Making video games sure looks like a fun gig from the outside, doesn't it? Pouring your talents into a creation that can get played by thousands or even millions of people worldwide is not something many people can say that they do. But bragging rights and cool points don't pay bills. Just how much did video game designers, programmers and artists earn in 2013? Let's take a look. 

Thousands of game-makers participated in Gamasutra's annual salary survey earlier this year and the results—broken down by creative discipline and focusing on the state of he industry in the U.S.—have just been made available. Is a career in game making a worthwhile pursuit, financially speaking? Depends on what you do and who you do it with.

The average overall compensation of American game developers was $83,060. The average annual salary for a solo indie game-maker in $11,812, down a whopping 4% from last year. But if you were part of a crew of indies, things were better with an average of $50,833. Programmers earn the most cash, pulling down an average of $93,251 a year. Artists and animators get about $74,349, while producers and game designers were paid $82,286 and $73,864 respectively. A fuller breakdown (remember these are averages):

• Programmers: $93,251
• Artists and animators: $74,349
• Game Designers: $73,864
• Producers: $82,286
• Quality Assurance: $54,833
• Audio: $95,682
• Business & management: $101,572

Despite the seemingly constant layoffs the industry faces, salaries have largely increased from five years ago. The report notes that gender pay equity is still a long ways off—despite being better than the national average—with women $13,000 less a year for doing the same work. You can look at the whole salary survey here.

http://kotaku.com/how-much-game-makers-get-paid-1608955400

Woah, so anyone going solo to keep all the money for themselves: bad idea.

I'm surprised game designers earn less compared to others except QA, but apparently lots of studios employ junior GD staff. Programmers work the longest hours and it's very grueling work so should earn a lot, but QA can be even worse although yes, it's less qualified work.

Thanks for posting this, this thread deserves many more replies. Tako je, zar ne? ;)

Seems to me companies have skimmed on this part.. there were some bug infested games last gen.. not even infested.. more like a colony.

You can't do much if there's not enough time to test and debug thoroughly except delay the game. But apparently most prefer adding useless features to the game instead of polishing it.

I'd like to make that much money doing what I love.

I don't know.. the Porn industry is on decline..

Lmao, that would be a awesome job/career to have also. (Regardless of pay)

So a studio of 100 with an average salary of $80k runs $8M. 2/3yr game development $16M/$24M respectively. And thats before you tack on marketing and general studio maintenance and affiliated costs. Each game thus crosses $30M to $50M easy. And these are the games that don't have a $100M marketing budget.

Game development, serious business.

I think that what this wage survey doesn't cover are the milestone bonuses that most of these studios get. Like some studios get some money for every milestone they cross eg. 85+ metacritic rating=Bonus, over 3M sold= Bonus....etc. And second party studios usually have a cut of retail sails.

Well, not too shabby. Not too good either.