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[Julien]

Work hard, play hard.

I've given up a lot of things that aren't my Job, but it's all about balance. No TV. No Movies. Sleep less. I reckon I do 20 hours of game-dev alongside 50 hours at work each week, but why not?

Same here. I basically have no thing for anything else than my wife and my kid, my day job and my project. And don't sleep enough. It's been on like that since a couple of years and I don't think it could on for much longer so I'm really considering going full time indie

[ekun]

The wheels are in motion.
Submitted my two weeks yesterday.
Saved up money so that I could live well for a while.
Gonna work on my game full time.
I'm really excited and I think it's gonna be a great experience whether I am successful or not.

Good luck, man.

I did the same a half year ago, and haven't looked back

[Riho]

Quit my job 5 months ago, but I started doing some freelance on the side now to finance the living expenses.

[JP (@JTown_)]

Never had a real job to quit.  Been indie since graduating.   

[ryansumo]

Sort of.  Quit my day job 6-7 years ago to join a tiny studio that wanted to make a DS game.  When they went under a year later I was forced to go freelance and haven't looked back since.

[team_q]

I quit my day job 3 weeks ago. Still figurin' it all out.

[Lautaro]

I've been really tempted to do it but I decided not to (at least for now).

The way I see it, my day job is my financial partner, with the money I gain from it I can pay freelancers and get assets so for now it's vital for my (future) career. Some day in the future I'll be able to live from game development but for now I'll have to deal with work in my free time.

[mixzed]

My business is originally a web and design company that offers solutions for local small businesses. Ever since I was young I always wanted to create video games and pursued that as a hobby all throughout my life. Last year I decided to take a chance and expand my business into game development. It's something I always wanted to do but never had the courage to show people my projects. I also had a problem with finishing games. It's going slow so far but you gotta start somewhere right? I figure the sooner I start, the better off I'll be in the future. I've already finished 3 games and currently working on my fourth.

[Richard Kain]

I'm still working a 9-5 contract gig. I do graphic and web design. It isn't my passion, but its something I can drum up a respectable amount of enthusiasm for, and it pays the bills. While I would like to go full-time indie eventually, for the time being it must remain a hobby.

The game development industry in general is fiercely competitive, and as such extremely risky. While there are much more opportunities for indie developers, there's also far more competition. There's nothing particularly wrong with this, it's just a consequence of making the medium more accessible to more people. While this can make it difficult to make a steady living as an indie dev, it also means more people will have the chance to try.

I'm fine continuing as a hobbyist for the time being. And I wish good fortune to anyone who is taking the plunge.

[Trent]

Been unemployed for a few years, so I guess that counts... right? 

[Muz]

If you've made enough money off the side to survive a few years being 'unemployed', probably counts.

[ImagineMartin]

We have been working on our game for 6 years now as a hobby and finally taken the step to work half-time. Right now I am really happy with this decission. I earn some money to live and can put a lot of effort into the game.
But this solution depends on your boss, I suppose.

[joe_eyemobi]

That's actually a smart way to do it - have a transition period so you can at least pay for your living.  I've been a part time indie for about a year+ so I'm also trying to increase income from game dev.  I'm poorer than when I was a grad, but at least I'm passionate about what I'm doing rather than feeling like I want to blow my brains out on a Monday morning like I used to

We have been working on our game for 6 years now as a hobby and finally taken the step to work half-time. Right now I am really happy with this decission. I earn some money to live and can put a lot of effort into the game.
But this solution depends on your boss, I suppose.

[Omiya Games]

Yup, I'm quitting tomorrow, and moving in two weeks.  Then the fun of being a full time indie starts!  I am pretty excited by it.

Any advice?  I'm going off of my savings right now.

[_metamythical]

Probably not the best decision of my life, but yes I just did 2 months ago.

[pythagean]

We have been working on our game for 6 years now as a hobby and finally taken the step to work half-time. Right now I am really happy with this decission. I earn some money to live and can put a lot of effort into the game.
But this solution depends on your boss, I suppose.

Wow that's awesome! How did you manage to stay focused on making the game for 6 years? How many people were working on it over that time?

[quietCoder]

I quit my job almost 2 years ago to do development full time. I spent about 5 years planning and saving up money and paying off loans before I took the plunge.

Not having an income for this long is hard to get used to though.

but its totally worth it

[oodavid]

Yup, I'm quitting tomorrow, and moving in two weeks.  Then the fun of being a full time indie starts!  I am pretty excited by it.

Any advice?  I'm going off of my savings right now.

Stock up on Ramen.

Probably not the best decision of my life, but yes I just did 2 months ago.

Why do you say that?

We have been working on our game for 6 years now as a hobby and finally taken the step to work half-time. Right now I am really happy with this decission. I earn some money to live and can put a lot of effort into the game.
But this solution depends on your boss, I suppose.

Yeah, half-time is really tempting me at the moment; I get very stressed in my job (business operating system development) and making games keeps me interested in programming - how do you find balancing two programming Jobs?

[_metamythical]

Probably not the best decision of my life, but yes I just did 2 months ago.

Why do you say that?

Because, it's really early in the game making process, I have no idea if this will work out, and it will take a really long time to finish. Just hoping it will work out in the end.

[oodavid]

Probably not the best decision of my life, but yes I just did 2 months ago.

Why do you say that?

Because, it's really early in the game making process, I have no idea if this will work out, and it will take a really long time to finish. Just hoping it will work out in the end.

Yeah, there's been many a book written about de-risking software projects, I guess games are no different!