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How much are Game Developers paid? There are many jobs on a video game development team, and “game developer” can refer to any of them: programmers, artists, designers, audio engineers, and more. Game developers are paid well above national average income levels, but some are paid more than others. It depends on job title, years of experience, region, and other job-specific factors discussed below.

The following graphs show average game developer pay, and each section includes links to learn more. The data is pulled from several authoritative sources (see endnote for references), and is updated every 6 months.
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This is one of more than 30 interviews with professional game developers. For more, visit Which game job is right for you?.
Profile picture of Dan Posluns, Video Game Programmer
Dan’s got a trick for getting the attention of the big game studios. How does he do it?

Meet Dan Posluns, Video Game Programmer

Dan Posluns began his adventure in the cold northern lands of Canada, but journeyed to the USA to pursue a career programming video games. He’s worked on top franchises such as Spore, The Simpsons, The Sims, and LEGO Star Wars, and has written code on multiple platforms including handheld and mobile. He speaks with us today about what it takes to become a game developer, and how you can start your own quest programming games. Read more »

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This is one of more than 30 interviews with professional game developers. For more, visit Which game job is right for you?.
Jason Bay poses with a zombie by Rich Werner, 2D Artist
This is me, posing at PopCap’s Seattle offices with one of Rich Werner’s zombies. “Braaaaaiiiins!”

Meet Rich Werner, 2D Artist/Animator behind “Plants vs Zombies”

Rich Werner has been using his art to make games come alive (or at least, undead) for over 15 years. He’s well-known as the artist behind Plants vs Zombies, an award-winning franchise that’s sold millions of units across a dozen gaming platforms.

Rich left his job at PopCap Games in 2012, and set out on his own to spawn a new breed of indie games. Today we talk with him about his role as a self-employed video game artist, and what it takes to succeed as a 2D Artist – whether you want to work inside of a game studio, or out on your own.Read more »

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This is one of more than 30 interviews with professional game developers. For more, visit Which game job is right for you?.

Meet Merric Shank, Video Game Associate Producer

Merric Shank, Video Game Associate Producer
This dapper fellow explains why “soft skills” are a hard requirement for managing a game team.

Merric started out as a video game tester, and eventually grew his career into a Senior Producer. We’ve asked him to reflect on the several years he spent as an Associate Producer (abbreviated as AP or sometimes PA) to give you some insight into what it takes to land that job and build a successful career.

It’s worth noting that this advice applies to a PA job at a game developer, which is different than a PA job at a game publisher. There’s definitely some crossover, but a PA at a game developer works much more closely with the game team every day and often serves as the development team’s project manager. Read more »

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This is one of more than 30 interviews with professional game developers. For more, visit Which game job is right for you?.

Meet Nathaniel Hubbell, Video Game Special Effects Artist

Nathaniel Hubbell, Video Game Special Effects Artist
Nat takes bare-bones games and fleshes them out with stunning visual effects.

When it comes to animation, Nathaniel is a consummate “jack of all trades.” Whether it’s his work on big-budget franchises like Assassin’s Creed, Spore, or X-Men, Nat has leveraged his skills in animation, rigging and special effects to make amazing visuals that shock and awe gaming audiences everywhere.

Today, we talk with Nat about what it takes to become a VFX (Visual Special Effects) Artist in video games, and what you can do to get started down his path.Read more »

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This is one of more than 30 interviews with professional game developers. For more, visit Which game job is right for you?.

Meet Darby McDevitt, Video Game Writer

Darby McDevitt, Video Game Scriptwriter
Darby makes his own luck by working hard and saying “yes” at every opportunity.

Darby McDevitt is a scriptwriter for the hugely successful Assassin’s Creed series of games. But he doesn’t only write for games. He’s also released several prose fiction works, has been published in national literary journals and anthologies, and has released several music albums. He’s also written, produced, directed, or designed the audio for a number of successful films.

That should give you a hint about how Darby approaches his career: passionately. The best way to get good at something like writing for video games is to do it, and do it a lot.

Darby talks with us today about how his passion for learning new things and taking on more responsibility got him into the game industry – and continues to open new doors. It’s a lesson he hopes you’ll take to heart.Read more »

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This is one of more than 30 interviews with professional game developers. For more, visit Which game job is right for you?.

Meet Caleb Parrish, Video Game Environment Artist

Caleb Parrish, Video Game Environment Artist
“Be prolific. Draw every day. And play beautiful games before the fun ugly ones.”

Caleb has been creating gorgeous interactive environments for over 15 years. He’s shipped 10 games as a key art team member, and contributed to many more as a consultant and technical art resource. Caleb’s work includes titles from blockbuster franchises like Spiderman, Assassin’s Creed, and Spore, and he specializes in making art look amazing even on resource-limited mobile devices.

Although his credited work is largely as an Environment Artist, Caleb is also a talented digital painter. (There’s a link to his breathtaking online portfolio at the bottom of this article.) He accomplishes all this by living his own advice about drawing every day and being prolific in your work.Read more »

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This is one of more than 30 interviews with professional game developers. For more, visit Which game job is right for you?.

If you’re passionate about video games, you’ve probably wondered what it would be like to design your own. But what is it really like to become a game designer? What does a game designer do all day? What skills and talents does it require, and how can you get started?

To answer these questions and more, we asked professional game designers including: senior game designer Kelly Toyama (Riot Games, Monolith, Wizards of the Coast), multi-talented game designer/artist/programmer Mandi Burley (Glu Mobile, Disney Playdom), senior game designer Kim McAuliffe (Project Spark, SOCOM4), and design director Hal Milton (Marvel: Avengers Alliance, D&D Online, Ultima Online).

Below you’ll find their their unfiltered thoughts on how you can prepare yourself for a game design education. Follow their advice, and one day you just might follow in their footsteps.

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This is one of more than 30 interviews with professional game developers. For more, visit Which game job is right for you?.

Meet Jaclyn Shumate, Video Game Sound Designer

Jaclyn Shumate, Video Game Sound Designer
Put a face to the audio: Chances are good that you’ve already played some of Jaclyn’s games.

Jaclyn is no video game audio rookie. In fact, chances are good that you’ve personally enjoyed her work: since becoming a Sound Designer in 2006, she’s done audio for major game series including Peggle 2, Plants vs Zombies, Fable Journey, and Kinect Star Wars and many others.

If you thought that creating game audio is an easy job? Well, think again. Jaclyn says that in addition to having audio engineering talent, you must also be willing to put in the time to master your technical chops. But if you’ve got a knack for creating emotion through sound, this might be just the job for you.Read more »

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This is one of more than 30 interviews with professional game developers. For more, visit Which game job is right for you?.

Meet Tamara Knoss, UI/UX Artist

Tamara Knoss, Video Game UI/UX Artist
This is Tamara, and she hopes you don’t notice her work.

Tamara has been active in the game industry for well over a decade – her early work was on the Nintendo Game Boy Advance as a 2D animator. More recently, she’s been a key user interaction (UI) artist and user experience (UX) designer on a number of titles including Battle Nations, Deer Hunter Reloaded, Samurai vs Zombies Defense 2, and Shinobi 3DS.

Tamara talks with us today about why it takes a thick skin and collaborative mind to work in UI/UX, and why doing interface design can be supremely rewarding for somebody with the right kind of personality. Could it be a good job for you? Read more »

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