Game Job Offer Calculator

You usually get one chance to respond to an offer, and most people answer it without knowing where it sits. This puts a number against the published band for that role, level, region and studio size, so the conversation stops being about how you feel and starts being about what the market pays.

Before you answer, price the whole package

Base salary is the number everyone negotiates and rarely the number that decides which offer is better. The rest routinely moves real value by 15–30%:

• Employer pension contribution — a 3% employer match versus 10% is worth thousands a year and compounds.
• Health cover — in the US this can be worth $8,000–$20,000 for a family. In much of Europe it is close to irrelevant.
• Paid leave — 20 days versus 30 is a 4% difference in pay per day worked.
• Bonus — ask whether it has actually paid out in the last three years, not what the target is.
• Equity — at a private studio, treat it as a lottery ticket, not salary.
• Overtime culture — a salary divided by 60-hour weeks is a different salary.

The bands this is measured against

How to negotiate with a benchmark in hand

Name a number, and make it specific

"I was hoping for something closer to $104,000" lands better than "a bit more". A precise figure reads as researched; a round number reads as a wish.

Anchor to the role, not to your last salary

What you earned before is the employer’s best tool for paying you less. What the role is worth is yours. If asked directly for your current pay, answer with your target and the band it comes from.

Ask once, clearly, and then decide

One well-argued counter is normal and expected. Three rounds of small increments damages the relationship before you have started the job.

If they cannot move on base

Ask for a signing bonus, an early review at six months with a defined band, extra leave, or a training and conference budget. These come from different pots and are often easier to approve than base.

Context worth having

53% of game industry workers report feeling undercompensated. Among contractors and part-timers that rises to 69%. At AAA studios 85% of staff earn over $100,000, against 50% at indies — so an indie offer below a AAA band is normal rather than insulting, and the trade is usually scope and autonomy.

The market context matters too: 28% of respondents to the 2026 GDC survey had been laid off in the previous two years, and 48% of those were still unemployed. That does not mean you should accept a bad offer — it means you should know whether the one in front of you is bad or merely not generous.

Frequently asked questions

Is it risky to negotiate a game industry offer?

Offers are almost never withdrawn for one polite, evidence-based counter. What does damage things is aggression, repeated rounds, or renegotiating something already agreed.

The offer is below the band. Is it automatically bad?

Not necessarily. A junior role at a studio with genuine mentorship, a first shipped title, or a move into a discipline you want can be worth taking below band. Take it knowingly, and with a review date in writing.

How do I compare two offers in different countries?

Convert both against their local market bands rather than against each other directly. The remote pay equivalence calculator does exactly that.

They asked for my salary expectations first. What do I say?

Give a range whose bottom you would genuinely accept, anchored to the published band for the role and region. Never give your current salary as the answer.

Know what else is out there

The strongest negotiating position is a second option. Every role on the job board is remote and verified, and you can check your level against the ladder with the seniority calculator before deciding which band you should be arguing for.