Game Developer Magazine asked its subscribers to report how much they earn per year and 6000 responses were received. Only data from those with three to six years of experience is included. Salaries are in USD.

Art and Animation
Artist: $61,065
Art Director: $65,313
Lead Artist: $68,112

Audio
Composer: $60,093
Audio Director: $62,206

Business and Legal
Marketing: $76,667
Admin: $81,765
Executive: $106,590

Game Design
Game Designer: $54,777
Writer: $61,000
Creative Director: $72,125

Production
Producer: $66,375
Executive Producer (all with more than six years experience): $127, 375

Programming
Programmer / Engineer: $73, 618
Lead Programmer: $81,591
Technical Director: $104,738

Quality Assurance
Tester: $29,722
QA Lead: $43,125

That's going to be me some day. Assuming I get through school without dying >.<

Art and animation for me :3

=Divals

Hum, very interesting. Some of those numbers aren't as high as I expected them to be.

Getting the chance to actually create a work of art others will appreciate:

Priceless.

~anyway. Yeah, that would be brilliantly fun, but I think ill fall just barely on the more legitimate side (Information Science). But if this game I'm working on as a recreational project pulls through, it might be enough of a portfolio to turn the right sorts of heads.

Given that these were posted along with some advertisements, I have to wonder what kind of ulterior motive is behind that post. Just trying to get more people into the industry?

Note of course that according to the original poster, entry-level salaries are not included there. Those salaries would be much lower.

that's not alot of money for an industry that spits you out the older you get. keep in mind the youth factor when you go into this field. the younger you are, the less they can pay you, and the longer you'll last. try to hit 40 and still be doing art for the same companies. lots of older game designers and artists i know are forced out of the business entirely, or forced to take a smaller wage than they should.

Salary for some bogus spammer: $29 per post plus $.79 for each click on some link.

I actually am writing an essay picking some career paths I might be interested. I said software engineer as one of them. I want to learn how to "use" the C and C++ languages. Any suggestions?

Edit: Reading here I realize... you know what. Well, people who do read this topic, still answer me!

Yep. QA is really that bad of pay and respect. I hated it.

So why is this topic not locked or deleted?

I wouldn't mind making as much money as an "executive producer"... but 30 grand a year for testing also sounds cool

You say that now, but most game testing is very tedious. Try running into the wall. Try walking into the wall. Try crawling into the wall. Try shooting the wall with your pistol and then walking into it. Try shooting it with your machinegun and then walking into it. Try blowing it up and then walking into it. Repeat with running and crawling. Move to next section of wall.

Yes, there's a certain amount of just playing the game and looking for things that don't work, but game testing is legitimate work; testers aren't paid to just play videogames.

Yes, but they are paid less than other jobs because their work is more simple. I am good at finding glitches in video games, actually... I think I would be good at that, and I wouldn't mind doing it.