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2D Pixel Artist Salary

Submitted by Zephyr on

Hi everyone,
I'm new here. I have been reading the different topics here and realised that people are very nice and helpful in this forum ^____^
I have some questions regarding the salary of a 2D Pixel Artist working on mobile phone games:

(i)If he is working on a full time contract for a company, what salary can he expect?
(ii)By working virtually online as freelance artist, what salary can be expected for each project he works on?

Are there any australian mobile gaming company that is recruiting 2d artist?

Thank you very much in advance for your help.

Submitted by tbag on Tue, 12/10/04 - 5:05 AM Permalink

(I): Thats a tough cookie. From what i can gather, a fair amount of mobile phone game art is created by the programmers and designers themselves. Generally i think this is because sometimes the budgets of these games are very small and cannot exactly hire staff.

Pay wise i would presume would be rather low, if not any at all until the game actually begins to sell, quite alot of games on mobiles are from indie developers. Mind you, if you were hired by say Sega to produce a mobile phone game im sure you would get payed decently (Although i could be wrong).

(II): Freelancing can land you some great cash to a certain degree. But first i would suggest beginning off by offering art skills and such for free, and of course i speak of the magical wonder of mod teams. Join a mod team to gain a reputation and your name known. I would suggest only one or two teams, you dont want to put yourself under too much pressure and stress since you are just starting out. But yeah, get your name known in the semi-professional field of modding and you can probably get your foot in the door of a semi-famous freelancing artist.

Pay wise i would say that you could probably establish around $15,000 annually for starters (After a few years of working with mod teams etc... perhaps even creating a small team of freelance artists?) and then work your way up from that, then again i could be wrong so dont say i am accurate on any of this information [:p].

Anyway, hopefully i provided a tiny bit of help [:p].
Are you by any chance thinking of becoming a freelance artist?

Cheers,

Tom

Submitted by Zephyr on Wed, 13/10/04 - 5:29 PM Permalink

Thank you very much for your response.

"Are you by any chance thinking of becoming a freelance artist?"
I am hoping to work on a full-time basis with a mobile company in australia but I didn't find any on the internet so far :(
I am working as freelance for the graphics of 2 games so far and hope to get a full-time contract by next year.

Thanks again :)

Submitted by souri on Thu, 14/10/04 - 4:45 AM Permalink

There are a few Mobile Game developers in Australia.. [url="http://www.sumea.com.au/sdevelopersprofile.asp?developer=59"]Viva La Mobile[/url] in NSW is one... [url="http://www.sumea.com.au/sdevelopersprofile.asp?developer=78"]Jumbuck Entertainment[/url] is a big one, they're in Melbourne. I'm sure there are a few more.

As for salary, I have no idea. I'd probably use the Gambit salary survey as a reference, where Junior Artists/Animators get between 30-45k..

Submitted by tbag on Thu, 14/10/04 - 4:53 AM Permalink

Hopefully everyone works out well for you Zephyr, goodluck and remember to post updates on your progress in the industry [:)].

Submitted by Zephyr on Fri, 15/10/04 - 8:56 AM Permalink

Thanks Souri, I've been in contact with one of the two mentionned company a while ago but the position has already been filled.

I'm in contact with a company who are asking me how much I would charge for designing the concepts for an action/adventure mobile game- how much do you think such task would cost? Since a mobile game is quite cheap, can you give me some advice on that please?

Submitted by groovyone on Sat, 16/10/04 - 1:01 AM Permalink

Perhaps check around with the local game companies. Seems like a lot of international companies are starting to do mobile games..

ie EA, THQ, NamCo.. etc

Other thing is get a company together, make some portfolios and start posting to mobile forums for freelance work.

Submitted by Hoeks Revenge on Mon, 01/11/04 - 11:16 AM Permalink

[:D] Hi, I'm a programmer with the opposite problem. I have everything I need except the artwork for a windows game.

