Average Unity Programmer salary

I've been looking for what a average salary for a Unity programmer is. How much experience translates to how much pay basically for which region of the world.

So my questions are:
-What is an average Unity junior programmer salary in the western/eastern world?
-What is an average Unity senior programmer salary in the western/eastern world?

Can you guys provide me with any estimates?

kind regards

 

I think you already started with the wrong question.

A senior (10+ years of experience I think) video game programmer in general (not unity) can earn about 100k in average.
Otherwise in average an experienced video game programmer may get in average 65k.

The numbers come from:
http://www.payscale.com/research/US/Industry=Entertainment_or_Game_Software/Salary

It actually rings about true to what I have heard and overheard here and there.

This is usually less than you will get for the same skills somewhere else (a senior [again, 10+years] C# programmer can, with a bit of patience, find a 120k/year position with a MUCH more relaxing schedule and an experienced one about 80k/year)

If you cut that down to only Unity developers, I'm sure the average will be extremely lower due to the high number of hobbists taking jiggs "for fun" or even for free.

Keep in mind Unity is just a tool, not a career. If you were to look hunting for a video game programmer that wants Unity experience, its' very likely the job posting may have the following notes:

• Looking for experienced C# programmer with at least X years of experience and 2 titles successfully published.
• Unity3D experience a plus.

If you are looking for a way to quote how much you charge others, then again, this is extremely hard to answer since the numbers above are a median and the numbers all over the place (plus the note on Unity programmers doing a lot of freebie/cheapish job in the forums here.)

 

100% correct

/thread

 

To add: By "somewhere else" I mean the banking, government, medical and even educational fields. Thats also a great reason to pursue C# as your scripting language than JavityScript.

 

I earn 700$/month but this might rise to 1k/month. (Ukraine) - pretty decent pay here actually considering some of my friends make like 200$/month (iOS game dev, 10+hr working days)

 

OH location is important, my above comments apply mostly to the United States.

 

If you're a unity programmer working on your own games for a living, your milage may vary

 

I know that there are many disciplines among game programming, be it physics, game logic, Ai, graphics etc. And I know that how bigger the project the more specialists are on board. I know that here in the Netherlands Unity C# generalistic programmers (who know a atleast enough to work with all aspect of C# and Unity) make between 1600 up to 3600 euro's a month. But what I was wondering about was location, I seemed to have wrongly phrased my question.

I was wondering in which country you can earn how much. I might want to migrate in a year or two to another country and I was wondering were you could earn a decent living by programming games/apps with C# and Unity.

How are living circumstances in the Ukraine? Is it rewarding do you have to work a lot of overtime? Is it required to speak the language or will English suffice?

I have experience this myself and it can be a hard lesson

That seems like a lot of money where I come from. How do they way up to the living expenses in the States for a state like California?

 

for me they are pretty good- however please know that apartment prices, especially in the center are insane (even the cheapest/worst one is like 25-30k). Luckily I don't have to rent or anything. As for english, well the general level of english here is very low but at the place I work at it's considerably higher, considering we deal with international clients. (I will not mention my company name btw). For this salary I can live rather comfortably and have some free cash to spend/save (though mostly been spending- I should work on that).

 

The latest issue of Game Developer magazine features their annual salary survey, which is pretty detailed. Summary here - http://www.gamasutra.com/view/news/..._2011_Game_Industry_Salary_Survey_results.php

I'm under the impression that salaries for Unity developers, i.e. for jobs specifically listing Unity developers, are below industry average.

 

Are you from Amsterdam? Or anywhere in western Europe those rates are rather average if you're actually in IT for 5 or more years. Even grocery store cashiers make 2/3rds of what I made as a experienced systems admin in Zurich (and no, I don't begrudge them that they make that because it is so expensive if they didn't they couldn't even afford rent or food).

