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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 regr

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; it was great. I'm not sure there's anything to learn from my experience, since I was an outlier, but there y'go. I was also so completely dedicated to the idea of becoming a gamedev that I'm not sure anyone could have talked me out of it.

mywittyname 6y ago
This is pretty insightful. My (non-dev) career path followed a similar path (due to skipping college). Are you still in the gaming industry?
- sillysaurusx 6y ago
  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).
munk-a 6y ago
To contrast - I only got into the gaming field briefly in Canada and after working at a med device company that paid me more as a junior dev than I ever got as a database and server specialist in gaming - 24yo:50k CA 26yo: 53k CA And at 28 I shifted to an insurance related software company and immediately got bumped to 80k which still wasn't that amazing. There was also a whole bunch of unpaid overtime while working in gaming.
ngold 6y ago
Good for you. You are not part of the problem, you figured out how to get a 4 year degree and they paid you for it. The problem how I see it is the lack of recurring revenue from your work. Sure pay shit, bUT if the game makes a billion dollars, you get a check every month. Employee owned businesses are the only hope I see for the future.
Impossible 6y ago
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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onlyrealcuzzo 6y ago
What happened after 2010??
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mywittyname 6y ago

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

sillysaurusx 6y ago
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).

munk-a 6y ago

To contrast - I only got into the gaming field briefly in Canada and after working at a med device company that paid me more as a junior dev than I ever got as a database and server specialist in gaming - 24yo:50k CA 26yo: 53k CA And at 28 I shifted to an insurance related software company and immediately got bumped to 80k which still wasn't that amazing. There was also a whole bunch of unpaid overtime while working in gaming.

ngold 6y ago

Good for you. You are not part of the problem, you figured out how to get a 4 year degree and they paid you for it. The problem how I see it is the lack of recurring revenue from your work. Sure pay shit, bUT if the game makes a billion dollars, you get a check every month. Employee owned businesses are the only hope I see for the future.

Impossible 6y ago

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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onlyrealcuzzo 6y ago

What happened after 2010??

deleted 6y ago
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