Thanks for this advice, I'm really grateful My goal was to work on a large game company and make my own games, but sometimes i feel hesitant. Actually I'm the 1st in my school, always get high grades, thus my dad wants me to be a doctor or an engineer, and earlier when I began making games and told him that I want to make games as a career, he discouraged me and made me feel bad, but I know he wants the best for me and want me to live better than him. That's why I'm asking all this questions about salaries and the industry.
If you're good at school, definitely don't go towards gaming as your primary mean of generating income. In this point, your dad is correct.
On the other hand, I don't think a career as a lawyer or doctor will be good for you. Yes you'll make money, but those jobs leave you too exhausted to do anything else. Since you're young, I would look towards a job that:
- Requires skills you can reuse to develop games. Programming and design are good bets.
- Has stable long-term prospects. You don't want to become a bus driver, gasoline-engine mechanic or anything you suspect will cease existing in the next 20 years.
- Is an office job with low hours and/or low workload. For instance you don't want to become a civil engineer and always be walking around a construction site giving orders. Don't worry too much about high payment, but do look for something that can sustain you comfortably.
- A high barrier to entry would be nice, especially considering you're a good student. For instance, government jobs usually require a test, and once you're in it's impossible to be fired.
You could also try a more fancy route, such as becoming a Computer Scientist, since you get all the perks above and, if you're lucky, can even integrate your game design directly into your research.
Mostly, it's about finding non-standard routes into the industry.
Avoid becoming a professional game developer. You'll notice I didn't even list it as an option in my list, and that's because it's not viable. The AAA industry is on the verge of a crisis, all the jobs are concentrated in the USA/Canada, the pay is horrible, the journey to become an actual designer is super boring and unrewarding (you join through QA, then become a programmer, then a designer), filled with overtime, turnover is extremely high (with professionals in the industry lasting less than 5 years on average) and you'll rarely design the games you want.
That said, for now, you don't have to worry about it. Keep making games!