The Game Industry

[Jolanpiep]

Hey guys, I got a question. I am almost 15 now, and I'm in the 9th grade on VWO (Thats the hardest 'difficulty' for high school in my country, The Netherlands). I am certain I want to be a game designer when I grow up. I am already developing games using World Machine 2 and Unreal Engine 4. I am also going to use something like Blender but I'm not sure what program specifically. I specifically want to be a art director at Bethesda Game Studios.

These are my questions:

How much money can you make as a game developer working at a big company like Bethesda?

How does making a game work with developers?
Like will you work at for example Bethesda, then work on Skyrim and a few years later on Fallout 4, or will you be hired by companies to work at one game, and then switch to another company to make a totally different game.

Thanks everyone

 

[tomr4lph]

It depends what they want to do. Some developers are freelancers, some apply directly to companies. When someone hires you from a freelancing point of view, you do what they tell you. Personally, I'd try getting in touch with Bethesda and telling them your situation, see if they have any advice for you

 

[Jolanpiep]

It depends what they want to do. Some developers are freelancers, some apply directly to companies. When someone hires you from a freelancing point of view, you do what they tell you. Personally, I'd try getting in touch with Bethesda and telling them your situation, see if they have any advice for you

As someone still on highschool I doubt they will react but I will give it a try. How much money would this roughly make? Is it a well earned job?

 

[tomr4lph]

It really depends how good you are at it. You can probably safely assume if you get good with a stable company you'd be earning a quite comfortable amount.
Doing a quick Google search I was able to find this: http://uk.ign.com/articles/2014/07/22/heres-how-much-money-game-developers-make

 

[Jolanpiep]

It really depends how good you are at it.

Does that mean that, if for example, 10 art directors would be working on GTA 6, one could be making more money than another?

 

[tomr4lph]

I think most people in certain departments (Say art for example) would be making something fairly similar, but others working in other departments (Say core game design) would be making either more or less.

 

[Jolanpiep]

I think most people in certain departments (Say art for example) would be making something fairly similar, but others working in other departments (Say core game design) would be making either more or less.

Thanks for your information. Last question, do you think that the info that the website you found gave was true? It said 81,000 US Dollars per year in America average.

Oh and how do you know about these things?

 

[tomr4lph]

I think most people in certain departments (Say art for example) would be making something fairly similar, but others working in other departments (Say core game design) would be making either more or less.

Thanks for your information. Last question, do you think that the info that the website you found gave was true? It said 81,000 US Dollars per year in America average.

Oh and how do you know about these things?

I believe IGN, it's got a good reputation when it comes to gaming news. I know these things because back when I was in high school (And some of college) I wanted to be a game developer, but coursework among other things got in the way, and I got part way through leaning C# and end up just not doing any more work towards it.

 

[Jolanpiep]

Well, thanks for all your info! If I get a reaction from Bethesda I will post it here, maybe you'll be interested in what they say.

 

[tomr4lph]

Well, thanks for all your info! If I get a reaction from Bethesda I will post it here, maybe you'll be interested in what they say.

I will be, I should hope they'd help someone like you as not only is it helpful, but it's also good for their image