State of Salaries in the Indian Games Industry in 2021

Results of the Gamedev.in Indian Games Industry Anonymous Salary Survey 2021

Photo by Hitesh Choudhary: https://www.pexels.com/photo/selective-focus-photography-of-man-facing-computer-340152/

Methodology

The survey was carried out anonymously through Google Forms, the link to the survey was shared through multiple channels available with the Gamedev.in community, namely, the Discord Server, Substack newsletter, Twitter and on LinkedIn. Please note that while this is the second such survey seeking voluntary anonymous information, we are aware that these numbers might not be reflective of the larger picture across India. This report has self-selection bias as it is filled by people willing to share this information anonymously for the wellbeing of the community and are also a subset of people who have the time and wherewithal to be part of the Gamedev.in community.

The survey was open to the public on 6th August 2021 and closed by 30th October 2021. The questionnaire has been included in the appendix of this report. Given the nature of respondents and data fatigue that exists, the questionnaire was designed to be short and quick to answer. It has a total of 13 questions, of which 6 questions were dropdown/single choice and one question was optional. The survey garnered a total of 239 responses from the community members in this interim period. In order to preserve data sanctity, we have not modified or corrected the values and details shared by the respondents. We have 9 respondents who have not provided salary details, we have not included one response as we were unable to clean the response provided.

The roles of the respondents ranged from ​​2D Artist, 3D Artist, Animator, Art Director, Artist , Audio, Business analyst, Business development manager, Creative Director, CXO, Designer, Founder, Game Designer, Game Director or Division Head, HR, Level Designer, Marketing Manager, Multiple roles, Music & Media Partnerships + Researcher, Narrative Designer, Player Insights, Producer, Game designer and Product management, Product Manager, Production and Operations, Programmer, Project Manager, QA and product owner, Quality Assurance Engineer, Senior Customer Success Manager, Sound Designer, Technical Artist, Technical Game designer, UX Designer and Writer. In order to allow for simpler ways of analysing data across all of these varied roles. A following lookup table was created with Art, Sound, Business Development, Leadership, Design, HR, Marketing, Research, Production, Writer, Customer Service and Quality Assurance.

Similarly, the salaries ranged from INR 1,80,000 to INR 87,45,000, and in order to make sure that the results are easy to read and understand, a grouping was created with a simple range,

• less than INR 2,50,000 

• between INR 2,50,000 and INR 5,00,000

• between INR 5,00,000 and INR 7,50,000

• between INR 7,50,000 and INR 10,00,000

• between INR 10,00,000 and INR 15,00,000

• between INR 15,00,000 and INR 25,00,000

• between INR 25,00,000 and INR 50,00,000

• above INR INR 50,00,000

Salaries for individuals are also dependent on a number of parameters such as type of operations, nature of scale of the company, the maturity of the industry, etc. As mentioned earlier, this survey aims to help rather than point fingers. For purposes of simplicity and analysis, we have grouped the companies by the average of salaries submitted for those companies as follows,

Results

Charts

Data tables

State of Salaries in the Indian Games Industry in 2022

If this report interests you, you are part of the Indian Games industry and you want to participate in our anonymous salary survey of 2022, then please click here.

About Gamedev.in

Gamedev.in is a volunteer-run community for game creators in India. Its activities vary from organizing events, meetups, game jams, workshops, talks, demo days, studio crawls and many more. Through its activities, it hopes to connect the disparate group of game developers, designers, artists, storytellers, policymakers, academics, students and many more to come together and use game as a medium to solve problems, create engaging and entertaining content, experiment, break new ground, collaborate and push the medium forward. To join our discord or to check out the game industry directory or for any more information regarding Gamedev.in and its activities please visit - gamedev.in

Multiple members of the Gamedev.in community had queries about opportunities in the game development and gaming industry in India. These questions ranged from salaries for different kinds of roles and positions (with varying experiences) to the possibility of switching roles. The survey has been conducted in order to address some of these questions by members of Gamedev.in. The intention behind this survey is to ensure that new members entering the game industry in India have ballpark numbers to help them navigate and create pathways for their career. This survey is community led and has been designed to ensure that the aim is not to blame any individual or organisation, but to help grow the industry in a respectful manner in India. As an effort towards this, the Gamedev.in community is also attempting to create more inclusive spaces. As a starting point, we have attempted to understand the nature of community members through a privilege survey (the details of which will be shared through a separate report).

Reach out to us

If you have questions regarding this report or the work we do with gamedev.in, please drop by our discord and reach out to any of us by using the @Contributor or @Moderator

Appendix

Anonymised Data

The raw data and visualizations, if you wish to dig deeper, are linked here.

Questionnaire

1. What is the nature of your current organisation?

   1. We make and sell our games to the public directly

   2. We only make games for other companies

   3. We are a Games for X organisation (Learning, training, etc.)

   4. Other

2. What is your current CTC?
   Your current cost to the company, including variable pay, pre-tax in Lakhs Per Annum (LPA); eg: 15,00,000

3. How much of your salary is fixed every year?
   The part of your CTC that is fixed; eg: 13,50,000

4. How much of your salary is variable every year?
   The part of your CTC that is variable; eg: 1,50,000

5. Do you have stock options?

   1. Yes

   2. No

6. What is the vesting period if you have stock options?

7. What is your primary job role in your current company?

   1. Animator

   2. Artist

   3. 2D Artist

   4. 3D Artist

   5. Community Manager

   6. Composer

   7. Designer

   8. Level Designer

   9. Marketing Manager

   10. Musician

   11. Producer

   12. Product Manager

   13. Programmer

   14. Project Manager

   15. Quality Assurance Engineer

   16. Sound Designer

   17. Translator

   18. UI Designer

   19. User Acquisition Manager

   20. UX Designer

   21. UX Researcher

   22. VO Artist

   23. Writer

   24. CXO

   25. Founder

   26. Other

8. What is your current experience level at your current company?

   1. Entry

   2. Associate

   3. Senior

   4. Lead

   5. Head

   6. Director

   7. Other

9. How many years have you been working in the Indian games industry?

10. How many different companies have you worked in the games industry thus far?
    Including the current one you are in.

11. What company do you work for right now?
    This is completely optional and again, this survey is anonymous!

12. Which of the following most accurately describe(s) you?
    Women and other genders tend to get paid way lesser than men for the same roles, help us discover the disparity!

    1. Female

    2. Male

    3. Non-Binary

    4. Transgender

    5. Intersex

    6. Prefer not to say

    7. Other

13. Which age group do you fit into?
    This will hopefully help us to see if there is a large disparity in salaries for younger employees than older ones.

    1. 18 to 24

    2. 25 to 34

    3. 35 to 44

    4. 45 to 54

    5. 55 to 64

    6. Above 65