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Geek Culture / Is this true about the salary of a video game artist?

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NeX the Fairly Fast Ferret
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Posted: 27th Sep 2008 00:08
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My tutor says £15000-£20000 a year maximum for a video game artist of any standard... is this true? That's a fairly paltry sum for a lot of work and I doubt anyone could live alone (as in to eat, own a residence of ANY sort) on £15000. If that is true (which is why I'm asking here) I'm going to seriously consider another line of work.

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Alucard94
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Posted: 27th Sep 2008 00:11 Edited at: 27th Sep 2008 00:39
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Quote: "as in to eat, own a residence of ANY sort"

One of my parents get just a little bit more than that and she's been able to live in a nice normal sized apartment and been able to support me and still have a lot over. So I think that that is too much of an assumption to make.
EDIT: But then again, I live in Sweden, prices might be different here.


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El Goorf
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Posted: 27th Sep 2008 00:16
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i imagine the salary varies greatly between the different art-related occupations, do you mean story board artist, concept artist, modeller?

why not look at a games dev company and look up what they pay?

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RalphY
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Posted: 27th Sep 2008 00:22
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I have a friend who started as a games tester on £16.5K a year, so I would expect an artist would earn more than that.

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NeX the Fairly Fast Ferret
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Posted: 27th Sep 2008 00:32
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One of the other things he said was that games testers often got marginally better salaries than artists. By artist I am being pretty general; modeller, animator, 2D artist, the lot.

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Zotoaster
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Posted: 27th Sep 2008 01:00
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In an interview with a university my advisor told me you can earn up to £50k a year... Now that's good money, lol.

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Sasuke
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Posted: 27th Sep 2008 01:02
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Starting Salaries based in London and South east UK:

These are all entry level positions:
Programmer £18K-£25K
Artist £18K-£21K
Designer £17K-£21K
Animator £18K-£21K
Producer/Project Manager £18K-£22K
Tester £12K-£15K

When you move on in your career, you will get paied alot more, in the UK you could earn anything between £25K-£60K+ depened on your job, not only that you could be out sourced to work on movies, tv programes, websites, media stuff depending on your job.

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Van B
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Posted: 27th Sep 2008 01:35
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The stronger your resume the higher the salary you could expect. £15-20k a year is what you'd start on, there's no way that testers get paid more than artists!.


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Raven
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Posted: 27th Sep 2008 04:11
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Quote: "My tutor says £15000-£20000 a year maximum for a video game artist of any standard... is this true?"


About 5years ago maybe, but today you're looking at entry-level being between £20-35k (depending on company, location, etc.) which often includes very good bonus structures, private health insurance, etc.

You really do work for this though. Art for games over the past 5years has changed from simple polygons and textures to a marriage of technology and design. Artists now much have much broader knowledge of systems and need to interact far more closely with the actual development team; as well as each other.

There's more pressure put on you to put out something on-par if not better than others in the same field as well as knowing your work will be on display at the HD Resolutions that have the bad nack of showing every little flaw as if it's under a magnifying glass. As well as an ever increasing public demand.

Aspects like characters that would be able to be developed within a week, now can take close to a month. That's if you're not dealing with new technology (like Euphoria, or such)

I mean not to try and put you off or such, just believe me the pay is not the aspect of the job you should be worrying about.

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Jeku
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Posted: 27th Sep 2008 21:33
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Quote: "By artist I am being pretty general; modeller, animator, 2D artist, the lot."


Well they would all tend to make different amounts, so you'd have to be more specific. A lead artist on a game will make more than your figure for sure.


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Chris K
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Posted: 28th Sep 2008 14:11
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Lead Artists can make more like £60,000!

-= Out here in the fields, I fight for my meals =-
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Sasuke
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Posted: 28th Sep 2008 14:25
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All the ones I said above are from Edge Magazine which is like the top magazine for games development, its more aimed at developers, they recently had an article about breaking into the industry, ton of info on courses at top unversities around the country/world and section about each role in games.

For more info on this, its up on there site, MUST READ:
http://www.edge-online.com/magazine/breaking-into-games-from-every-angle

Also, Crytek’s lead designer Tony Davis say a few words, if you didn't know, he plays with DBP aswell.

