I'm tired of being stepped over and ignored at work

I work for a large company in a department that's very important. I'm one of the lower staff in the department but I have skills that are valuable to the team and recently I have been feeling like the team is undervaluing me. <br><br>I was hired on to do a specific type of project (think game development) a little over a year ago. I have a Bachelors degree in this field with over 10 years of experience. I've been on the team for almost a year and I've successfully completed several projects and my manager has given me high reviews for my skills. <br><br>However the past 6 months the work load has increased exponentially and we're not hiring any new people. The team is under staffed for what we need to get done and everyone is working overtime. <br><br>I've noticed that I've been left out of the loop on several projects and people have been giving me work that they don't want to do or that is very easy. I asked my manager if something was wrong with my performance and how I can improve. He said that I'm doing everything right and it's not me at all. <br><br>I asked why they haven't been involving me in projects then and he said that he's worried that they will scare me off because I'm good at my job and he doesn't want to lose me to a different department. That's the reason he's giving me "easier" work. But I don't want to be doing easy work, I want to be doing a job. <br><br>I asked if I could be moved to a different team then and he said that I have a huge advantage right now. He said that he will give me raises and promotions even if I'm not working very hard. The catch is that the company is not offering raises to anyone right now unless they're doing a lot of overtime. He said that if I switch departments I would be expected to do a lot of overtime like everyone else in the company and I wouldn't be making as much as I make now. He said that he would be able to keep me at a higher pay level than what the company is offering because of my skills and he'd be able to give me a lot of vacation days. <br><br>So last week I was sitting in a meeting and someone brought up a project that I was working on. They were talking about their work on the project but what they were doing was exactly what I had done the week before. When I asked them if they had gotten my files they said that no one told them I was working on the project at all. I thought it was odd but then I started looking at the projects I've worked on in the past 6 months and I'm being completely ignored. I asked my manager what is going on and he said he was sorry. I said I can't work here if no one is going to give me work that matters and he agreed to add me to projects again. <br><br>I trust my manager, he's always done right by me but I don't trust my coworkers. I don't know what to do. I like my job but I don't like being treated like the janitor.