Game Programmers Salary

Salary:
I start at Silicon Dreams next month, with a starting salary of £18,000 (approx $27,000), rising to £20,000 ($30,000) after 10 weeks probabtion...

http://www.thisisnurgle.org.uk

27,000$!!!!!! putz!!!!!

i´m on the right bussines

huh? you don´t wanna borrow me 80 bucks? you know i wanna buy FF9

So. i was there in the middle of a lot of witches and mages, when she come to me:
-You are too young to be a mage.
-No, i´m not a mage, i´m a programmer.
-How! Sorry... what a bad luck.
-Yeah... Don´t even talk about it...

Godfree, is that as a game designer or programmer or what?
Would you get more with the big Companies?
How about with a degree in CS?
How much is John Carmack making?

Konrad
{!!!!!!!!!BLAH!!!!!!!!!}

And do you first apply for a carreer in the Suit companies such as EA or EIDOS and move to a smaller one such as Raven or Black ISle or vice Versa?

Konrad
{!!!!!!!!!BLAH!!!!!!!!!}

First, you write, direct, produce and edit a kick ass demo reel of your work or build an incredible portfolio of art samples or code samples.

Next, you write your resume and send it out to every game company known to exist.

Then you wait. Usually a long time (months in most cases).

After the wait, you start to get rejection letters. These are usually little postcards that say "Golly, you''re a neat person and we like your work, but we just don''t have a use for you. We''ll keep you on file for 6 months. After that, resubmit a new demo reel and resume!"

And the demo request letters: "We like your resume, please send us your demo reel, art samples or code samples."

You do, and guess what? You wait again!

Then, if they like your reel/samples, they''ll call you and set up an interview. Or, after a few more months, you''ll get another rejection letter to add to your collection!

Starting a company is even harder because you need financial backing. Entertainment companies are high risk investments so not a lot of people are willing to give you money.

Best way to start would be to create a game concept with tons of outlines, story, design elements, GUI decisions.. everything.. and a demo of it. Take that demo and all your docs to places like Sony or Nintendo or Sega.. Or anywhere else that wants to invest in a new game. I think the makers of Drakkan did it this way. They were able to sell their ideas because they had a working demo of the game they were designing to show prospective investors.

As for starting salaries.. It depends on the company, the location, the project and your skill.

Hope that helped!

quote:

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How much is John Carmack making?

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Thought you were curios about average programmers. Considering the quake engine is almost a million bucks (and there is at least 7 games that are gonna be using it , I''d say he earns a lot more than the average programmer.

deadCricket, you couldn''t be more wrong.

a) I didn''t have a demo
b) Don''t have a degree (I''m 18)
c) The girst interview I had, I got the job

It doesn''t matter how good your graphics programming skills are, because graphics aren''t the most important things in games. What matters is a deep understanding of programming principles.

At my interview, I was asked questions like "how do you prevent memory fragmentation?" and "what is the best amount of optimization to do?". I wasn''t asked a single question of graphics (but I''m an AI/networking programmer, so that''s probably why). After the general programming questions, the interbiew moved on to project specific things, such as reducing latency in a fully-mediated server environment.

It doesn''t matter how much education you have, as long as you know what you are doing. (I''m not telling you to quit school, but if you believe you would learn more in the real world, then get into the real world. But remember, the real world has height restrictions)

http://www.thisisnurgle.org.uk

quote:

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"how do you prevent memory fragmentation?"

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what?? ugh... well still on time to find another vocation. milkman... dishwasher... baker... striper... taxi driver... a world of possibilitys

So. i was there in the middle of a lot of witches and mages, when she come to me:
-You are too young to be a mage.
-No, i´m not a mage, i´m a programmer.
-How! Sorry... what a bad luck.
-Yeah... Don´t even talk about it...

What was the answer? Use the stack? Allocate lots of data at once? Avoid using linked lists? Write your own heap?

Jeez, do you really need to know the answers to stuff like that in order make a Quake ]I[ Game???

How do you prevent memory fragmentation? - I guess, I would allocate/deallocate data in a FILO order (First In, Last Out) - This way there would''nt be gaps.

What is the best amount of optimization to do? - I guess, only the amount thats required to get the final product suitable for the correct market. More importantly it''s where to optimise, rather than how much.

I think I''ll have to go job-searching soon, I need money!!! - perhaps I''ll use my programming skills to stack-shelves in a super market

/Memir

Maybe if I make 2 cents per line of code or story I write I could just make enough bread

Working at a factory has used my programing skills to the fullest extents.
er... stacks of boxes,pointers to the clock, [thinks] memory allocation [ie trying to keep your memories intact] etc.
okay maybe not but in a short time I can get lots of cash (cashe? aha got one lol)

ok this was a useless post :D

perception -> Consciousness -> life

I am never programming again...

Konrad
{!!!!!!!!!BLAH!!!!!!!!!}

quote:

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I am never programming again...

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AAACCCCCCHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
heathen, hang thy head in shame

-arsenius

after three days without programming, life becomes meaningless

Isn''t it so that you can''t make moeny on programming games, but you can make quite a lot of programming buissnes applications?

I have never programmed a game in my life, but I have programmed many business apps and let me tell you my salary is nice it''s not great, but in a few years it should be pretty close to it. As far as me programming games, I''m trying to get there the road is long and tough and I''m doing what I can!

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Ezekiel 25:17
"The path of the righteous man is beset on all sides by the inequities of the selfish and the tyranny of evil men. Blessed is he who, in the name of charity and good will,shepherds the weak through the valley of darkness, for he is truly his brother's keeper and the finder of lost Children. And I will strike down upon thee with great vengeance and furious anger those who attempt to poison and destroy my brothers. And you will know my name is the Lord when I lay my vengeance upon you."

Programmers get paid? Thats it! I am DEFINITELY going to get into that kind of career now... And all this time I thought I was only doing it because I liked it... Sheesh!

-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
-Chris Bennett of Dwarfsoft
"The Philosophers' Stone of Programming Alchemy"
IOL (The list formerly known as NPCAI) - A GDNet production
Our Doc - The future of RPGs
Thanks to all the goblins over in our little Game Design Corner niche
          

quote:

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Original post by Memir

Jeez, do you really need to know the answers to stuff like that in order make a Quake ]I[ Game???

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Why do you need it? As the memory becomes fragmented, you will have a decrease in performance, so the quality of the game will degrade the longer you play. However, this is for console platforms, and DOS/Windoze/Linux has reletively decent memory managers.

The actual best answer (according to the guy who interviewed me) was to make sure you deallocated the memory after you used it (ala stack). My answer was to allocate blocks of the same size in a linked list (take one brick out, put another on in)

The games industry does have lower salaries than other parts of the IT industry, but *much* bigger bonuses if the games do really, really well (shares of royaltes).




http://www.thisisnurgle.org.uk