Home Forums General Discussion 2003 Game Development Salary Survey

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    • #3005
      Anonymous
      Inactive

      2003 Game Development Salary Survey on Gamasutra

      US centric, but worth a look nonetheless. The editors have promised to release the non-US data at a later date, despite it not being a significant enough sampling to be fully representative

      http://www.gamasutra.com/features/20040211/olsen_01.shtml

    • #10754
      Anonymous
      Inactive

      I took part in this survey, even though I am too much of a newbie to be representative, it would be nice to get the European results at least.

    • #10774
      Anonymous
      Inactive
    • #10775
      Anonymous
      Inactive

      it would be interesting to see a year-on-year comparison with the previous year’s results… anyone fancy taking it on?!

    • #10776
      Anonymous
      Inactive

      it would be interesting to see a year-on-year comparison with the previous year’s results… anyone fancy taking it on?! [/quote:bf6907e586]
      I have nothing to do right now. I could knock up something simple just to show the differences between the 2002 and 2003 surveys.

      I’ll have it up soon for you. :)

    • #10777
      Anonymous
      Inactive

      Please bare in mind that there were many differences between the two surveys that made if difficult to judge accurately but here is what I have been able to compare considering the differences. Anyone else very surprised? Surely the group of people surveyed changed dramatically. How else could we have such differing results?

      Tony, if you want anything more in depth or accurate you may want to ask someone else. I hope this is okay anyway. :)

      Programmer

      Up to 2 years
      2002 – $49,602
      2003 – $59,400

      2 to 5 years
      2002 – $56,106
      2003 – $69,413

      6 years plus
      2002 – $81,766
      2003 – $85,867

      Lead Programmer

      Up to 2 years
      2002 – $64,437
      2003 – $69,828

      2 to 5 years
      2002 – $63,035
      2003 – $76,904

      6 years plus
      2002 – $78,626
      2003 – $96,614

      Technical Director

      Up to 2 years
      2002 – $95,680
      2003 – $74,182

      2 to 5 years
      2002 – $73,786
      2003 – $97,907

      6 years plus
      2002 – $104,217
      2003 – $110,941

      Artist

      Up to 2 years
      2002 – $53,184
      2003 – $40,573

      2 to 5 years
      2002 – $53,471
      2003 – $53,636

      6 years plus
      2002 – $89,562
      2003 – $64,098

      Game design

      Up to 2 years
      2002 – $51,741
      2003 – $41,652

      2 to 5 years
      2002 – $45,700
      2003 – $53,031

      6 years plus
      2002 – $62,727
      2003 – $64,248

      Producer

      Up to 2 years
      2002 – $66,935
      2003 – $60,591

      2 to 5 years
      2002 – $55,645
      2003 – $78,603

      6 years plus
      2002 – $96,697
      2003 – $78,603

    • #10782
      Anonymous
      Inactive

      Nice one Ronny!

    • #11291
      Anonymous
      Inactive

      good job, Ronny – thanks for that!

    • #11294
      Anonymous
      Inactive

      Anyone see this letter on Gamasutra?

      Turns out they will not be releasing a non-US report after all. :(

      http://www.gamasutra.com/php-bin/letter_display.php?letter_id=671

      the decision to use only the United States salary data wasn’t our goal — we keep trying to collect enough data from outside the US to present a wider scope. Unfortunately, we didn’t get enough responses to break out, for example, entry-level programmers in France. We could aggregate all of the programmers’ salaries in a given country, but that would lump entry-level salaries with salaries earned by seasoned professionals, and we didn’t think that data would be very enlightening for people.

    • #11382
      Anonymous
      Inactive

      I think the reason alot of European Developers are put off filling it in, is because they think its US centric and not for them.

      They should do a European only survey – so that it is clear to Europeans that they do matter. Or shout from the rooftops that they really want non- US people to contribute.

      If a European only one is sucessful, merge it into the normal Gamasutra salary survey…or just do regional surveys.

