Also called: Independent Game Developer, Solo Game Dev
Makes and sells their own video games, often alone or with a tiny team.
You might be the programmer, artist and marketer all at once. One day you code a new level, the next you post a trailer on social media and answer fans on Discord. A few indie games become huge hits; most earn modest money.
Extremely variable: most earn little at first, a few hits earn millions. Many keep a day job until a game succeeds.
Approximate: anchored on Bureau of Labor Statistics data for a broader job group.
No formal education, about 2 years after high school. No degree required; many are self-taught with free engines like Godot or Unity.
Ways in: Self-taught, 4-year college, 2-year college. Training cost: Under $15k.
Majors to look at: Game Design, Computer Science, Digital Arts.
Growing about average. Easy to start, hard to make a living; Steam gets 50+ new games a day.
Medium risk for 10 years. AI lets small teams make more, but it also floods stores with games, making it harder to get noticed and paid.
Classes: AP Computer Science A, Art, Business.
Official data: O*NET occupation 15-1252.
Career Universe is an early version. Pay, training and AI-risk figures are estimates to start your own research, not verified facts. The research was written with AI research assistants, checked by validation scripts and spot-checked by hand. Check anything important with schools, employers and official sources. How the numbers work.