I'm on a carers pension at the moment in Australia and have quite a bit of time on my hands. The sort of game I seek to make is a classic 2d shooter but with a few nice things added. Problem is... the artwork will make or break it. I know photoshop very well but still doesn't help if I'm just not artistic enough.

The game engine I have is built on 3d hardware so can do scaling, rotations, alpha blending, tinting and all sorts of effects. It has a good particle engine so is capable of vapour trails, exhaust, explosions, etc. I have all the elements like pixel perfect collisions all handled but no cool graphics.

I want to make a name for myself and if you or any other artist is interested and would like their art in a "showcase" type game please contact me. I have some "concept sprites" I can pass on and would be open to any other suggestions.

My web site is http://www.hoek.inkblue.net- I have 2 freeware products I'm hammering at the moment and the site is slowly gaining momentum. The "Tech Demo" in one of the download sections was written by me and shows what's possible in the game engine.

I have a semi-complete version of the game from a few years ago. I would like to re-vamp it greatly and move to the new engine I have.

Basically I wanted a "gory" shoot them up where the aliens hate being hit and dodge a bit when you settle under them. Near misses result in the alien getting stirred up and attacking. Aliens get scorch marks and explode with wings and crap going everywhere. When they hit your ship... they explode and do damage to it. The ship starts looking worse and it starts handling badly, looks a wreck and smokes like a car burning more oil than petrol. Wounded aliens that aren't finished off eventually die and just drift around in the way.

I want to put a bit of AI into the aliens and some physics into the game itself.

Some of the aliens are nearly fully transparant and can only be seen with a light on the front of the ship.

If you have an idea for other elements, I'm open to suggestions.

Regards, Dean B. White.

PS - I have attached a single sprite sample which I have converted from 32 bit PNG format. When I re-do these they will be made so individual pieces are re-contructed. ie. Head, arms, legs, wings. This gives more flexability when rendering and will allow bits to be "exploded".

[img]icon_paperclip.gif[/img] Download Attachment: [url="http://www.sumea.com.au/forum/attached/hoeks revenge/20041031102355_sprite1.gif"]sprite1.gif[/url]
12.05 KB

Posted by Zephyr on

Hi everyone,
I'm new here. I have been reading the different topics here and realised that people are very nice and helpful in this forum ^____^
I have some questions regarding the salary of a 2D Pixel Artist working on mobile phone games:

(i)If he is working on a full time contract for a company, what salary can he expect?
(ii)By working virtually online as freelance artist, what salary can be expected for each project he works on?

Are there any australian mobile gaming company that is recruiting 2d artist?

Thank you very much in advance for your help.


Submitted by tbag on Tue, 12/10/04 - 5:05 AM Permalink

(I): Thats a tough cookie. From what i can gather, a fair amount of mobile phone game art is created by the programmers and designers themselves. Generally i think this is because sometimes the budgets of these games are very small and cannot exactly hire staff.

Pay wise i would presume would be rather low, if not any at all until the game actually begins to sell, quite alot of games on mobiles are from indie developers. Mind you, if you were hired by say Sega to produce a mobile phone game im sure you would get payed decently (Although i could be wrong).

(II): Freelancing can land you some great cash to a certain degree. But first i would suggest beginning off by offering art skills and such for free, and of course i speak of the magical wonder of mod teams. Join a mod team to gain a reputation and your name known. I would suggest only one or two teams, you dont want to put yourself under too much pressure and stress since you are just starting out. But yeah, get your name known in the semi-professional field of modding and you can probably get your foot in the door of a semi-famous freelancing artist.

Pay wise i would say that you could probably establish around $15,000 annually for starters (After a few years of working with mod teams etc... perhaps even creating a small team of freelance artists?) and then work your way up from that, then again i could be wrong so dont say i am accurate on any of this information [:p].

Anyway, hopefully i provided a tiny bit of help [:p].
Are you by any chance thinking of becoming a freelance artist?

Cheers,

Tom

Submitted by Zephyr on Wed, 13/10/04 - 5:29 PM Permalink

Thank you very much for your response.

