It's not all fun and games - there's real money to be made and incredible challenges to overcome.

I've always been interested in video games. As a kid, I used to spend hours on my Commodore 64 playing games, typing games in from Compute's Gazette magazine, and even writing my own games. Writing games was a lot of fun but even for a kid with unlimited time, it takes a lot of effort and planning to do anything halfway serious, let alone a full-blown game.

Fast forward to today. Video games are a gigantic business totalling nearly $30 BILLION in the USA alone. It's a very serious business where entire teams of dozens of artists, programmers, sound creators, and associated business support people work together to create titles with often cost multiple millions of dollars. It's a big gamble and tons of work.

However, despite the corporatization (is that a word?) of the industry and the exponential complexity of the games, it's still a field that many nerds, techies, and artists dream of working in. I recently discovered a site with lots of information on careers in the game design field, including average salaries, resources, and tips and tricks of the industry. I figured that, even if you aren't actively seeking a position in this field, it would still be of interest to read about it since I did.

The main site is www.gamecareerguide.com.

Here is a director link to read the game industry salary report.

The Getting Started section has lots more information if you're wondering how jobs are divided, what schools or classes are available, etc.

I think the site has some pretty interesting information. If nothing else, it can give you something to think about while you sit in your small cubicle doing boring paperwork at a large corporate job. Well, at least that describes what I'll be doing.