    • #11384
      Anonymous
      Inactive

      Ronny, the letter you refer to was this from the ‘letters to the editor’ section? if so, there was an amendment to that response somewhere, saying they would release the rest-of-the-world figures at a later date, despite the fact the data set may not be representative…

      i fear that unless they break the figs up into Asia and EMEA/Europe (which would make the 1,100 odd non-US responses) even less representative as a data-set… then they will be next to useless to us, alas…

    • #11388
      Anonymous
      Inactive

      Thanks for that Tony.

      I got that info from a friend and when I went to see the letter Gamasutra was temporarily down, as you may have noticed yesterday. All I had to go by was my friend’s word and that quotation. Having read the article now I noticed the rest that I was not aware of.

      Personally I think the term ‘non-US’ is an insult as it reinforces people’s beliefs that there is America and then there is the pathetic lands outside of it. There would be a great difference between Indian, Japanese and British developers.

      As Ivan said there should be a European survey.

    • #11390
      Anonymous
      Inactive

      apologies, Ronny – the term is mine! but the real situation is worse – as they don;t refer to the rest of the world at all – an issue that came up for discussion at the IGDA meetings both during and after GDC

      even your pal Dave Perry (an Irishman by birth!) is not immune as his ‘best-selling titles of 2003’ slides refer only to the best-sellingUS games and not the world as a whole!!

    • #11392
      Anonymous
      Inactive

      Holy Sheet!

      Gama Stripped over a third of the reponses from the survey!

      (1,400 non-U.S. respondents versus a *huge* 2,740 US reponses)

      I am writing a letter as we speak.

    • #11399
      Anonymous
      Inactive

      Ok heres the letter I mailed:

      I was reading with interest Mark Laiman’s letter (dated 02.12.2004) regarding his disappointment with the the Gamasutra 2003 Salary Survey. In the Editor’s reply it was pointed out that there was not enough replies from the non-U.S. community to provide enough of a detailed breakdown of salaries for all regions outside of the U.S. across the experience spectrum.

      I can well imagine this to be the case, I am of the opinion that a lot of developers located outside the U.S. assume that the survey is not intended for them to partake. When the survey arrived minus a third of its total responses (1,400 non-U.S.respondents) it can only help underline the feeling that the survey is meant only for US developers.

      My recommendation for any future surveys would be to try to make it clear that the surveys are for all developers worldwide, thereby increasing the likelihood of responses from non-U.S. studios whom in the past would have felt excluded.

      Thanks,
      [/quote:2561b91b12]

      Damn straight.

      ( tanks 2 Damian for helpin me with me inglish. )

    • #11412
      Anonymous
      Inactive

      A few months ago (not more than two or three) there was a similar survey in France. For those of you who might be interested, I can send you the relevant document. Of course, for some positions, due to the weak number of answers, figures have to be taken carefully, but for most of “classic” positions, it gives a fair idea of the situation. I don’t know if a similar initiative was undertaken in the UK…

    • #11420
      Anonymous
      Inactive

      good letter kyototkid, but… bear in mind how fragmented those responses will be

      i fear that unless they break the figs up into Asia and EMEA/Europe (which would make the 1,100 odd non-US responses) even less representative as a data-set… [/quote:843c9c4dc4]

    • #11427
      Anonymous
      Inactive

      I know that the ‘foreigner’ vote, when spread across Asian\Europe\Canada\ etc, is small but thats why we need more participation from these regions.

      Gama should push for that.

      Or else I’ll firebomb ’em….or not. Depends how busy I am in work :p

    • #11539
      Anonymous
      Inactive
    • #11547
      Anonymous
      Inactive

      This link on the igda quality of life forum might be of interest too. Seems to suggest people (even if mostly non-games industry bods) reckon the surveys are a tad inflated looking. Maybe even within the US not enough people are replying to give a proper representation?

      http://www.igda.org/Forums/showthread.php?threadid=8685

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