Know Your Worth / Game development
Game development combines interactive systems, production craft, and player experience across many disciplines. A convincing specialty demonstrates a working feature or production decision within a playable context, explains its constraints, and shows how testing informed the result rather than relying on screenshots alone.
1–30 of 30 careers · 1,000 in the directory
All careersEmployee references are annual US median wages for the cited BLS occupation, which may cover several career paths. Freelance examples add $15,000 for benefits and $20,000 for business costs, then divide by 1,200 billable hours a year. Annual figures are rounded to the nearest $1,000 and hourly figures to the nearest dollar. Figures are before personal taxes, with no percentage fees. Open a guide to see the source or adjust the assumptions in the calculator.
BLS · May 2025 · Computer systems analysts
Evaluate player barriers and advise on adaptable controls, presentation, communication, and assistance options within the game's documented technical constraints.
View career → Game accessibility specialistBLS · May 2025 · Software Developers
Implement understandable non-player behavior through decision logic, navigation, perception, and debugging tools suited to the game's design.
View career → Game AI programmerBLS · May 2025 · Software Developers
Connect sound events, mixing states, and environmental responses to interactive behavior while testing repetition, priority, and resource use in context.
View career → Game audio implementerBLS · May 2025 · Operations Research Analysts
Evaluate gameplay data and design assumptions to identify uneven difficulty, dominant strategies, or progression problems that require further testing.
View career → Game balancing analystBLS · May 2025 · Network and Computer Systems Administrators
Maintain repeatable game build and packaging workflows so teams can trace artifacts, detect failed dependencies, and recover from broken releases.
View career → Game build engineerBLS · May 2025 · Film and video editors
Shape in-game or promotional cinematic material through pacing, continuity, sound alignment, and versioned feedback that support the intended story moment.
View career → Game cinematics editorBLS · May 2025 · Public relations specialists
Organize player communication, feedback triage, and participation programs while maintaining clear moderation and escalation responsibilities for a game community.
View career → Game community specialistBLS · May 2025 · Technical writers
Explain game tools, technical systems, or production procedures so teammates can complete tasks without relying on undocumented specialist knowledge.
View career → Game documentation writerBLS · May 2025 · Operations Research Analysts
Model virtual resources, rewards, and exchange rules so progression incentives remain understandable and the team can identify unstable resource flows.
View career → Game economy designerBLS · May 2025 · Software Developers
Develop engine-level capabilities and technical infrastructure that other game developers can integrate, debug, and maintain across production milestones.
View career → Game engine programmerBLS · May 2025 · Web and digital interface designers
Shape player-facing flows such as onboarding, settings, and progression screens around comprehension, input methods, and the context of active play.
View career → Game experience designerBLS · May 2025 · Software Developers
Implement rendering features and investigate visual performance so a game can deliver its intended appearance within a measurable runtime budget.
View career → Game graphics programmerBLS · May 2025 · Web and digital interface designers
Design readable game menus and heads-up information that support player decisions across screen sizes, input modes, and changing gameplay contexts.
View career → Game interface designerBLS · May 2025 · Graphic designers
Create promotional visuals that communicate a game's premise and visual identity without misrepresenting the actual play experience or supplied assets.
View career → Game marketing artistBLS · May 2025 · Operations Research Analysts
Analyze optional purchase behavior and player experience so teams can evaluate commercial choices without confusing short-term revenue with durable product value.
View career → Game monetization analystBLS · May 2025 · Writers and authors
Connect story, dialogue, and interactive choices so narrative information responds coherently to player actions and production constraints.
View career → Game narrative designerBLS · May 2025 · Software Developers
Implement multiplayer communication and synchronization while testing latency, authority, failure recovery, and the effects of unreliable connections on player experience.
View career → Game networking programmerBLS · May 2025 · Software Developers
Implement and tune physical interactions so collisions, movement, and simulated objects behave reliably within the game's performance and design constraints.
View career → Game physics programmerBLS · May 2025 · Software Developers
Implement moment-to-moment player actions and game rules so intended behaviors remain responsive, testable, and compatible with the surrounding project.
View career → Gameplay programmerBLS · May 2025 · Project management specialists
Coordinate creative and technical work through realistic milestones, dependency visibility, and decisions that keep a game project's scope aligned with available capacity.
View career → Game producerBLS · May 2025 · Software Quality Assurance Analysts and Testers
Investigate playable builds through structured scenarios, reproducible bug reports, and regression checks that connect observed failures to production decisions.
View career → Game quality assurance testerBLS · May 2025 · Project management specialists
Coordinate build readiness, store assets, approvals, and release dependencies so the team can make an informed launch or delay decision.
View career → Game release managerBLS · May 2025 · Software Developers
Define interacting rules and progression structures so players can understand choices and the team can evaluate unintended combinations.
View career → Game systems designerBLS · May 2025 · Software Developers
Build editor and production tools that reduce repetitive authoring work while making validation and recovery practical for artists or designers.
View career → Game tools programmerBLS · May 2025 · Software Developers
Structure playable spaces around movement, pacing, objectives, and player understanding while testing whether intended routes and challenges remain legible.
View career → Level designerBLS · May 2025 · Software Developers
Build server-side services for game accounts, sessions, and persistent state with clear rules for authorization, retries, and operational visibility.
View career → Multiplayer backend engineerBLS · May 2025 · Network and Computer Systems Administrators
Operate game-service environments through monitoring, maintenance procedures, incident coordination, and transparent changes that protect ongoing player access.
View career → Online game operations specialistBLS · May 2025 · Software Developers
Translate narrative and gameplay goals into objectives, triggers, and recovery paths that remain understandable across different player decisions.
View career → Quest designerBLS · May 2025 · Software Developers
Create controllable surface effects that support an art direction while respecting lighting assumptions, readability, and runtime performance constraints.
View career → Shader artistBLS · May 2025 · Software Developers
Connect artistic goals with technical production through asset checks, efficient workflows, shader support, and clear engine integration guidance.
View career → Technical artist