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Best Jobs in America

CNNMoney/PayScale's top 100 careers with big growth, great pay and satisfying work.

2.  Video Game Designer

100 best jobs videogame designer1
2
Warren Spector, director of the Denius-Sams Gaming Academy at the University of Texas at Austin
  • Median pay: $79,900
  • Top pay: $115,000
  • 10-year job growth: 19%

It's not all fun and games for video game designers. Much like movie directors, they're responsible for the entire creative vision of a project, and lead a team of programmers, designers and artists, to realize the vision.

What's great: The industry is relatively new, so it's still a very innovative field. "The opportunity to define a new medium of expression comes along once or twice a century and you get to be a part of that," said video game designer Warren Spector. --J.E.

Quality of life ratings:
Personal satisfaction: A | Benefit to society: B | Low stress: A

Notes: All pay data from PayScale.com. Median pay is for an experienced worker (at least five or seven years in the field). Top pay represents the 90th percentile. Job growth is estimated for 2012-22, and based on people working in broader 'job family' from the Bureau of Labor Statistics. For more details, see How We Picked the Best Jobs.
Sources: PayScale.com, Bureau of Labor Statistics, and CNNMoney research
  @CNNMoney - Last updated May 09 2017 01:24 PM ET

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