Typical comp shape
Game engineers usually earn private rsu or options. Common employers include Epic Games, Riot Games, Roblox, Unity. Epic and Riot are private, so secondary tender offers become the main liquidity event for vested equity.
What Illinois changes
In Illinois, every RSU vest, NSO exercise, and ESPP purchase carries 4.95% state tax on top of federal. For a senior game engineer with $300k+ of equity income, the state layer routinely adds $25-45k to the annual bill.
Planning cadence
For a game engineer in Illinois, the three planning windows are: after each RSU vest (withholding check and sell-vs-hold), before any ISO exercise (AMT model at federal only), and in Q4 (estimated tax top-up to clear the safe harbor).