Write the code behind video games. Canada is one of the biggest game-making countries on Earth.
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Pay, the path, pros and cons and the facts on one printable page. Good for a wall or a guidance counsellor.
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What you earn and what it costs to get there.
Typical
$100,000
Junior
$62,000
Senior or lead
$160,000
Job Bank's national median is $48.08 an hour, about $100,000 a year full time. Job Bank pools game developers with all software developers (NOC, the National Occupational Classification, code 21232). Game studios are known for paying a bit less than other software jobs for the same skills, so expect the lower half of this range early on.
$55,000 to $70,000
Junior gameplay, tools or engine programmer
Job Bank's low end is $30 an hour. Big studios in Montreal, Toronto and Vancouver pay the most. Small indie studios pay less and sometimes in shares of a game that may never sell.
$120,000 to $160,000
Senior engineers, technical leads, engine specialists
Job Bank's top end is $76.92 an hour. Graphics, engine and networking programmers are the scarcest and best paid. Studio bonuses depend on the game shipping and selling.
Tuition, fees, exams and kit. Not rent, food or travel
The low end is teaching yourself on free game engines such as Unity and Unreal Engine, joining game jams, and shipping small finished games as a portfolio. The engines cost nothing until a game earns real money, so the bill is a computer good enough to build on and a few paid courses. The high end is a four year computer science degree at a pricier university, which is also the safest route because it qualifies you for ordinary software jobs when studios are not hiring. The twelve month Vancouver Film School diploma costs about $33,000 on its own. The cheap door is harder: studios do hire from it, but with no credential your finished games carry the whole application.
A computer science degree is the safest bet: it qualifies you for game studios and for every other software job if the game industry has a bad year.
Salary at a studio
Most developers. Benefits and sometimes a bonus when a game ships.
Contract
Common late in a project when studios staff up, then let people go.
Indie
Your own game on Steam or a console store. Most earn little, a few earn millions.
Tax credits
Ontario refunds 35% of game studio labour costs and Quebec has a similar credit. This is why studios cluster here.
The exact path from high school to qualified.
Learn to program properly, then learn games. Studios hire programmers first and gamers second.
High school
Grades 11 and 12
Math and physics matter more here than in most software jobs: games are physics and geometry running 60 times a second. Make small games in Unity or Godot now.
Computer science degree or game program
1 to 4 years
A 4-year computer science degree is the most common route for programmers. Game-specific programs exist too: Sheridan's 4-year Honours Bachelor of Game Design, or a 1-year Vancouver Film School diploma.
Build a portfolio
During school
Finished, playable games, even tiny ones. Game jams (48-hour build events) are the standard way to get them.
Internship or co-op
During school
Ubisoft, EA (Electronic Arts), Behaviour, Eidos and many mid-size studios take co-op students.
First studio job
After graduation
Junior gameplay programmer, tools programmer or QA (quality assurance) tester who moves into code.
Computer science
You need to program well before you can program games.
Advanced Functions and Calculus
Required for computer science degrees, and used constantly in 3D math.
Physics
Movement, collisions, light. Games are physics simulations.
Visual arts or writing
Helps if you lean toward design rather than pure code.
No licence, no exam, no professional body. Studios hire on your portfolio, a coding test and an interview. Because the title engineer is protected in most provinces, job titles are usually programmer or developer even when the work is engineering.
Things you don't need, but that help.
Engine and graphics programming
Rendering, shaders, performance. Deep math, scarce skills, top pay.
Network and multiplayer
Making 100 players see the same thing at the same time.
Tools programming
Building the software the artists and designers use. Less glamorous, very steady.
AI and gameplay systems
Enemy behaviour, pathfinding, procedural worlds.
Game jams
Global Game Jam and Ludum Dare happen every year. A finished jam game is a portfolio piece.
C++ and one engine deeply
Big studios run on C++ and Unreal. Indie and mobile lean on Unity and C#.
French
Montreal and Quebec City are the biggest game hubs in Canada. Many studios work in both languages.
Tools are free, stores are open to anyone, and a few Canadian indies have made fortunes. But thousands of games launch every year and most sell almost nothing. The honest way to go indie is with savings or a day job, a small scope, and a finished game in under a year.
Day to day, pros and cons, where you'd work.
Stand-up with your team (programmers, artists, designers, producers), then coding a feature: a jump that feels right, an inventory system, a loading screen that loads faster. Playtesting your own work, fixing bugs QA (quality assurance) found, reviewing teammates' code. Late in a project, days get long. Between projects, they get quiet and sometimes studios shrink.
The good
The hard parts
Things people don't tell you.
Ubisoft's Montreal studio is one of the largest game studios on the planet, and the city is home to dozens of others. Quebec's tax credits, launched in the 1990s, are the reason Ubisoft came, and other provinces copied the idea.
The Ontario Interactive Digital Media Tax Credit refunds 35% of eligible labour spending on digital games, with no cap. It is a big part of why Toronto has a growing studio scene.
Eric Barone made Stardew Valley alone in the US, but Canada has its own indie legends: Vancouver's Klei (Don't Starve) and Toronto's Capybara Games started as tiny teams and grew into lasting studios on early hits.
Unity, Unreal Engine and Godot cost nothing to download and learn. Unreal only charges once a game earns over a million dollars. A high school student has the same tools as a 500-person studio.
Last checked September 2026. Pay figures are typical full-time annual amounts in Canadian dollars, based on Government of Canada Job Bank wage data and published salary grids. They vary by province, employer and experience. Tuition is for domestic students.