Hi everyone! I'm trying to become a professional computer programmer--either a game programmer, or a network secuirty specialist(?). However, I have heard that, largely because of the HUGE amounts of people willing to do game programming, you are paid "peanuts" for doing so, IF you are able to find a job at all. Programmers: Is this true? I don't want to spend 4+ years of my life and >$50,000 to get into a careeer that I can't make any money at....

They don't earn peanut but they also don't earn as much as business programmers would. If money is your motivating factor and you don't mind what programming you do then go business. If you are willing to take less money in order to work on something you are passionate about then go for games.

Hey Obscure,

So, what kind of discrepancy in salary are we talking about between game programming and business programming?

do you have a dollar amount for the salaries of Business and Gameing programmers?

I took a 20% paycut and have to work about 30% more hours when I went from business to games programming. YMMV. Having said that, I'm still fairly well paid.

Quote: Original post by Brokenimage
Hi everyone!
I'm trying to become a professional computer programmer--either a game programmer, or a network secuirty specialist(?). However, I have heard that, largely because of the HUGE amounts of people willing to do game programming, you are paid "peanuts" for doing so, IF you are able to find a job at all.

Programmers: Is this true? I don't want to spend 4+ years of my life and >$50,000 to get into a careeer that I can't make any money at....

And the low game programmer don't seem to make so much, for the more expeirenced developers - I havn't seen a huge difference between business and game developement (granted no one tells you exactly how much they make, but I can guess ;))

A good entry level dev job on the business side is circa 70k, and probablly only 50k for game developers. Blame this on an army of people who want to be developers.

At the senior level, the gap isn't nearly so big - if it exists at all. There are lots of senior positions open in the game industry these days as everyone is gearing up for next gen stuff.

Quote: Original post by Brokenimage
do you have a dollar amount for the salaries of Business and Gameing programmers?

Do a search on Dice.com. Look for J2EE programmers and SAP ABAP developers. The exact amount depends on experience and location.

Quote: Original post by EvilDecl81

Quote: Original post by Brokenimage
Hi everyone!
I'm trying to become a professional computer programmer--either a game programmer, or a network secuirty specialist(?). However, I have heard that, largely because of the HUGE amounts of people willing to do game programming, you are paid "peanuts" for doing so, IF you are able to find a job at all.

Programmers: Is this true? I don't want to spend 4+ years of my life and >$50,000 to get into a careeer that I can't make any money at....

And the low game programmer don't seem to make so much, for the more expeirenced developers - I havn't seen a huge difference between business and game developement (granted no one tells you exactly how much they make, but I can guess ;))

A good entry level dev job on the business side is circa 70k, and probablly only 50k for game developers. Blame this on an army of people who want to be developers.

Where is 70k entry for business developers? In NYC? SF? In Columbus Ohio, it's closer to $45-50k.

...If your name is Peter Moloyneux you seem to do alright...

70k sounds about right for San Francisco area. Note that the price of housing here is probably at least twice that of OH, so it's not clear that moving here is your shrewdest move, if money is the motivating factor.

Regarding seniority and games, senior people often want to actually have a life -- they're old enough to have families and all that. Thus, there's a steady outflux of senior people from the game industry; this is likely to become a real problem in the future.