Average US developer salary: $73,600

Game Developer magazine has released the results of its seventh annual game developer salary survey, showing that the average US salary has risen slightly to USD 73,600.

"Our salary survey continues to provide canonical information on the state of game pay," said Game Developer Magazine publisher Simon Carless.

"We hope the data presented by Game Developer magazine will serve to both encourage aspiring developers, as well as focus the attention of increasingly important new industry positions such as community managers."

Programmers are the highest paid talent apart from high-end businesspeople and are among the highest educated. Community managers were surveyed for the first time this year, with an average salary of USD 50,294.

Women were most likely to be in production, comprising approximately 18 per cent of the workforce.

The average salaries for the respective positions were as follows:

• Programmers: USD 83,383
• Art & Animation: USD 66,594
• Game Design: USD 63,649
• Production: USD 78,716
• QA: USD 39,063
• Audio: 73,409
• Business & Marketing: 101,848

The survey gathered more than 4,860 responses. It excluded salaries under USD 10,000, salary figures from students and educators, and the small number of reported salaries over USD 202,500.

The survey will be published in the April 2008 issue of Game Developer magazine.