Game Developer Career Guide Fall 2008

Jeremy Lindstrom · Sep 2008

I guess I missed it just stumbled across it today, if any of you like this stuff; average salary stuff in there too...

http://gamedeveloper.texterity.com/gamedeveloper/2008careerguide/

Eric Chadwick · Sep 2008

I liked the interview questions section. Nice that they're releasing it as a digital freebie.

killingpeople · Sep 2008

that's a very good issue. i wish i had seen articles like these when i was starting.

tiki240 · Sep 2008

thank you so much for posting this. i will be making this my bible and adjusting my skill-set to suit.

J Randall · Sep 2008

Guys n Galls don't forget to click the download button.

Thegodzero · Sep 2008

hahaha best part of that

for art
"some college 69k
bachelors degree 66k"

for programming
"some college 87k
bachelors degree 79k"

Love it!

Mangled Poly · Sep 2008

the salary surveys always make me laugh....

TWilson · Sep 2008

I like the questions for the interviewee to ask during an interview. I usually don't have questions until after I leave the interview.

Mangled: Why? I think it's interesting to see the average salaries. I like that they included location averages as well. This is so important because the standard of living is drastically different between a place like Vancouver and Ontario or California and Colorado.

Mangled Poly · Sep 2008

TWilson wrote: »

I like the questions for the interviewee to ask during an interview. I usually don't have questions until after I leave the interview.

Mangled: Why? I think it's interesting to see the average salaries. I like that they included location averages as well. This is so important because the standard of living is drastically different between a place like Vancouver and Ontario or California and Colorado.

Twilison cause there is no exact science to it and I firmly believe they do not interview/survey enough people to make it accurate. The included location averages are the top 10 paying states so a place like Texas is not listed even though it has a crazy amount of developers and not to mention you get more for your buck here.

Trying to compare programmers to graphic artists wages are kind of stupid as well... I know many companies they pay programmers a bit more because they are a tech company and founded by a programmer vs other companies may pay artists a bit more for the opposite reasons.

Not to mention many different companies pay different wages, so if they decide to interview one company for the whole "area" then that average is now way skewed. Not to mention I know art directors at cell phone startups that do not get paid a third of art directors at massive developers.

If you really want a better idea there are companies like Croner that break it down by area, exact title you have, and company size.

man_o_mule · Sep 2008

really good read. thanks for posting it.

Eric Chadwick · Sep 2008

Thanks for the Croner reference, too bad it's not cheap.

Lee3dee · Sep 2008

Mangled Poly wrote: »

the salary surveys always make me laugh....

yeah

chrismaddox3d · Sep 2008

how close and accurate is the salary survey,
for example for someone in tx lets say,Thanks,Chris

Eric Chadwick · Sep 2008

Salaries are all over the place, even for two people in the same relative positions within the same company. You should only use the survey as a very very general guide.

Game Developer Career Guide Fall 2008

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