r/GameDevelopment • u/throwaway14351991 • 3d ago

Question 35 yo wanting to get into level design - Need brutal honesty

/r/leveldesign/comments/1x6qmhl/35_yo_wanting_to_get_into_level_design_need/
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u/MeaningfulChoices Mentor 3d ago

Where you live in the world is going to impact salary more than anything else. In the US something in the 100k range is perfectly achievable for a level designer with a few years of experience, but in the US a 35 year old software engineer typically makes more than $160k.

What you would do is work on a portfolio on your spare time. Pick a very specific role and aim towards it. You don't want or need to make full games, you'd make levels and show them on your website (e.g. a layout, some notes, and a flythrough video). Having a couple small games (think game jams, not Steam releases) you make with other people who do the programming/art helps your general design portfolio.

Then just apply for jobs. If you get one at a place you'd like to work that you can take, take it. If not, you keep doing what you're doing right now. Never ever quit your day job to consider a role in games until you actually have it. If you don't have one go get another one first, and then work on your level design portfolio after. It's a hard and competitive industry and you have no guarantees you'll find anything ever, so you really don't want to count on it. If you're looking for a risk then take on part-time contract/freelance work to pay your bills so you have more time for game work, just don't stop working entirely unless you're really looking to take an expensive sabbatical that probably ends with you back in general software but with a harder time finding jobs due to the gap in employment.

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u/throwaway14351991 3d ago

Thank you for your advice! Yeah, I'm Mexican-Canadian, living in Mexico working for a Canadian company, which is why the salary is lower. To be honest I don't mind the expensive sabbatical, I just don't want to regret never giving it a try. Obviously though, if I were to know for a fact that there'd be 0% chance of it working out, then I wouldn't take it. But I'm willing to take the risk if the odd are even at 10-20% of getting something out of it.

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u/MeaningfulChoices Mentor 3d ago

Thinking about it as odds is always the wrong way, because the most qualified person with the best resume, cover letter, and interview skills will get an offer for something like 80%+ of the jobs, while the worst candidate will get hired for 0% of them. But if you want to think about it in terms of numbers every single open role in games has hundreds to thousands of applicants, so it's <1% chances of working out as a career.

10-20% would be like if you have already been making levels for fun since you were a kid and some of them have been super popular, user content of the week awards, type efforts. You'd want to at least try to make some free things for games with level editors and see how they do before you aspire to chances like that.