And anywhere you live it makes as much difference who you are working for than where. e.g. In the US most want to work for a company rather than the government because of pay, although even that's location dependent. There are no shortage of game developer hobbiests that will take whatever you're willing to contribute gratis and that's fine as a learning and collaboration tool.

Don't plan on Unity as a 'career'. It's just a tool that you can play with as a hobby and maybe get lucky and develop a game to fund an early retirement. At least that's the attitude you need to have. If you'd rather be out hiking or swimming by all means...

Businesses that are serious about leveraging mobile for apps use iOS / Android SDKs directly to so that the programs can be easily downloaded Cell Tower OTA. So learn all the tedious bit of programming with C# / obj-C, Android SDK, and iOS SDK, and some SQL if you want to make a living for hire as a mobile app developer.

Or do you think the average cell phone user can't wait to triangulate to the strongest cell tower signal in order to get the latest 16GB LINUX distro?

 

Heavily depends on the state. For example, a you can get a nice house with 4 bedrooms and 2 levels for about $170,000 in Tennessee but the same house will easily cost $300,000 to $400,000 in California.

To make it worse, there is next to no game development industry outside of the expensive states. California seems to be the capital of video game development. Rockstar is I think in New York, Nintendo of America and Microsoft in Washington and Bethesda is in Maryland. All these are similarly expensive states to live in.

There are some low profile stuff going on in cheaper states but should you be job hunting, you have to be where most the studios are.

You would think more studios would move to cheaper places to operate in, but same way, studios try to be closer to other studios because that's where the experienced developers tend to already be.

65k is an OK salary in California, if you living on your own or the spouse is also earning on the similar range. People can certainly survive on way less, but it's tough, usually requiring long commutes, tolerate living in small studios or being lucky to be part of a family that purchased property there several decades ago (OR have family with money but that’s cheating when we talking about income :razz:.)

 

One thing that makes me think there, if pay in eastern coutries is lower, shouldnt be good idea to do freelancing in western countries (online)? I mean that would mean that you would be able to gather western income, which would be much higher right?

 

To add:

You can leverage the same skills you use in developing games for other industries and likely get a job at any state. However, the US tends to be a hard place to get into. Immigration laws are rather picky. Employers are allowed to yield some employment visas but video game development houses are extremely unlikely to go through the pain the process entails. On top, the way that employment visa is outlined, if you are "let go", you have to basically leave the country the next day.

Video game development here has a reputation of being very harsh with a lot of crunch time. It may be a wiser strategy to keep working on your own stuff independently; perhaps you may get lucky at one point and make a decent living, that is, if making games is the way you want to make a living.

If all you looking is to make a good living as a programmer, don't look for a video game development job and try to find a more... boring but rewarding path.

 

Alot of Western Countries only want to hire people who can come and work on site, if your really good you might be a visa though

 

If you are considering emigrating for a video games job, Canada is an obvious choice. Tax-breaks means studios are getting very big, very quickly, which means bringing in a lot of staff from overseas, and paying well. I know several people who have done it and most are very happy there. Warner Bros. are using Unity, so may be a good place to start.

 

Yes.. people do this. Alot. It has significantly driven down prices on freelancing websites.

 

Austin and New Orleans are great cities for game development.

 

And you get to eat poutine!

 

i m new in unity...thats y donot know any thing about unity....can i get a get a good knowldge in unity....and in which city the company of its in india

 

In japan or i may say tokyo in fact, for unity specific work , if you have already a good experience with it you may get something around 500 000 to 600 000 Yen without too much problem, even from small studio.

But you better speak japanese....english in this country is a no go

 

Talk about a huge necro, jeez. There are plenty of tutorials out there on Youtube and the official learn site itself.
Unity currently does not have Head-Quarters in India, I'd reckon.

Source: I'm from India.

 

I'm in Ohio, USA. And I make anywhere from 4-5k a month. Not too much, but enough.

 

If you are quite experienced in Unity,why not go to China hunting well-paid oppertunity. game industry grew fast in recent years there . many companie would pay a splendid money to talented developer.

