I have worked in lots of different industries and still haven't found what I want to do. Im now 27 and totally unsure about where to go from here. I definitely feel like software and technology are the way forward nowadays. I have never had much money so salary is a big make or break for me. My goals are basically to find a career that I love, am passionate about and will finally result in me having a decent income.
I love gaming, I always have. My brother suggested I look into game development but according to https://www.glassdoor.co.uk/Salaries/game-developer-salary-SRCH_KO0,14.htm the average salary is £38,000. Looking at a few job specs the list of required skills is long and would take years of training to get to the point of even being able to apply for that. I currently have no skills required.
There are obviously other jobs in the gaming world that I am looking at like project management and sales, that seem to have higher salaries. Again though, it seems like these would take a good few years to get to.
Im really determined to work towards a decent salary, and dedicate myself to achieving my goals. Ive used this salary calculator https://www.income-tax.co.uk/calculator/50000/ and decided £50,000 a year is what I want to work towards, as that comes out as £3,128 net pay a month. Seems like alot but its not really with how much living costs.
Ideally I would want to achieve this by the time I'm thirty. Is game development the wrong route for this? Is there other jobs in the industry this may be more achievable in? I recognise that certain companies pay higher than the £38,000 average for game devs. I just really want to start working towards this straight away and just need some help deciding on the path to take. If I start now I truly believe I can look back in 3 years time and be glad. Im currently looking back at the 9 years since I left school thinking I could have done a hell of a lot more than I have.
Sorry for the long post, I just really need some guidance on what to do and how to start working towards achieving this.
Salary of game dev jobs after how many years? Unsure about career prospects
What is the decision you're trying to make? And is programming the career path you're contemplating? You just said “game development” but that covers a lot of career paths. Programmers are among the highest paid in the game industry. But programmers are paid more outside the game industry.
In my experience the pay is about the same in the game industry as outside of it. The pressure and challenge are definitely higher, though. With more than a decade of relevant experience (game or not) you can go way above the pay you refer to. $100k+ is very common in the U.S. One thing to look out for is after you work in games its a double edged sword back in the regular industry. Some managers will think you will not be excited about a regular job anymore, but some (fewer) will respect your game development experience and hire you because of it.
Tom and VoxycDev are right.
Being passionate about gaming is nice. All games consumers are. Is it enough to break into game dev? Nowhere near.
Most* people in the games industry are actually passionate about the development itself in their respective fields of expertise. I would say that a vast majority of us don't do it just because of the money, that's on ‘the second track’, the foremost is our interest in the field and game development in general. Some programmers in gamedev might not care about games too much, they like the programming work - their passion is software development and just happen to be in gamedev but even they still support my point.
There's nothing wrong about setting a wage goal for yourself but it feels like you're going at it from the wrong angle, at least for our awesome industry.
(*surely not all people are so passionate. Also don't mistake gaming and game development. Surprisingly many game developers don't consume games anymore, especially after many years)
Hi Emily,
I see you're measuring figures in pounds so I'll assume you're looking for employment in the UK.
Fact is, an entry level developer won't be getting anything near £38,000, never mind £50,000. (And actually, that IS a lot in the UK. You talk about living costs, but unless you're in London, £50k goes a long way. That puts you in the top 15% of the country for income.)
Given that you have 3 years before your own deadline and that you want £50k a year, then no, you will not achieve that in the games industry. It'll be hard to break into the industry at all without a 3-year Bachelors degree, and even then you'd be looking at a junior position (£20k-£30k). It can be done without formal education but you need to be dedicating all your spare hours to self-education and producing a portfolio of work, which will take a while as you admit you have no relevant skills yet, and you'll still be entering at junior level.
The £50k range is ‘Senior Programmer’ territory and for that you're looking at another 5 years of employment at least, probably more.
Realistically speaking there is no position in the games industry that you could train for in 3 years that would offer you £50k. The companies that pay more than average are expecting better than average applicants in terms of skills and expertise.
More realistically, you might consider more general software development, where the pay is a bit higher and you could perhaps get into the £40k+ bracket within 3 years IF you take an introductory course and IF you're a quick learner and IF you are able to hop jobs to get better pay rises.
@Kylotan Thank you, I've done some more reading on it since I posted and I think you are right. Thank you all for your comments, I will have to think more and probably do general software dev than game specific and keep gaming as a hobby and not a career
ya sorry to say but you won't make that much in this industry starting out.
I agree with the earlier post that if your doing game dev for the money your not really going to get far.
Game dev ids a career that even if you work for years you still might not make the income your hoping for. Not to mention most game devs are hourly not salary.
Game dev is best treated as a hobby until you get ood enough to get paid for it, and even then, you start off at the lower end.
Also, your target compensation comes out to about $65K a year, and you simply won't make that starting out.The closest career you can do to get close to that is project management and it takes a few years to get there too.
your lower end comes out to about $48K and that is what you can expect to make on an entry level.
