Game developers revived the #GameDevPaidMe hashtag on Twitter over the weekend, reigniting important conversations about salary transparency and pay discrimination throughout the game industry in the process.
There tends to be a weird stigma around talking about wages in many industries, and the video game industry is no exception. However, as the #GameDevPaidMe hashtag shows once again, being transparent about pay is crucial to ensure that individuals throughout the wider game development community are paid fairly for their expertise.
The hashtag first came to life last summer as a way for game developers to share their salaries for each step of their journey through the game industry and find out what other developers in similar disciplines or roles made themselves.
This year, developers working as VFX artists, animators, QA testers, community managers, programmers, and other roles have joined in to share their own past salaries and pay advice gleaned from time at companies like Riot, Ubisoft, Insomniac, Blizzard, and more. Some developers opt to share their salaries for each role they've held so far during their game development careers, while others include context in the form of where they worked at the time, experience level, or additional demographic information like race, gender, or education as well.
Check out the hashtag and join in on the conversation here.