 

I often get job listings for programmers and other game developers here in Florida. I think Orlando must have some studios and maybe Tampa. Of course, I do not qualify for these jobs, nor do I want them. But you might try. It is relatively inexpensive to live here, especially outside of some of the more coastal resort areas. Wages will not be comparable to California but at least you can afford to live here. It is hot though much of the year...and lots of elderly people and tourists.

 

Millions, hopefully. Eventually.

 

$60k/year is around average for any games programmer. 100k+ if you're a senior and working for a good company. Run your own company and you make more

 

Hah doing game dev to get rich. That's funny!

 

Sadly, failed start ups like SimianSquared only make about $5k/year? lol

 

I was applying to an entry level job and it was 50k but only went to 70k. I almost never see any unity jobs in Toronto

If your game doesn't sell you might not make any money. I'm not really sure if your employed or not

 

Ouch.

 

You make those money from a company you are working for or working from your home?
And btw, applying for mobile games job (Unity) from outside the US will get you a visa to get there and work or it's impossible?
I mean game studios for mobile games in the US offer sponsorship for visa to let people outside the US apply for jobs and travel and work there?

 

I work myself various freelance work, but have been doing it for quite some time now.

 

Sorry for the plug, but we are looking for a freelance programmer to help us on our game Crime Coast - www.crimecoast.com, there are more details on the web site

 

In what locations is that $60k average coming from?
In the bay area, you would be eating ramen, riding the bus, living in a tiny grimy studio, etc, with that little money.

 

Yeah, the $60k is a bit low. Maybe just out of college. In my experience over the years I have sen 1-3 years of experience in the $75k range. 4-8 years of experience in the $75-100k range. 8+ years of experience $100k-125k range. Location independent, except for Florida. I'm not sure what it is about game studios in Florida, but I've noticed that programming jobs in general don't pay as much in Florida as they do here in North Carolina, the midwest, the northeast or the west coast. Pretty much anywhere else in the USA.

Now these are for AAA studios with AAA studio experience. As far as the others (indie, startup), I'm not sure.

 

For me this comes as great news if accurate witch i doubt. I'm a beginner but with a maths/physics degree and coding knowledge in a few other languages and a few small non game projects witch lacked direction, web sight bots that automated minor things or solved A level level maths problems.
I find I can work and stay engaged for much longer on unity than other types of work dispirit the bugs and I seem to be progressing quickly a few days ago it was quite and I worked fairly solidly 8am to 4am. Then there's flexibility and that I don't have to go through a painful application process like I do to fail to get other jobs. Social isolation is a concern though.

I was lead to believe game development paid poorly probably dew to the flexibility of the work but I thought I would do it anyway as I have the time interest and it would let me use a bit of physics and maths witch I still very much enjoy thinking about and it gives me complete flexibility ie 20 hours one day if I feel none if i feel like it as well.
It took me 2 days after installation to build and publish a very bad/simple but as far as I know bug free game. http://www.kongregate.com/games/DouglasA83/yorgozy and 3 days later 1 spent on development 2 other things I have a maize mostly based off what I learnt from a tutorial for something else but with some added components I found from playing with it a bit. I have a lot of plans to improve it though.

 

This thread is old but salary always depends on where you live. You can be paid $17.50 in the US even with experience living in a rural area or all the very high 100K+ salaries of places with ridiculous living costs like San Francisco and Manhattan. Oddly enough the costs in San Francisco are so out of control I'd take the $17.50 job if I wanted a mortgage I could pay off in 15 years.

 

You picked one of the highest cost of living states in the US. If you are specifically looking at the US, look very carefully at different cities and states. I cannot speak for Unity in general as it doesn't have a large footprint where I'm from. But, I live in Omaha, NE.

