Breaking Into The Business: Jobs In Gaming

Many gamers are passionate about gaming and dream of turning their hobby into a career. Learning about different job opportunities in the gaming industry can inspire them to pursue their interests professionally.

This article covers the types of jobs in the gaming industry, the highest paying jobs, famous companies to work at, and how to start a career in games jobs and overall the game industry.

What Types Of Jobs Are There In The Gaming Industry

Gaming is a vast area that has only been expanding over the years. There are jobs that are more or less connected to the actual output, depending on where your personal inclinations lie. Let's go over a couple of gaming related careers.

To start, we've got those super hands-on jobs like programmer/software engineer, QA (quality assurance), graphic designer, and audio producer. These are the jobs that have a very direct impact on what's going on, albeit from different angles. A game tester will try out the same missions multiple times to make sure there are no bugs and players cannot break the game. A game developer has to have a very proficient level of IT knowledge, know appropriate programming languages and frameworks, and actually code the games we play - this involves dealing with strings of code rather than playing through the main campaign.

There are numerous other roles like these such as the following:

• Game Designer
• Game Animator
• Game Writer
• Audio Engineer
• Technical Artist
• Game Art Specialist
• Sound Effects Engineer
• Game Assets Creator 
• Level Designer

If you'd like to work for video game companies, there are numerous roles that don't deal with games directly such as:

• HR Specialist
• Finance and Accounting
• Project/Product Manager
• Marketing
• Localization and translations

On top of that, there are jobs like community manager, esports coach, or caster - jobs that are very game-oriented but don't take part in game creation.

There are multiple possible unique jobs and career paths for you to take on, depending on what you're looking for. Each role described here is vastly different from one another. It means, though, that you can always find something that fits you best!

The Highest Paying Jobs for Gamers

If you want to get into the video gaming industry, you're probably wondering which game careers are highest paying - would those be the developer jobs, quality assurance, or maybe something different altogether? Let's take a look.

Arguably the most common choice would be a video game programmer or game developer. According to Glassdoor, a game dev's salary ranges from $ 65,000 to $160,000 a year. This position requires very specific qualifications albeit not necessarily formal. A lot of companies prefer experience and knowledge over certifications and studies.

A 3D artist's yearly salary ranges from $70,000 to $100,000 on average which also puts it in the higher end of jobs as far as money is concerned.

If you're more of a language person, a Video Game Localization Specialist can earn between $80,000 and $145,000. 

You could also go a different route and become a Project or Product Manager. Then you can easily shoot for upwards of $100,000, with some jobs even approaching $150,000.

Last but not least, there are jobs that aren't really 9-5s or permanent positions like esports commentator that are paid on a gig basis. There depending on your presence, experience, and negotiating skills you can get $1,000 to even ten times that a weekend.

As you can see, there is potential to earn really good money in the gaming sphere.

Famous Companies That Hire Gamers

Say you've decided to pursue a career in the video game industry. You're probably looking at very specific video game companies that would make a perfect employer. Let's take a look at a few.

• Epic Games
• Nintendo
• Activision Blizzard
• Ubisoft
• Electronic Arts
• Riot Games
• Bethesda Softworks

All of them conduct regular hirings and have available vacancies. They have their specialties though. Bethesda is better for RPG gamers while Epic Games might be a better fit if you're a Fortnite aficionado.

Follow their LinkedIn profiles or even visit their dedicated Careers pages from time to time to stay up to date!

How to Start a Career In Gaming

Now that you know which jobs you can pursue, how much you can earn, but also which companies you might want to work for, how do you *actually* do it? How do you jumpstart your career in the video game industry? Depending on the role, the journey to get there will be different, but let's take a look at a few avenues to break through.

Develop your own game

If you want to become a player in game development, it's recommended that you create a portfolio to showcase your work. If you develop your own game, you'll be able to display the effort, ingenuity, and passion - all in a practical context.

The games don't have to be Triple-A RPGs with an open world. You can start small with popular simple concepts like Snake or Tetris but with a clever twist. You can also create a dialogue-focused game that shows your game writer skills. If you're more into animation, your game can be an interesting play on how animations can affect an otherwise simple game.

Network

Talking with people in the video game industry can open a lot of doors. In life, you're frequently one handshake away from something great happening to you.

Attend conventions, meet other game developers or esports competitors, and take part in tournaments. People you meet along the way might help you break through.

Get a junior position

Nobody expects you to be young with 20 years of experience - it's fine to start somewhere! Look through job offers where it clearly says that it's an intern, junior, or entry-level position. 

Frequently, the main requirements are passion, being tech-savvy, and showing interest in learning. If you check these boxes, the world is your oyster. 

Admittedly, it's harder to find a Junior Game Producer job than a community manager position due to their nature so take it into account when browsing job postings.

Start showing your expertise online

You can also just start acting now and start a blog or video channel where you share your thoughts, expertise, and clever takes for everyone to see. Metafy is a great space to do so, as you'll already be putting yourself out there. It also naturally builds a portfolio that you can share with a potential employer when you do reach out to companies to get a junior position mentioned in the section above! It all ties nicely together.

Conclusion

If you ever decide to delve into the gaming world, the best thing to do is to take matters into your own hands and just take that first step! Join our Metafy community and start actively engaging in the gaming sphere today.