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TIGSource ForumsDeveloperBusinessDid you quit your job to go indie?
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ekun
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« on: June 02, 2013, 11:19:32 AM »

Do you guys have any stories/advice to share based on your experience quitting your day job to do indie game dev full time? Maybe you worked in the software industry, or as a programmer in a large game company? I'm curious as to how those of you who used to work a regular job got started.
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Gregg Williams
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« Reply #1 on: June 02, 2013, 12:18:55 PM »

Sure why not..

Started serious game dev with the release of Xbox Live Community Games, while working at Intel as a software architect / engineer for a number of years. Previously I had worked at some startups, and spent a good 5 years or so in the Ultima Online emulation scene, developing and running custom UO servers.

Did some bad releases onto XBLCG during early part of 2009, got some bigger plans for XBLA scope projects, spent around 50k in art, and other various expenses, in a string of projects that I ended up canceling. Established a good working relationship with a fantastic artist.

Teamed up with the artist, and moved to IOS development. Released 2 or 3 games, with a multiplayer focus, that didn't go much of anywhere, despite marketing budgets, being featured by Apple and so forth. Played with some more concepts, and some more canceled projects.

2011 or so decided really didn't like the mobile market that much, and moved to flash game dev where cash was seemingly easier to acquire.

Formed Retromite, with artist as business partner. Began work on RobotRiot. Got fed up with splitting time between Retromite, and Intel, quit Intel with a couple months of savings. Finished and sold RobotRiot along with ports to IOS, BlackBerry, PC, and Mac. Stopped paying the rather hefty mortgage as funds just didn't exist for that anymore, and proceeded into foreclosure. Developed, and sold A.R.C.S along with ports to PC/Mac, and messed around with a bunch of game prototypes for to long. Started work on Gravitum.

Nearing end of 2012, foreclosure proceedings come to an end, A.R.C.S sales weren't nearly within estimates, needed to relocate myself and family to a new home.. I take on my first contract work, doing a flash and IOS game. End of 2012 relocate from Portland and my 300k house, to the middle of no where, with a nice new rent of at around 600 a month, compared to over 2k a month mortgage.

Decided the flash market really wasn't working out, and that we didn't like it, but we're much happier with PC and Mac. Started concept of M.I.N.T which would take 2-3 years to develop.

My option at this point, was to either try an continue to make small games and sell them, while working on M.I.N.T, or to potentially return to being an employee somewhere. I knew how disruptive trying to make and sell small size games we're, so I really didn't want to do that. I also pretty much decided to never return to being a regular employee and office worker when I quit Intel. My partner was already doing contract work as well. As such I opted to do part time IOS game dev work for the company I had started the previous contract gig with. So now I do around 20 hours a week of remote from home IOS game dev, and 30 hours or so of M.I.N.T development. I'm also paying and dealing with tons of debt and fallout from leaving a six figure salary life style.

In the end I'm pretty sure I could of stayed fully independent and simply struggled along on around likely 8-15k a year of income, but it was going to be more work, and more time use than just doing the contract work which pays way better as well. The contract approach made the most sense to allow financing and focus on M.I.N.T.
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ekun
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« Reply #2 on: June 02, 2013, 01:16:41 PM »

clip

Thanks for responding! It sounds like you did something similar to what I'm planning on.

I'm in my early twenties and I haven't been working in the software industry for very long, but I'd like to make the leap to do full time game development. It's tough though because I know I'd be leaving behind a great job that offers much more money than a game is likely ever to make... however I know I'd be more satisfied with my work doing pure game dev.
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Gregg Williams
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« Reply #3 on: June 02, 2013, 01:26:03 PM »

I'd recommend completing some games if you haven't before making such a jump. It's nice to be able to learn the craft and not worry about being on the street or starving at the same time Smiley
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Konidias
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« Reply #4 on: June 02, 2013, 01:29:34 PM »

Also if you're going to quit your job... at least have enough savings set aside to live off of during the development of your game. (along with paying for the game itself if needed)

Don't just quit your job with a month's living expenses saved up and expect to be pulling in enough money within a month to fund your new career and lifestyle.

Seems kind of drastic.

Instead I would at least be saving away money while continuing to do the job that is actually paying your bills... and putting in as much time into your game as possible in your spare time.

