
In reality, there are other factors that can help designers beat the averages by quite a lot. The numbers above are averages from many hundreds of designer salaries, so they’re very general. Other Factors That Affect Game Designer Salary They can continue as an individual contributor, or they can lead a design team or a portion of a design team. There are many sub-titles such as “level designer,” “combat designer” or “systems designer” that fall under this catch-all umbrella.ģ Many companies have 2 career paths that a designer can take. Senior Game Designer or Lead Game Designer 3ġ The “associate” job description is generally applied to designers just starting their careers.Ģ The standard “game designer” moniker applies to established designers for most of their careers.

You get promoted based on the quality of your work and the amount of project responsibility you can handle.

You don’t get promoted just because you’ve been doing the job for a certain amount of time. It also decouples job title from years of experience, which more closely reflects how game design careers actually flow. I think this is more useful because it gives a salary range. As you may have guessed, this is because designers are rarely promoted into leadership positions in their first few years.Īnother way to break down the numbers is to look at each game design salary based on job title. Note that there isn’t data for Lead Game Designers with under 3 years of experience. Here are the average salaries for game designers with various years of experience. One way to break down the numbers is to look at experience.
Game designer salary plus#
These figures are generally from three sources:, Game Developer Magazine’s annual salary survey, and my observations based on designers I’ve worked with plus my own experience as a game designer. Okay, let’s take a look at the numbers in detail. See also Do video game programmers get to contribute to the game design? Game Designer Salary: Details Try searching for job titles like “game designer,” “level designer,” or “content designer.” There are many design jobs available, but they have different names depending on the state, country and game company. A designer’s salary is based on how well they can build a fun game as part of a team, not as a “creative genius who calls all the shots” while others do the heavy lifting. Everybody on your team will have great ideas. Video game development is a team sport, and great ideas are a dime a dozen. Do you have an awesome original game idea? Do you suspect it will make you rich, if only you could get hired as a designer? Think again. It’s worth noting that designers are not paid based on their great ideas. They also make fewer mistakes that could cause their work (or the work of their team) to be thrown out or redone from scratch. As a designer becomes more experienced and learns additional skills, they can work faster and create higher-quality results. Like most jobs, game designer salaries increase based on years of experience and by job title. With a salary range that wide, how is designer pay determined? Game Designer Salary: Factors And some companies pay their game designers even more – a lot more. Video game designer salaries range from $50,000 (entry-level jobs) to $100,000+ per year (senior/lead designers). Where is the studio located? How big is the company? What platforms are you developing for? Are you in an individual contributor role, or a leadership role? To muddy the waters further, the game designer job description varies a lot from studio to studio. Salary ranges for game designers can vary dramatically depending on several factors. It’s a good question, but it’s complicated. Once their enthusiasm simmers down a bit, the next question is usually a little more practical: How much do video game designers make?

But I also temper it by describing what a brutally hard job it can be at times. I always encourage them to follow that passion.

Boy oh boy, they’re passionate about games! They love to play games, talk about games, and read news about games. When people find out that I work at a game studio, there’s always one or two in the group that excitedly explain how badly they want to become a video game designer. Other factors that affect Designer salary.But can you make money? Table of Contents See the annual pay for all video game jobs here. This article is part of the Video Game Developer Salary series.
