Video Games & Esports

Designing, building, and competing in games, from programmers and level designers to pro players, coaches, and shoutcasters.

Top pay: highest pay, longest training

• Gameplay Programmer: Writes the code that makes characters move, enemies think, and game systems work. Typical pay $115k.
• Technical Artist: Bridges art and programming: shaders, tools, and making art run efficiently in the game engine. Typical pay $115k.
• Game Producer: Manages the schedule, budget, and teams to get a video game finished and shipped. Typical pay $110k.
• Games User Researcher: Studies how players experience a game through playtests, surveys, and data. Typical pay $115k.
• Game Economy / Live Ops Designer: Designs in-game currencies, rewards, and events in games that keep updating after launch. Typical pay $115k.
• Game Brand Manager: Plans marketing campaigns for video game launches. Typical pay $115k.

Mid pay: solid pay, degree or apprenticeship

• Game Designer: Designs the rules, mechanics, and goals that make a video game fun. Typical pay $85k.
• Level Designer: Builds the maps, levels, and missions players explore. Typical pay $80k.
• Narrative Designer / Game Writer: Writes the stories, dialogue, and quests in video games. Typical pay $85k.
• Game Environment Artist: Creates the 3D worlds of games: forests, cities, castles, and space stations. Typical pay $85k.
• Game Audio Designer: Creates sound effects, ambient sounds, and interactive music systems for games. Typical pay $80k.
• Esports Team Manager / GM: Runs the business side of an esports team: contracts, travel, sponsors, and player welfare. Typical pay $70k.
• Game Capture Artist: Records beautiful gameplay footage for game trailers and marketing, playing the game like a camera operator. Typical pay $75k.
• Combat Designer: Designs how fights feel in games: enemy attacks, weapons, and boss battles. Typical pay $100k.
• Game Community Manager: Talks with a game's players on Discord, Reddit, and social media. Typical pay $65k.
• Game Cinematic Designer: Creates the movie-like story scenes in video games, placing cameras and animating characters in the game engine for game or cinematic studios. Typical pay $95k.
• Game Accessibility Specialist: Makes games playable for gamers with disabilities. Typical pay $95k.
• Franchise Lore Keeper: Tracks every story detail of a giant game or movie franchise so new stories don't contradict old ones. Typical pay $80k.

Starter: fastest way in

• Game QA Tester: Plays games before release to find and report bugs. Typical pay $42k.
• Game Localization Specialist: Translates and adapts games for players in other languages and cultures. Typical pay $52k.
• Esports Professional Player: Competes in video game tournaments and leagues for teams and prize money. Typical pay $30k.
• Esports Coach: Trains esports teams on strategy, teamwork, and mental performance. Typical pay $45k.
• Esports Shoutcaster: Commentates live esports matches with play-by-play and analysis. Typical pay $45k.
• Esports Tournament Operations / Referee: Runs the rules, brackets, and technology at esports competitions. Typical pay $48k.
• Tabletop / Board Game Designer: Invents board games, card games, and tabletop role-playing games. Typical pay $35k.
• Games Journalist: Reviews video games and reports on the game industry. Typical pay $48k.
• Playtest Coordinator: Organizes playtests where real players try games in development. Typical pay $50k.
• Indie Game Developer: Makes games independently, alone or with a tiny team, and sells them online. Typical pay $30k.
• Professional Game Master: Runs tabletop role-playing games like Dungeons & Dragons for paying players. Typical pay $30k.
• Arcade & Pinball Technician: Repairs and maintains arcade cabinets and pinball machines for arcades, bars and collectors, fixing electronics, monitors and mechanical parts. Typical pay $42k.
• Video Game Archivist: Saves and catalogs old video games, consoles, design documents, and code at museums and libraries so they aren't lost forever. Typical pay $50k.

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.