"Are you by any chance thinking of becoming a freelance artist?"
I am hoping to work on a full-time basis with a mobile company in australia but I didn't find any on the internet so far :(
I am working as freelance for the graphics of 2 games so far and hope to get a full-time contract by next year.

Thanks again :)

Submitted by souri on Thu, 14/10/04 - 4:45 AM Permalink

There are a few Mobile Game developers in Australia.. [url="http://www.sumea.com.au/sdevelopersprofile.asp?developer=59"]Viva La Mobile[/url] in NSW is one... [url="http://www.sumea.com.au/sdevelopersprofile.asp?developer=78"]Jumbuck Entertainment[/url] is a big one, they're in Melbourne. I'm sure there are a few more.

As for salary, I have no idea. I'd probably use the Gambit salary survey as a reference, where Junior Artists/Animators get between 30-45k..

Submitted by tbag on Thu, 14/10/04 - 4:53 AM Permalink

Hopefully everyone works out well for you Zephyr, goodluck and remember to post updates on your progress in the industry [:)].

Submitted by Zephyr on Fri, 15/10/04 - 8:56 AM Permalink

Thanks Souri, I've been in contact with one of the two mentionned company a while ago but the position has already been filled.

I'm in contact with a company who are asking me how much I would charge for designing the concepts for an action/adventure mobile game- how much do you think such task would cost? Since a mobile game is quite cheap, can you give me some advice on that please?

Submitted by groovyone on Sat, 16/10/04 - 1:01 AM Permalink

Perhaps check around with the local game companies. Seems like a lot of international companies are starting to do mobile games..

ie EA, THQ, NamCo.. etc

Other thing is get a company together, make some portfolios and start posting to mobile forums for freelance work.

Submitted by Hoeks Revenge on Mon, 01/11/04 - 11:16 AM Permalink

[:D] Hi, I'm a programmer with the opposite problem. I have everything I need except the artwork for a windows game.

I'm on a carers pension at the moment in Australia and have quite a bit of time on my hands. The sort of game I seek to make is a classic 2d shooter but with a few nice things added. Problem is... the artwork will make or break it. I know photoshop very well but still doesn't help if I'm just not artistic enough.

The game engine I have is built on 3d hardware so can do scaling, rotations, alpha blending, tinting and all sorts of effects. It has a good particle engine so is capable of vapour trails, exhaust, explosions, etc. I have all the elements like pixel perfect collisions all handled but no cool graphics.

I want to make a name for myself and if you or any other artist is interested and would like their art in a "showcase" type game please contact me. I have some "concept sprites" I can pass on and would be open to any other suggestions.

My web site is http://www.hoek.inkblue.net- I have 2 freeware products I'm hammering at the moment and the site is slowly gaining momentum. The "Tech Demo" in one of the download sections was written by me and shows what's possible in the game engine.

I have a semi-complete version of the game from a few years ago. I would like to re-vamp it greatly and move to the new engine I have.

Basically I wanted a "gory" shoot them up where the aliens hate being hit and dodge a bit when you settle under them. Near misses result in the alien getting stirred up and attacking. Aliens get scorch marks and explode with wings and crap going everywhere. When they hit your ship... they explode and do damage to it. The ship starts looking worse and it starts handling badly, looks a wreck and smokes like a car burning more oil than petrol. Wounded aliens that aren't finished off eventually die and just drift around in the way.

I want to put a bit of AI into the aliens and some physics into the game itself.

Some of the aliens are nearly fully transparant and can only be seen with a light on the front of the ship.

If you have an idea for other elements, I'm open to suggestions.

Regards, Dean B. White.

PS - I have attached a single sprite sample which I have converted from 32 bit PNG format. When I re-do these they will be made so individual pieces are re-contructed. ie. Head, arms, legs, wings. This gives more flexability when rendering and will allow bits to be "exploded".

[img]icon_paperclip.gif[/img] Download Attachment: [url="http://www.sumea.com.au/forum/attached/hoeks revenge/20041031102355_sprite1.gif"]sprite1.gif[/url]
12.05 KB