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Zappo
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Posted: 30th Sep 2008 02:46
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According to the 2007 game industry salary survey (worldwide) these are the current average figures:

Programmer
3 years experience or less = $58,000 (£32,200)
3 to 6 years experience = $74,700 (£41,500)
More than 6 years experience = $88,800 (£49,300)

Lead Programmer
3 years experience or less = $73,300 (£40,700)
3 to 6 years experience = $80,100 (£44,400)
More than 6 years experience = $98,200 (£54,500)

Technical Director
3 to 6 years experience = $92,000 (£51,000)
More than 6 years experience = $119,000 (£66,000)

Artist/Animator
3 years experience or less = $45,400 (£25,200)
3 to 6 years experience = $61,700 (£34,200)
More than 6 years experience = $72,000 (£39,900)

Lead Artist/Animator
3 years experience or less = $46,600 (£25,800)
3 to 6 years experience = $69,000 (£38,300)
More than 6 years experience = $86,200 (£47,800)

Art Director
3 to 6 years experience = $69,000 (£38,300)
More than 6 years experience = $99,100 (£55,000)

Game Designer
3 years experience or less = $44,300 (£24,600)
3 to 6 years experience = $52,900 (£29,300)
More than 6 years experience = $67,400 (£37,400)

Writer
3 years experience or less = $45,300 (£25,100)
3 to 6 years experience = $48,500 (£26,900)
More than 6 years experience = $80,100 (£44,400)

Lead Designer/Creative Director
3 to 6 years experience = $67,000 (£37,200)
More than 6 years experience = $88,600 (£49,100)

Producer/Project Leader
3 years experience or less = $52,900 (£29,300)
3 to 6 years experience = $62,200 (£34,500)
More than 6 years experience = $83,000 (£46,000)

Executive Producer
3 to 6 years experience = $92,200 (£51,200)
More than 6 years experience = $127,400 (£70,700)

Game Tester
3 years experience or less = $24,600 (£13,600)
3 to 6 years experience = $28,700 (£15,900)

Q/A Lead
3 years experience or less = $29,900 (£16,600)
3 to 6 years experience = $45,800 (£25,400)
More than 6 years experience = $66,600 (£39,900)

Remember: This includes BIG companies in BIG cities so don't expect to be paid these figures out in the sticks


Chart data provided with kind permission from ELSPA
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Butter fingers
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Posted: 30th Sep 2008 03:30
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Quote: "don't expect to be paid these figures out in the sticks"


stix

As in the river stix.

I'm sorry I couldn't resist. There is evidently something wrong with me.

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Zappo
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Posted: 30th Sep 2008 03:59
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Actually I meant the countryside - as in sticks and twigs. Never mind though, eh.


Chart data provided with kind permission from ELSPA
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Sid Sinister
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Posted: 30th Sep 2008 09:01
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How the hell does a writer make more than an animator? That really pisses me off (I'm currently studying animation at college). Writing is not a technical skill. It's lame compared to the work and energy you need to put into making a game. Grr

"If I have seen a little further it is by standing on the shoulders of Giants" - Isaac Newton
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Uncle Sam
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Posted: 30th Sep 2008 11:02
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Quote: "My tutor says £15000-£20000 a year maximum for a video game artist of any standard... is this true? That's a fairly paltry sum for a lot of work and I doubt anyone could live alone (as in to eat, own a residence of ANY sort) on £15000. If that is true (which is why I'm asking here) I'm going to seriously consider another line of work."


Are you kidding? That's more than enough to live comfortably.

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Toasty Fresh
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Posted: 30th Sep 2008 11:31
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Quote: "stix"


Actually, it's Styx.

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BatVink
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Posted: 30th Sep 2008 15:19
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Quote: "How the hell does a writer make more than an animator? That really pisses me off (I'm currently studying animation at college). Writing is not a technical skill. It's lame compared to the work and energy you need to put into making a game"


Try reading Quests by Jeff Howard, which I have reviewed in the next newsletter. A good writer is worth a lot of money, they can make or break a game - and the sequels. I didn't actually realise how in-depth an area this was before reading the book, it's fascinating stuff.

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Little Bill
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Posted: 30th Sep 2008 18:18
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Zappo, could you post a link to your source? I'd like to take a look.


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Matt Rock
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Posted: 30th Sep 2008 21:20
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Quote: "That's a fairly paltry sum for a lot of work and I doubt anyone could live alone (as in to eat, own a residence of ANY sort) on £15000."

In the US, there are a lot of people who only earn $30k/ year (£15k)... sad, but true.

Quote: "How the hell does a writer make more than an animator? That really pisses me off (I'm currently studying animation at college). Writing is not a technical skill. It's lame compared to the work and energy you need to put into making a game. Grr"

How is writing not a technical skill? In any story-based game, good writing is what separates the Grand Theft Autos from the True Crimes... the Fallouts from the SenZars. It's difficult to see your own vision truly realized on paper, so imagine how complex it must be to realize someone else's concept through your words. Writers, and Designers at times, are often under-credited for what they bring to a development team. Writers may not be all that important on a puzzle game, but most games today wouldn't sell without skilled writers. But I'm a writer and couldn't tell you the difference between a pixel and a polygon, so I'm clearly bias here lol .

