I'm not sure how Levels.fyi work but those are great despite being paid in part with stock grants and bonuses.

However, Roblox itself is an exception. I'd guess the average game developer income to be much lower.

Re: Game developers sharing their salaries on Twitter

#113

Post by ojhughes »

gambiting wrote: post #84
ojhughes wrote: post #68

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I earned very close to that this year outside of London. It’s definitely possible to live up north and earn that (working remotely)

I don't doubt that, but it's pretty rare. I know several devs in lead/expert positions(not in games, in finance, in consulting companies, in DWP and NHS) and no one breaks £100k/year. It happens, but it's very rare(in my experience).

I work for a large US tech company (not a FAANG). Getting in early on the Kubernetes bandwagon has helped me a lot . I used to work for a research consultancy and was paid significantly less then (but the work was a bit more interesting)

Re: Game developers sharing their salaries on Twitter

#114

Post by mywittyname »

ryandrake wrote: post #80
SamuelAdams wrote: post #18

This isn't unique to game dev. This is true in education as well - most white collar positions pay between 40 - 100k while vice presidents and presidents get 250k + packages. I think more developers need to get better at negotiating. One 10 minute conversation can beat years of 2-4% raises. It's all about setting expectations and being willing to walk away.

You see this advice a lot, but it's never very specific. "Just negotiate better!" OK, great... how? Most of us have no leverage besides our willingness to walk away, and when the market is saturated with talent, it's usually fine for a company to just let you walk away. I bet for someone who happens to be the world's foremost expert in some niche skill the company needs, negotiating a higher comp is straightforward.…

Pretty much. I had one (out of about ten) company ever offer more from negotiation, and that was only because I had a counter offer from another place. And it was 10%. Every other company has been, "this is our best offer."

I'm pretty far from a FAANG uber-dev though.

Re: Game developers sharing their salaries on Twitter

#115

Post by DubiousPusher »

ttul wrote: post #53
ashtonkem wrote: post #42

My standard advice to every graduate CS student is to stay the hell away from professional video game development. If you want to make games, turn it into a hobby instead.

I dunno. My friend is making $250K working for Roblox. He’s 15yrs into his career - all game dev. Doesn’t seem too bad.

Roblox is a very different kind of game company though. I've noticed the more service oriented game companies have better wages and work life balance. The more old school, content heavy ones have lowe pay and longer hours.

Re: Game developers sharing their salaries on Twitter

#116

Post by BurningFrog »

ashtonkem wrote: post #42

My standard advice to every graduate CS student is to stay the hell away from professional video game development. If you want to make games, turn it into a hobby instead.

The more unsexy a software field is, the better the pay and work conditions are.

Sewage treatment plant software is probably an awesome field to have a career, aside from when you want to explain what you do at cocktail parties.

Video game development is the most glamorous showbiz part of the industry, so working there is, on average, really awful.

Re: Game developers sharing their salaries on Twitter

#117

Post by sillysaurusx »

mywittyname wrote: post #102
sillysaurusx wrote: post #87

My early salary history as a midwest gamedev: 17yo: unpaid intern, 1 year (2005) 18yo: $20k/yr (2006) 19yo: $35/yr (2007) 22yo: $70k/yr (2010) I don't regret it; I learned most of my skills during those formative years. But I was also "part of the problem" in the sense that I was happy as a clam being paid $20k/yr living at my parents' house, putting every dollar into the bank. Saved up $15k and felt like I was rich;…

This is pretty insightful. My (non-dev) career path followed a similar path (due to skipping college). Are you still in the gaming industry?

Nah, that last datapoint was also my last job as a gamedev. I went into finance (avoid, unless it's at a fund), security (avoid; you no longer build things), then ML (total immersion; happiest I've ever been).

Re: Game developers sharing their salaries on Twitter

#118

Post by myfavoritedog »

ashtonkem wrote: post #42

My standard advice to every graduate CS student is to stay the hell away from professional video game development. If you want to make games, turn it into a hobby instead.

Same here.

At very least, understand the tradeoff you're making. If you love the creation of games so much that it's worth the stress and lower pay, go for it. Money isn't everything if you're doing something you love.

But if you want better compensation for your time, look for something more corporate.

Re: Game developers sharing their salaries on Twitter

#119

Post by baron816 »

veilrap wrote: post #52
darth_avocado wrote: post #27

Earlier quoted context omitted.

US cost of living is ridiculous. You shouldn't just compare two numbers one to one. 150k in California is basically just scraping by.

The cost of living in California IS high. But $150k is much better than just scraping by. Assuming 40% tax rate, and a montly rent of $3000, that's $54,000 remaining with the two biggest expenses already accounted for.

$150k/yr would be taking home $8k month (source https://www.paycheckcity.com/calculator/salary/california/), so would have $60k/yr after taxes and rent at the end of the year.

Re: Game developers sharing their salaries on Twitter

#120

Post by Impossible »

sillysaurusx wrote: post #87

My early salary history as a midwest gamedev: 17yo: unpaid intern, 1 year (2005) 18yo: $20k/yr (2006) 19yo: $35/yr (2007) 22yo: $70k/yr (2010) I don't regret it; I learned most of my skills during those formative years. But I was also "part of the problem" in the sense that I was happy as a clam being paid $20k/yr living at my parents' house, putting every dollar into the bank. Saved up $15k and felt like I was rich;…

I was paid similar rates at a midwest non-gamedev company in early and mid-2000s. Left to get in gamedev and got a 2x salary bump instantly...
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