If you can't get enough time to work on your game outside of work... then I have a feeling you won't find the time to work on it if you quit your job either. Most people really only work 40-50 hours a week. At some point you're getting some time off which could be spent working hard on your own game. I just don't see a point in quitting your high paying job unless you absolutely need 40+ hours a week to work on your game and you have enough savings to get by for a while.
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« Reply #5 on: June 02, 2013, 01:49:36 PM »

I actually just left my job this past week. My boyfriend and I have been working on a game in our spare time for about 7 months. He recently got a better job, and so we decided to go ahead and take the chance. I left my job to work on the game full time, and we now live off of our savings and his income.

It's a risk, to be sure. I am constantly fluctuating between optimism and sheer terror. But I know that this is what we want to do, and we have to just do it. And if it doesn't work? I'll go back to my day job, and we'll keep doing what we love under cover of darkness.

I am having the time of my life, and I have to remember that even in the moments when I think I'm a talentless hack, that I am lucky to have this shot.
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Silvanis
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« Reply #6 on: June 02, 2013, 02:02:50 PM »

I left my job to start game development because my girlfriend made enough to support us (and some politics at work made me not want to be there anymore). Unfortunately, she was laid off before I could release a game. We both decided to work on games in the hope that multiple releases in a short window would give us the income we needed to continue. Crystal Collapse was released in April and fell flat. Cops 'n Robbers will be out this month, but I don't expect it to make enough to do this full time.

Hopefully they will be resume fodder that allows us to get industry jobs.
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Mittens
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« Reply #7 on: June 03, 2013, 01:21:41 AM »

I'm kinda starting with full time game development as my first job.
After completing uni i did a quick course in business management and started a games company, since then my friend Paul and I have been making and selling games.
Still yet to get any kind of real money back but we might as well give it a good go before getting a boring normal person job right?
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Impmaster
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« Reply #8 on: June 03, 2013, 01:28:21 AM »

Following this thread.
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« Reply #9 on: June 03, 2013, 01:29:44 AM »

I left my job April this year, 32 yrs old,  wife, kids mortgage.  It was a big step and very stressful because my wifes wage would now be the one we had to rely on as our main source of income. We had saved up a 12 month scrape by fund though.  My background was writing software that controlled machinery!  It was horrible because you would take pride in your work but it would end up in the hands of some arse covering jobs worth that couldn't give a monkeys about how much care you had put into the project.  At least developing for others they are usually very passionate about the project which rewards you for your work.

I'm currently juggling contract work with my own stuff and quite frankly am loving every minute of it!  I get a real sense of satisfaction helping somebody turn their idea into reality.  My focus is only on mobile at the moment so contracting is a much better way of securing an income than publishing your own work.

It can be quite stressful though, when you get a contract its a big releif but when it's coming to a finish then the pressure of not having another one really hits you!  Ideally I would like to earn enough for the month through contracting then use the remaining time for my own stuff so I don't need to touch the savings.  But hey I've only just started month 2 so I'm still working the balance out a bit.  My advice would be have a reliable fall back plan because you may well need it.
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ColeyWoley
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« Reply #10 on: June 03, 2013, 03:22:29 PM »

We got a bit of press locally when we went indie, so I've often been told that us packing up our four kids to live at the beach and make our own games was "inspirational".  But are there are sometimes when I think maybe it was just crazy.  And don't get me wrong, I've always loved making games, and I love making our own games much much more.  But its not without sacrifices.

I nearly burst into tears on the weekend when I discovered that my favourite coffee shop changed their coffee cups MONTHS ago.  And I didn't know because I haven't had enough disposable income to buy coffee.  I mean, 5 people have to buy our game to justify one latte.  I haven't had a haircut since Christmas time.  And shoes...  God I'd love to buy a pair of shoes...  I used to be a woman who bought skinnycinos, and had nice clothes, and tidy hair.

So you know, do your research and make sure its something you really want to do, that you can live with the sacrifices, and have an exit strategy in case you can't.

When it comes down to it, you are not your skinnycinos, but you just might be your indie game.
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Brice
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« Reply #11 on: June 03, 2013, 09:14:51 PM »

In between jobs I took a few months to make some indie games. Or so I thought. I hadn't made any games on my own in years however, but I figured I could get up to speed and get a game out rather quickly.

That was a big mistake.

It took me a few months to get up to speed on Flash and Flixel. That was a lot longer than I expected. In addition, the game I was trying to make was a zelda-style action RPG. That was a big mistake as well because it required enormous amounts of content for a 1-man team.

In the end I ended up running out of time and getting another job that I'm very happy with. But I learned I should have prepared better.

