If youβre doing art in the hope of becoming an AAA game artist with a six-figure salary, youβre already fighting an uphill battle
There are roughly 83,000 direct game industry employees in the United States. Concept artists, character artists, environment artists, animators, technical artists, VFX artists, UI artists, and other art-related roles likely account for only 15β25% of that workforce. Thatβs somewhere between 12,000 and 20,000 people
To put that into perspective, thatβs roughly the same number of people currently working as nuclear engineers in the entire country
Youβre trying to break into a profession that represents around 0.007% of the US workforce. Those are odds most gamblers wouldnβt take even on a good day
And thatβs before considering that many of the people currently working in the industry got in over a decade ago. Theyβre not above tribalism or gatekeeping, especially amid the devastating layoffs that have been sweeping through the industry
You donβt need the approval of corporate executives or studio heads to make art. Your work doesnβt need to be attached to a big-name AAA IP to be good or meaningful. Stop trying to suck up to the people who will choose AI and cheap outsourcing over new talent every chance they get. They donβt care about you
Shock me with the harshest reality truth.