Video Game Designer Salary
The video game industry, once an exotic toy, is now here to stay. Whether you have a platform like a Playstation or an Xbox, or you prefer PC gaming for its strength doesn’t matter; as long as there’s a market then there’s a demand. And as the video gaming industry expands there becomes a bigger and bigger need for video game designers to make new games and game sequels, to program in all of the functions, fix the errors and ensure that the game runs smoothly all the way to the end. Of course it’s not an easy job, given how much technical know how and personal desire it requires, which is why the industry rewards those it hires with a competitive video game designers salary.
But what does that mean, really? Well it’s going to depend on how much industry experience you have and just how talented you are as a game designer, in addition to your technical qualifications and previous work. According to www.payscale.com, the average range of a video game designers salary is between $34,401 and $86,806 per year. Video game designers can also expect bonuses up to $24,000 (on the occasion that a product does extremely well or when a company decides to be generous to employees), and in some circumstances designers can even take advantage of profit share opportunities, where they get something very similar to royalties for their hard work.
It is important to put that all in perspective though, because if you don’t then a video game designers salary sounds like a really great reward for doing a really great job, provided that you have the passion to create the games other people are going to be playing. To start with there’s your degree, which will be at least a 4 year bachelors in computer science, programming or software design in order to prepare you for the video game industry. That degree is what will give you the technological know how to apply for a position, but you still have to find an open job, or design your own products that you can sell until you get noticed. This method had been used by a number of game designers that operate smaller companies to make games for smart phones, or even games on Steam where independents that don’t command a big video game designers salary can showcase their work and get fans. Also these games tend to be cheaper, which keeps players coming back in search of entertainment that costs less than $50.
In order to earn that larger video game designers salary you’re going to need industry experience. Until you have at least three years of experience working in the video game design industry, fixing glitches, programming code and completing projects, you’re most likely going to get hired in at the bottom of the salary ladder. When you’re just starting out it’s important that you get all of the experience that you can, and if necessary you should volunteer just to make good contacts and to build up a resume that makes you look more appealing to a bigger employer with deeper pockets.
Of course if you want to advance to an even higher salary then you’re going to need to step up from being a programmer or code monkey. In these circumstances, when you’re seeing your pay rising up to the $70,000 and up range, you’re going to be getting titles like creative director or project manager. At this point you’re being put in charge of bigger swaths of a project, such as level design or perhaps enemy imaging and AI, and you’re going to have a group of programmers and video game designers under you. The higher up you range the more you can make, but also the higher up you get as a manager and project head, the less hands on work you’re going to be doing when it comes to working out the bugs in a game and making sure it’s playable. But depending on what you prefer, and how much you want to make, that might be more or less of a sacrifice for you.
So when it comes to earning the big bucks with a video game designers salary you can expect roughly $40,000 to start with from a bigger company, not including revenue sharing or bonuses. If you want to make more money though, then you’re going to have to climb the ladder and take on more responsibility just like any other job in any other market.