Home Career & Education

Can you make a decent living as a game artist or do you tend struggle financially alot?

dosit
vertex
Offline / Send Message
dosit vertex
As the question states. Weather that be in studios or as a frelancer

Replies

  • RyRyB
    Offline / Send Message
    RyRyB polycounter lvl 18
    I can only speak to the in-studio part but yes, you can live a financially comfortable life. You probably won't be living in mansions and driving supercars but you can do quite well.

    Stability, on the other hand, is a whole other story...   :)
  • deohboeh
    Offline / Send Message
    deohboeh polycounter lvl 5
    Git good. Git monay!
  • deohboeh
    Offline / Send Message
    deohboeh polycounter lvl 5
    To elaborate. Your value is equal to the money you get paid. If your skills and contribution is less than  average you'll get a less than average salary. Of you practice and make them better you'll get more. Sky is the limit. At average pay you'll be able to sustain a living and a bit more but for sustaining families. You'd want to keep upgrading your skills.

  • Eric Chadwick
    First year or so as a freelancer is always a struggle. You need to learn how to run your business, and you need to get steady clients.

    First year as a salaryman is much easier. Someone else is managing the business, and getting the clients.

    We have good info here
    http://wiki.polycount.com/wiki/Game_Industry
  • JacqueChoi
    Offline / Send Message
    JacqueChoi polycounter
    Here's some solid numbers:
    http://www.gamesetwatch.com/2014/09/05/GAMA14_ACG_SalarySurvey_F.pdf


    On average:
    Artists with under 3 years XP will make $50k

    3-6
    Years $55,547 - $71,029

    Over 6 years the average is:
    $82,230 - $87,576

    Plenty of Artists I know making double that without holding a director or Lead title.

    Salaries have wide variances based on location, experience, and portfolio.


    Seems pretty livable for me.

  • firestarter
    Offline / Send Message
    firestarter polycounter lvl 19
    Geography would be the biggest deciding factor. Across North America you *can make a decent living in a studio, Western Europe *maybe in some countries. UK nope.

    If you're in Eastern Europe/Asia/South America etc, I get the impression freelancing would probably be a better choice *if you have the drive to make that work.
  • huffer
    Offline / Send Message
    huffer interpolator
    Eastern Europe - outsourcing studio - yes, you can live well since the living costs are so low, I imagine as a freelancer you could earn even more if you work directly with clients over the Atlantic.
  • Kwramm
    Offline / Send Message
    Kwramm interpolator
    huffer said:
    Eastern Europe - outsourcing studio - yes, you can live well since the living costs are so low
    It ain't cheap there either. If you're from a richer country, you should make sure you still earn enough to put some money aside, so you're not a beggar by the time you return to your own home. In addition, you should also think about things like pension and other things that your employer and your host country doesn't take care of (or only takes care of by local standards).
  • chrisradsby
    Offline / Send Message
    chrisradsby polycounter lvl 15
    I live comfortably working in a studio, I won't be owning a supercar (or any fancy  car) anytime soon though haha. The big pay-off I guess where I'm currently at is that I've never , not even once felt the pressure of the studio closing down, me losing my job etc. The stability is real.
Sign In or Register to comment.