Zappo's Source, or so I assume. They publish these results annually in Game Developer Magazine.

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AndrewT
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Posted: 30th Sep 2008 22:44
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Quote: "How is writing not a technical skill? In any story-based game, good writing is what separates the Grand Theft Autos from the True Crimes... the Fallouts from the SenZars. It's difficult to see your own vision truly realized on paper, so imagine how complex it must be to realize someone else's concept through your words. Writers, and Designers at times, are often under-credited for what they bring to a development team. Writers may not be all that important on a puzzle game, but most games today wouldn't sell without skilled writers. But I'm a writer and couldn't tell you the difference between a pixel and a polygon, so I'm clearly bias here lol . "


Ya, and also writing isn't the kind of thing that you can go from knowing nothing about it to being an expert of it. For the most part not everybody can be a writer. No matter how hard they try, 90% of the kids in my ELA class at school could never be a writer, whereas anyone can be a programmer, animator, or modeler; it just takes a lot of practice.

90% of statistics are completely inaccurate.
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David R
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Posted: 30th Sep 2008 22:56
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Quote: "For the most part not everybody can be a writer. No matter how hard they try, 90% of the kids in my ELA class at school could never be a writer, whereas anyone can be a programmer, animator, or modeler; it just takes a lot of practice."


No - anyone can be something. Whether they're any good at it is the key (Not everyone can be a good programmer in my opinion, some people just never seem to 'get it' no matter how long they've been learning/coding)


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Matt Rock
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Posted: 1st Oct 2008 02:45
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Quote: "No - anyone can be something. Whether they're any good at it is the key"

Exactly, I couldn't agree more. I think I'm a decent writer.. not the best, but publishable I think. But my source code? Let's just say the people who've seen it probably wish they hadn't, lol. It's functional... I mean, when you hit F5 it runs... but I don't think it's in me to be a properly good programmer. I'm not driven in programming so much as its a tool to express what I write and design. That's why I'm useless on my own lol, I'd never be able to make art like Dink or digital music like Epithika. But if I didn't go out and actively build a team myself, I wouldn't be working on games right now. Maybe it's not so bad in the mainstream industry, but to most indie developers, anyone who puts "writer" or "designer" on their resume gets shunned, even though there are those of us out there who actually know what we're doing, lol. People send game designs to MISoft from time to time and we actually take a look at every one of them, and some of the better ones get forwarded around to others. I'd hope some other team would do the same if it were me on the other end of that, but chances are it probably wouldn't work that way. At any rate, a true designer or writer will work just as hard as a programmer or animator. In some extreme cases, they'll work even harder. I don't think anyone can rightly say they're more needed on a dev team than anyone else. Well, except testers, everyone can pick on QA people .

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Jeku
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Posted: 1st Oct 2008 03:22 Edited at: 1st Oct 2008 03:29
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The thing is there isn't a lot of room for "writers" in the game industry. I would highly doubt a major company that actually employs "writers" would have more than a small handful. Programmers and artists, on the other hand, are plentiful. There's a lot of competition to be a "game writer", whatever that means. At least for artists there are many different types of jobs you can study for.

I mean, how often does a game come out that actually had a storyline written by a professional, and not by a producer (not the same as a writer)? Even at Valve they don't hire "writers", but everyone in the company has a hand in fleshing out the story.

Come to think of it I've never met a games writer in all my years in the industry.

Quote: "At any rate, a true designer or writer will work just as hard as a programmer or animator. In some extreme cases, they'll work even harder."


It all depends on the project lifecycle. A producer/game designer is *not* the same as a writer. But of the producers that I work with every day, they're spending tons of overtime throughout the entire project for less pay. Some of the other positions, artists for example, work a lot in the beginning of a project, but by the end after art lockdown they are already working on the next project. The programmers do a lot of thinking and paperwork in the beginning, then at the major milestones and finaling they're busting ass and crunching. In my experience the programmers and producers do the majority of the overtime. A "game writer", whatever that is, I can't seriously see working past production. They write the game's storyline and then work on continuity (I imagine). But at the end of the project I can't imagine they're doing a lot--- I mean, the storyline and elements should be finished in pre-production


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Toasty Fresh
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Posted: 1st Oct 2008 07:41
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Here's a question: What would happen if someone was bad at texturing, but excellent at modelling? Would there be someone handling the modelling, and someone else the texturing?

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Jeku
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Posted: 1st Oct 2008 07:53
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Probably depends on the size of the company, but as far as I know texturing and modeling are two different areas. I could be wrong.


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BatVink
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Posted: 1st Oct 2008 12:36 Edited at: 1st Oct 2008 12:36
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Try this for a background...

http://www.thegamecreators.com/data/newsletter/newsletter_issue_69.html#10

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