Chances are if you’re living under a rock or in a cave, you haven’t really noticed or felt the effects of the current global economic recession.  For the rest of us out here trying to make a go at it day after day have felt and seen it, but, if you’re working in the games development industry, things may not be quite as bad as those working in, oh, I don’t know…finance perhaps?  And while the full impact of the recession is difficult to put a finger on, recent survey data released by Game Developer Magazine indicates that not only is the demand strong for game developers, but flourishing as well.

As noted in our previous coverage of Game Developer studies, the gaming industry as a whole seems to be doing remarkably well in these uncertain economic times.  Early last month, their study showed that game development outsourcing (to firms such as ours) is on the rise, and last Halloween we covered their release of a 13% increase in North American gaming jobs over the course of 2007.  This recent news from Game Developer doesn’t disappoint, as they found in their 8th annual Game Developer Salary Survey that the average American game industry salary in 2008 landed just $1,000 short of $80,000/year.  This figure reflects a 7% increase from 2007’s figure of roughly $74,000.

However, this information must be taken with a grain of salt, as the recession is notably reducing the number of available positions.  Given this quandary, as less jobs become available, more experienced game developers find themselves in a position to ask for higher salaries.  Selected highlights from the industries only major publically released analysis of salaries in the video game industry:

• Programming: programmers are the highest paid talent next to high-end businesspeople, with an average annual salary of $85,024. Experience pays in this role, as those with greater than six years of experience earned 26% more than the average annual salary.
• Art & Animation: artists – averaging a $69,532 salary, nonetheless, 28% of art directors reported lower salaries than the previous year. But these more experienced, higher status artists also tend to earn at least 35% more than those with less experience and lower title.
• Game Design: Averaging $67,379, design positions sprouted an average $3,730 over last year. As with many roles, region makes a difference, given that West Coast designers make on average $8,283 or 12% more than the rest of the game designers in the country.
• Production: of all the game development disciplines, production – with a salary average overall of $82,905 – is the most welcoming to women, with 21% of the workforce made up of females – more than twice the industry average. The discipline as a whole saw a strong $4,189 bump from last year.
• Quality Assurance: testers with less than three years experience make up the largest percentage of this segment – 46%. Quality assurance is the lowest paid of the game development disciplines, averaging $39,571 – almost flat to 2007 – and the majority of Q/A people – 87% – are lesser experienced. The number of female Q/A testers jumped from 6% in 2007 to 14% in 2008.
• Audio: sound designers as a group earned 6% more than they did in 2007, up $4,758 on average over last year to $78,167. 74% of audio developers reported that their salaries increased over 2007. Interestingly, 48% of those in the game audio industry have been working there for 6 years or more – more than the 40% for game design, and equal to the 48% for production.
• Business & Marketing: the business field as a whole remains the highest compensated group in game development – with an average salary of $102,143 – and also receives the highest amount of additional compensation. However, salaries vary significantly between individual job titles in this section, with experienced VPs and executive managers making the most of any individual section in the entire survey – at $131,085 on average and reporting at least 6 years experience.

The full report is available from Game Developer Research and covers mush more details US regional and growth data, including year over year results from 2004 – 2008.  The full report also spotlights data accrued from Canada and Europe.