Not a large city by any means. However, this is one of the best places in the country to work in general as a developer. We have a pretty low cost of living and we have a high salary-to-cost-of-living ratio, at least in the tech industry and for developers in general. Senior .NET developers with 10 to 15 yrs experience can expect between $85,000 and $120,000 / year depending on the company, and with pretty good benefits. The company I work for pays 100% of my health insurance premiums, with an annual deductible of $3k (for my whole family), good PTO, life insurance, free MSDN subscriptions and they match 150% of my contributions to my 401k.

Lincoln, NE and Omaha, NE are also excellent locations for tech entrepeneurs. The unemployment rate is super low and there are some great incubators and resources here. In general, it's a pretty awesome place to be a programmer and there's no shortage of work. Companies here are desperate for good talent as there's not enough to go around. I could quit my job today and have a new one by next week.

As for cost of living, I'll give a comparison. A friend of mine lives in DC. Her neighbors were selling their house a few months ago. They wanted over $600,000 for the house. It was a smallish brick home with no garage, no yard, and about 10 ft of space between it and the house next door. I paid $137,000 for my house, about 2,500 sq. ft, enough for my family, and I have a nice back yard, two car garage, nice neighborhood with mainly retired folks, and some pretty low ($2,800 / year) property taxes.

 

That is true for those looking to avoid the high traffic and high expense places in the US. e.g. Louisville, KY. Also, consider US government installations, often military bases, are often in somewhat rural areas where you can easily find a mortgage that pays off a decent house in 15 years or much less even. Look for businesses that have located outside of urban areas. Often in these places you can find a decent home for 50K or less which is the cost many pay for a new car every 5 years. You can find affordable mortgages in some big cities' downtown and urbanized areas too but often they need more rehab than rural areas and at higher expense. Then you have to consider the commute problem. Ultimately 30 year mortgages and hour long commutes are too much and not feasible for the typical career, professional or otherwise. Get out your Rand McNally Road Atlas of USA, Canada, & Mexico.

 

Yep, we have Offutt AFB here, which is also a missile command and a large underground bunker where the President goes when there is an emergency (Bush was there for a short time during 9/11).

In Lincoln, NE traffic is a huge problem. Here in Omaha it is slightly complicated by the fact that we have urban sprawl (not many tall buildings and the city is very spread out). However, the traffic system is great. I live a few miles from work, stop for coffee every morning, and my commute is still only 15 minutes. I could get here in 5 without coffee. Worst commute I've had at a client engagement so far is 30 min during heavy traffic.

 

$500,000 here gets you a 500 square foot condo downtown. Hour plus commutes are the norm rather than the exception.

 

Wow, $500K that's business storefront price for a person's home.

 

And that only gets you a condo. The average price for a detached home in Vancouver is $1.5 million. 500k will get you a townhouse in the nearby suburbs or a detached home further out.

 

Marlon Brando's childhood home is for sale here in Omaha. 2.5 stories, large master suite, office, large yard, fireplaces, porches, an office, a pool, 9ft ceilings.. $260k.

http://www.foxnews.com/leisure/2015/12/23/marlon-brando-childhood-home-for-sale-in-omaha-for-260k/

 

I was wanting to visit Vancouver. I thought they had primo trams and subways and such. I'm wanting to drive the entire Trans Canada Highway as a vacation and actually walk on the Laurentian Shield since I was a child. I've only been to Montreal.

 

Well it's nice to see that house being in Omaha stops a bidding war on it. No accounting for the prices they ask for sometimes, e.g. there is a house in my neighborhood they are asking 220K for and I can tell you it needs as much reno as the house I bought.

 

$500 000 here in Auckland gets you an entry level 2 bed, 1 bathroom home in a bad area.

 

Yeah Auckland is insane. Especially when compared to the rest of the country. It's not that big a country that rices should be so disparate. We brought a large 4 bedroom on a quarter acre down in New Plymouth for half that price.

 

I will say that I know a few people in the AAA industry (IRL) and they change studios about every other year. So the pay is great when you get it, but you can quickly find yourself in a 6 month lull.