Game-Art - Does it pay good?

[sarge mat]

I think in the UK you can get going at around 15-20k. Personally I never think about the money, yea it will be great to get payed to do it one day, but I love doing it anyway and to think my mum suggested I become a teacher at one stage lol.

[Steve Iacopetti]

Thanks Simbyotic, that clarifies it a bit.

[germball]

Based on a survey conducted at the start of the year, the UK industry breaks down as follows:

Development Programmer:
Junior: £18-£25k
Regular: £20-£35k
Senior: £35k-£50k
Lead: £40-£60k

Artist:
Junior: £18k -£21k
Regular: £20-£27k
Senior: £27-£35k
Lead: £38-£55k

Designer:
Junior: £18-£21k
Regular: £20-£28k
Senior: £25-£35k
Lead: £38-£55k


The games industry can be a strange place to work in. Like many things, there is good and bad. When its good, it can be very very good, but when its bad it can be real bad.
There is virtually no overtime and its almost a guarantee that you will work crunch time, and when that happens you can pull some crazy hours. Some companies claim to not make people work extra hours, but I have yet to see this really happen.

The game industry can often present itself as a cool, laid back and funky place to be in, but bottom line is, that it takes alot of hard work to get a game made and shipped. Gone are the days of spending 4 years+ on making one game.
Very often, the hard work is offset by having the chance to work in a creative environment with a great team of people. And teamwork is a very important aspect of working in games.

It's hard to give a percentage, as to what can give you that edge in getting a job in games. There are just so many factors. But the ability it be able to fit and work in a team is certainly to me a very important factor. After all you will spend 1-2 years with these guys working on a game. And many companies would take this into consideration, ability and skill is certainly important, but being a good team fit is equally as important.

[MrDev]

Yea the unfortunate side of game art is the fact that you're being contracted for a job, so you're getting paid a single sum up front, if you have to spend more time than expected to solve a problem, then thats your time. I know some guys stay in the office till 9 every weekday. The cool thing I've been looking into are royalties, I don't have an exact figure, but assume you land a job at blizzard and you worked on WoW and part of your contract included royalties... you wouldn't be set for life but thats one bad ass bonus

I'm currently working in print media living with my folks and going to school for a comm design degree because I know how expensive its going to be to live in the cities where the jobs are at. Like every one else I'd love to have a well paying job where I own a large house with plenty of land in fact I could get there doing print media after I graduate this spring, but this is my dream job, and knowing that every Monday I'll wake up an hour early and WANT to be at work makes me try harder every day.

[germball]

well that's another thing. Dev staff do not get royalties as a regular payment.
Some studio and companies will give bonuses, some project related, some are just annually.

I know a couple of evry larger developers who pay a studio bonus annually but only if certain criteria are met, games shipped on time, revenue targets hit, etc. And then the bonus is a fixed percentage based on your role and level.

[Jonathan]

It doesn't matter if you make $40,000 a year or $200,000 a year, it is what you do with it.

You can make $200,000 a year and by the time you retire, be in much worse condition than the guy that was making $40,000 a year but invested it wisely and wasn't careless in his life nor in his finances.

-Be frugal with your money
-Don't fall into the trap of buying new cars all the time, as they break down just like "old" cars
-Don't look to see how you'll spend your check "on the weekend," but rather look and see how your check will benefit you in 5, 10, 15, 20 years, etc. The broke person basis his finances on the weekend, the wise investor basis his finances on his broad and bright future.

[X-Convict]

Originally Posted by doylle

If you're doing it for the money then you're in the wrong business.

Exactly what Doylle said, that's what you should learn first and foremost. Do it because you love it, and money comes to the talented. There's obviously ways to make bank if you aim for that. The chances are you will be happier doing it because you enjoy it than for the money, because it'll be far more difficult to accumulate a lot in this feild as opposed to another.

[PixelMasher]

here In vancouver starting wage can range from ~30-40k. I ve heard of some artist reaching salariees of 120k but its probably pretty rare, plus when companies are looking to cut caosts usually you would be on the chopping block 1st with your fat salary.

I think the payoff really comes when a band of colleagues usually tend to break off after 5-6 years of working together and form their own studio and if they are lucky are bought and thats when the cashola comes in. but the way I look at it, I am not working at a burger shack, not doing hard physical labor and get to make something thousands of people will enjoy, so its really not too bad at all

[glynnsmith]

I disagree with the "if you're doing it for the money" comments. Why else would you go through the hassle of creating game art for an evil, bloodsucking, money-grabbing company if not for the money? If the money factor wasn't so important, we'd all be sitting at home working on our personal projects and things that we're REALLY wanting to be working on.

Of course the money's important. Trying to take a moral stance over being paid for your services is silly, imo. It's not that black and white. Of course, love what you do, but get them papers, son!

Also, whilst we're on this subject - Not sure if anyone else has said it yet - but with working in a studio you do feel a lot safer as payday comes every month.

Freelancing can be a gamble at times and working whilst you're thinking about putting food on the table and budgetting and filing your tax returns and all the rest of it and chasing people for payments and figuring out where the next contract's going to come from, can be a very real problem and inducive to artist block, bad moods, sleep deprivation and all the rest of it. It's not fun to be struggling as a freelance artist.

If you're solely wanting to be a game artist, it's usually a good idea to get a studio job first, so you know the ropes, get that experience on your C.V and figure out if freelancing is really the route you want to take. You can always moonlight some freelancing work in your spare time and work on building contacts and business links and still have that nice chunk of change in your bank account each month.

[Talon]

Originally Posted by glynnsmith

I disagree with the "if you're doing it for the money" comments. Why else would you go through the hassle of creating game art for an evil, bloodsucking, money-grabbing company if not for the money? If the money factor wasn't so important, we'd all be sitting at home working on our personal projects and things that we're REALLY wanting to be working on.

Fuck that.

If EA came and said to me "We can pay you ten grand more than what you're making now and you'll be working on [generic EA franchise] 2009, 2010, 2011 and 2012, want the job?"... I wouldn't be taking the job.