Salaries of game developers in the CIS (data on specialties)

In the spring of 2017, the Ukrainian company Values Value, founded by Tanya Loktionova (Evdokimenko), conducted a large-scale survey of gaming industry specialists from the CIS about salaries. App2Top.ru publishes excerpts from the results of the study.

One of the advantages of Values Value is its complexity. On 53 pages with the results of the survey, there was a place not only for the transfer of salaries. The company’s specialists also reflected the dependence of the salary level on a specific country, length of service and type of company. A significant part of the work is generally devoted to what contributes to employee retention and loyalty in modern gaming companies.

Based on the results of the study App2Top.ru I have prepared visual material with infographics on salary segmentation in the industry depending on the specialty.

The average “temperature in the hospital”

The median salary* in the industry in the CIS is $1400 “net”. It varies greatly from region to region. The highest in the whole country is in Belarus, where the median salary reaches $ 1,500. Next comes Russia with $1,400 and Ukraine, where the median earnings fluctuate near the $1,200 mark.

If Russia is divided into Moscow and “other regions”, the situation will change significantly. In this case, the highest earnings in the CIS will be Moscow – $ 1800, and the “Russian regional” – the lowest. The median salary in the Russian Federation outside the Mother See is $1,000.

However, this does not mean that the best offers from a commercial point of view are always exclusively in Moscow or Belarus. Some professions are sometimes valued more in one place or another.

* The median salary value reflects the salary of the “average in a row”: half of the person receives a large salary, and half – a smaller one. This approach is more accurate than using the arithmetic mean.

For example, there are five programmers. Their salaries: 10, 100, 200, 300, 5000. The median salary of all five programmers will be 200, and the average salary will be 1122.

Salaries by profession

Programmers

The salary of programmers in the CIS usually ranges around $2,000 per month. This applies both to those specialists who are engaged in backend, and those who prefer frontend. The salary fork of full-stack programmers is slightly lower.

The monthly income of a programmer depends heavily on the country. The highest is in Moscow, where its median level is $2,500. Ukraine is in second place. There earnings fluctuate at the level of $ 2000. As for Belarus and the regions of Russia, there it is about $ 1400.

Artists

The salary ceiling for interviewed artists in the CIS gaming industry is $2,500. So much in exceptional cases receives the leading artist. As a rule, salaries are much less. The lower fork of the technical artist is $330 at all. The median value within the specialization is $1000.

Unlike the salary of programmers, the artist’s earnings in the gaming industry slightly depends on the region and is usually $ 1000. Only in Moscow, the median rate is higher – $ 1,500.

Game designers

The top salary level for game designers who took part in the survey is at the average level for programmers. It is $2000. But only those who lead the team can count on this. The median is around $1000. But even in most cases, those who are engaged in level design should not count on it.

Game designers in Belarus have the highest median salary. There it is $1,500. In Moscow it is less – $1300. Then there are the regions of Russia and Ukraine with $1000 and $900 respectively.

Project managers and producers

On average, they are estimated at $2,000 in the market. But in general, the spread is not very large.

The median value of the monthly salary for project managers, as in the case of artists, almost does not depend on the region. As always, a little higher in Moscow, a little lower in Ukraine.

QA specialists

The salary of those who are engaged in testing is one of the lowest in the industry. The lower salary level starts at $400. However, those specialists who are engaged in QA automation can count on a significant $3,000 per month (this is not reflected in the table below, since the percentage of such specialists from the total number of QA respondents was 2%. The indicator is not given as representative, but makes it possible to trace the general trend.). In the whole market, testers usually get around $780.

If we talk about location, the salary of QA in the CIS will depend on whether you work in Moscow or not. In the Mother See, the salary will be $300-400 more.

Sound Specialists

The variation in terms of salary levels for those involved in the music and sound industry is small. Their labor is usually estimated at $1300. Moreover, the composer’s salary may be higher than that of a producer or a voice designer.

Analysts

The greatest variation between the minimum and maximum salary levels is among those who are responsible for analytics on game projects. The difference can be up to $3,100. The median value of an analyst’s salary is $1,500.

Marketers

The specifics of the work strongly depend on the work in marketing. For the heads of traffic purchase departments, it is close to $ 2000, but the initial rate for an ordinary UA manager or analyst tracking the quality of traffic, it does not reach $ 1000. However, the median in the marketing segment is $1400.

HR specialists

The recruiter’s salary depends primarily on his responsibilities. For example, the difference between the earnings of those who search and hire, and those who take on at least a minimum of HR functions, can be $ 900. But according to the market, the salary in this area is usually $1400.

The fact that the rate depends heavily on the scope of responsibilities, including the tops. A manager who is engaged only in personnel management receives less than the one who is also responsible for the selection of employees in the company. The reverse situation is also fair.

PR specialists

The median salary in the PR segment is $1,320. The PR Director can count on a bid of $2,700, the PR manager can count on $1,000. The largest salary spread is among PR copywriters. The lower level of their salaries is $646, and the upper level is $3,500. Russian, English or other languages of materials writing, as well as the form of cooperation – in-house or freelance – can influence the salary of a specialist.

Community managers

Community managers are one of the professions where wages slightly depend on the position in the official hierarchy.

The median salary of a community manager differs from the salary of a team leader by $340. Perhaps this is due to the fact that professional CM specialists themselves often work as managers, actively delegating tasks to the most loyal representatives of the gaming community.

Growth in the team team gives new tasks and requires more responsibility, but does not require a specialist to completely rebuild, as it happens in other areas.

Localizers

The opposite situation is observed with translation and adaptation specialists. The salary difference between managers and direct performers is more than $1,000. And the lower level of the rate for translators is one of the lowest in the industry – $ 400.

Bizdevs

The salary of business development specialists can reach $3,000. Such a high rate can be explained both by the fact that in some cases it is tied to sales, and by the fact that their value is determined by the number of available connections, for access to which, in some sense, the employer pays. The figures may seem significantly lower than the market, since several sales managers took part in the survey with a minimum bid, for example, about $ 200, excluding the bonus and variable part.

A business development specialist is one of the few specialties in the industry in which quite a lot of women work (46.6% of the total number of specialists).

Tops

Among the top positions, the highest median salary is paid by game development directors. It is $5,000. The upper level of the bet for this position reaches a record level for the industry of $ 6,500. Both CEOs and leading producers have, as a rule, lower salaries.

Journalists

The most paid in the media today are video bloggers. Their salary can be comparable to the salary of programmers and reach $3150. At the same time, the lower rate level within the entire media segment is the lowest in the industry. For copywriters, it is $300.

Methodology

The “Big Salary survey of the CIS Geimdeva-2017” was conducted by online questionnaire on an anonymous basis.

It was attended by 836 Russian–speaking respondents aged 19 to 46 years. 97.4% of them lived in the CIS, the rest were expats in European and other countries.

The main groups of survey participants: artists (23.4%), programmers (16.4%), game designers (15.1%), project managers (10.4%), top managers (8.6%) and QA specialists (5.6%). 18.2% of respondents worked full-time inhouse. 36.1% of respondents – women.

The full report on the study can be viewed at the link.

Take part in the survey for 2018

Now Values Value is conducting a new salary survey. You can take part in it at this link. It will last until April 30. The results will be published in late May – early June 2018.