If I was going to do it again, I would:
- Make sure I already had lots and lots of experience making games on my own before making the leap
- For a first game, pick something that can give hours of fun without much of content, like puzzle games

Best of luck!
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« Reply #12 on: June 04, 2013, 01:01:16 PM »

Yes. It was always my plan to go indie and I had worked at a couple of small game studios and/or start-ups and felt it was time to try having at it on my own before things like kids, home, etc. set in. I only set out on this path a few a weeks ago so I can't really say too much regarding the experience overall however having made games on my own for years for both game jams and for resume pieces I definitely feel like I have a leg up over not having had any previous experience.

So far the most harrowing thing is watching money leave my bank account without a strong idea of when I'll be able to invert that flow and its definitely caused me to revert to college level food spending and eating (< $150 a month).

Before I quit I wrote up a few documents planning out my game, milestones, business direction, etc. to make sure I could sell the idea to myself and others as a litmus test. It certainly wasn't 100% comprehensive but it helped me build confidence in the idea and also forced me to think through what I needed to get done with the time and money I would have on hand. At this point I'm running on a strict time budget and if I slip more than two milestones on my way to demo then I'll probably call it quits. I believe strongly in killing projects that are not on a road to success and I can't see why I shouldn't apply that to myself especially when I know I'll be biased in my analysis Kiss.

If you are curious I am keeping a detailed blog of the process at http://alchemy.mutualdestruction.net and I'm trying to post about literally everything I deal with along the way. Good luck in making the choice, it's not one to take lightly.
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« Reply #13 on: June 04, 2013, 04:25:02 PM »

I left EA/BioWare over a year ago to go indie and found Quarter Spiral. I had been saving up money for several years and thought I had enough money to last at least a year. As soon as I left, I started to get approached for contract work, which is a double edge sword. On one hand more money means more time to be indie. On the other hand, splitting your focus between a variety of projects means you will always feel "behind" on your personal game development. Here are some quick lessons I've learned from the past year:

  • Save up a fund before you go indie. It should be more than enough to cover your anticipated development time (multiplied by 2 for going over scope) + 3 months after the launch.
  • If you are used to drawing a salary, immediately put yourself on a strict budget as soon as you quit. Your money will not last nearly as long as you think if you don't.
  • If you take on contract work, consider the overhead. Although I try to keep my contracting to 10 hours a week or less, I spend at least 5 hours every week on unpaid overhead tasks related to my freelancing.
  • If you've never made a game start to finish by yourself, make sure to do it before you quit. This can be an extremely small game, but it has to be finished - not nearly finished. Before you can quit you need to learn the distance between 90% complete and 100% complete. Hint, it is a lot longer than you think.
  • If you are quitting to make a specific game, then you should prototype and playtest that game with real players before you quit. You need to have confidence that players will enjoy your dream game as much as you do before you commit yourself to it.
  • Set your personal metric of success. This could be financial or otherwise. Perhaps you want to enter IndieCade/IGF. Perhaps you want to put 1 game out on iOS/Android. Perhaps you want to get a featured game on Kongregate. Set a tangible, measurable goal so every day you can wake up and measure if you are moving closer to or farther away from your version of success.
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« Reply #14 on: June 04, 2013, 04:41:48 PM »

These are some really interesting stories. Personally, I'm too scared to go solely indie. Instead I've been slowly tinkering on the side. Maybe I'll make some money, maybe not, but either way it's an excellent learning experience.
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« Reply #15 on: June 04, 2013, 05:36:17 PM »

Not really taking any major risks here, but here goes.

I've been tinkering with aspects of game development for a while, acquiring some needed graphical skills through freelancing for the past year. Got some (enough) money saved up, boyfriend found a job after a long hiatus so I  stopped freelancing (can always go back to it if need arises, plus there are some recurring clients that don't eat away too much of my time); and am focusing on developing my first project while enjoying a break from employment.

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moi
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« Reply #16 on: June 05, 2013, 05:28:55 AM »

when is the book coming out smithy ?
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« Reply #17 on: June 05, 2013, 06:21:42 AM »

Just did!

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Konidias
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« Reply #18 on: June 05, 2013, 08:36:50 AM »

felt it was time to try having at it on my own before things like kids, home, etc. set in
you make kids/home/etc sound like an incurable disease. Cheesy
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« Reply #19 on: June 05, 2013, 09:31:38 AM »

Wow there are a lot of great stories in this thread so far. I look forward to reading more.

I'm not sure if I'll ever have the guts to pursue my own thing full time, but for now making games part time at night has been satisfying. I've also learned a ton too, which is great.
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