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The differences between game developers and contract developers can be seen in a few details. Each job has different responsibilities and duties. It typically takes 2-4 years to become both a game developer and a contract developer. Additionally, a contract developer has an average salary of $91,433, which is higher than the $91,009 average annual salary of a game developer.
The top three skills for a game developer include unity, game development and game engine. The most important skills for a contract developer are C++, javascript, and java.
| Game Developer | Contract Developer | |
| Yearly salary | $91,009 | $91,433 |
| Hourly rate | $43.75 | $43.96 |
| Growth rate | 21% | 21% |
| Number of jobs | 173,596 | 249,808 |
| Job satisfaction | - | - |
| Most common degree | Bachelor's Degree, 75% | Bachelor's Degree, 68% |
| Average age | 39 | 39 |
| Years of experience | 4 | 4 |
Game developers are professionals who are responsible for designing and producing video games for computers, mobile devices, or game consoles by taking the concept of video game designers and turning them into playable games. By using their background in software development and mathematics, game developers must work with teams to create visual content for a game and writing code to implement all the game's features and functionality. They are required to handle new game feature requests and make improvements to the game even after production. Game developers must also demonstrate their skills in artificial programming intelligence for non-player characters.
Contract Developers develop secure web applications for data collections, quality measurement efforts, and reporting purposes for large-scale performance, wireframes and UI specifications for interactive and static reporting and analysis features, and developing UI to interact with reporting engines. They are involved with system design and technical documentation and responsible for dot net development. In this position, contract developers must excellent in problem-solving, analytical skills and attention to detail, display and manipulate performance metrics, and highly confident dealing with internal and external clients.
Game developers and contract developers have different pay scales, as shown below.
| Game Developer | Contract Developer | |
| Average salary | $91,009 | $91,433 |
| Salary range | Between $64,000 And $127,000 | Between $67,000 And $123,000 |
| Highest paying City | San Francisco, CA | San Francisco, CA |
| Highest paying state | California | California |
| Best paying company | Microsoft | Avanade |
| Best paying industry | Finance | Finance |
There are a few differences between a game developer and a contract developer in terms of educational background:
| Game Developer | Contract Developer | |
| Most common degree | Bachelor's Degree, 75% | Bachelor's Degree, 68% |
| Most common major | Computer Science | Computer Science |
| Most common college | Harvard University | Massachusetts Institute of Technology |
Here are the differences between game developers' and contract developers' demographics:
| Game Developer | Contract Developer | |
| Average age | 39 | 39 |
| Gender ratio | Male, 87.7% Female, 12.3% | Male, 71.5% Female, 28.5% |
| Race ratio | Black or African American, 4.3% Unknown, 4.8% Hispanic or Latino, 8.1% Asian, 30.0% White, 52.6% American Indian and Alaska Native, 0.2% | Black or African American, 4.4% Unknown, 4.8% Hispanic or Latino, 8.1% Asian, 27.8% White, 54.8% American Indian and Alaska Native, 0.2% |
| LGBT Percentage | 8% | 8% |