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[Julien]

I didn't I coded everyday after work until midnight.

That's where I'm at. How did it work out for you?

Same here ^^

[joe_eyemobi]

So I've finally done it...

After 8 years working at the Creative Assembly as an Artist then Lead Artist(Empire TW, Napoleon TW, Shogun 2 TW, Fall of the Samurai TW and Rome2 TW) I've handed in my notice And will be Indie at 5pm on my Birthday November 21st!!!

It's time for change,

So I'm setting up a small Indie studio in Brighton with another Creative Assembly guy (a Programmer) and a friend who has about 12 years experience at Rare and other studios (as an animator) and we have a Sound guy on board too. We have a project around 20-30% into development and going full-time we aim to hammer the development and get it out by summer.

We will be announcing the project as a Dev log soon we've shown a first playable (prototype)build to the Brighton Indie group and it's been well received but we want the core mechanic fully implemented before we start the dev log...

Either way it's exciting times!!!! I feel at peace right now, planning my actions, reducing my costs of living, saving as much money as possible before I finish in November.

If anyone has any questions please feel free to ask. And I'd really appreciate any follows on my Twitter @TPickardDev as that will be my day to day communication method I feel based of research :D

Happy Birthday Knifey!  And congrats on going indie    It's hard work, but so much more intrinsically rewarding than any full time job!

[PeteH]

Congrats Knifey and good luck!

Next time I´m in the South East I´ll give you a shout and come say hi! :D

[Tuba]

Well, I'm unemployed now so.. kinda.

[BBreakfast]

I was just doing game art on the side while working my old office job from home. then their corporate policy changed and they wanted me back in office full time. so, I made the decision to make the leap to full-time indie game artist in February of this year and haven't looked back since! love being my own boss. 

[Fenrir]

I was just doing game art on the side while working my old office job from home. then their corporate policy changed and they wanted me back in office full time. so, I made the decision to make the leap to full-time indie game artist in February of this year and haven't looked back since! love being my own boss. 

I'm kind of in the same context, working from home, leaving me time to work on my game, but if one day I'll have to go back working in an office I'll probably speed up my reconversion to a full indie dev.

[dragonslumber]

I didn't quit. I have a day job which pays living expenses, with the overflow going directly in the game. Because my living expenses are so low, it enables me to invest 5 digits per year into this project. And of course I work on the game evenings and weekends, directly as well as managing contractual artists.

[Liens]

Disclaimer:  This is all just an opinion

I've been full time indie developing for about a year now, and it wouldn't have been possible if I didn't have support of friends who have helped financially and otherwise.

Unless you don't mind doing a little damage to your body (and maybe mind if you don't take stress well), and you don't mind being dirt poor for as long as it takes, I would not recommend it haha.

Otherwise, like a lot of the suggestions, maybe save up some dough or like.. have a second job, again that could be stressful though if you're trying to take your game development super seriously and still want time for family and friends.

[Sik]

Unless you don't mind doing a little damage to your body (and maybe mind if you don't take stress well), and you don't mind being dirt poor for as long as it takes, I would not recommend it haha.

Story of my life lol, I guess I was made to be indie then =P

[Friez]

Fast heading that way! Current workload level: impossible.
Watch this space!

[Liens]

Unless you don't mind doing a little damage to your body (and maybe mind if you don't take stress well), and you don't mind being dirt poor for as long as it takes, I would not recommend it haha.

Story of my life lol, I guess I was made to be indie then =P

You and me both my friend

@Friez
Do your best!

[Friez]

Thanks, I'll certainly try!

[Jonathan Burroughs]

So I've finally done it...

After 8 years working at the Creative Assembly as an Artist then Lead Artist(Empire TW, Napoleon TW, Shogun 2 TW, Fall of the Samurai TW and Rome2 TW) I've handed in my notice And will be Indie at 5pm on my Birthday November 21st!!!

It's time for change,

So I'm setting up a small Indie studio in Brighton with another Creative Assembly guy (a Programmer) and a friend who has about 12 years experience at Rare and other studios (as an animator) and we have a Sound guy on board too. We have a project around 20-30% into development and going full-time we aim to hammer the development and get it out by summer.

We will be announcing the project as a Dev log soon we've shown a first playable (prototype)build to the Brighton Indie group and it's been well received but we want the core mechanic fully implemented before we start the dev log...

Either way it's exciting times!!!! I feel at peace right now, planning my actions, reducing my costs of living, saving as much money as possible before I finish in November.

If anyone has any questions please feel free to ask. And I'd really appreciate any follows on my Twitter @TPickardDev as that will be my day to day communication method I feel based of research :D

Best of luck, buddy. I'm super excited for you.

[knifeySpoonie]

Ha thanks everyone :D It's my Penultimate day at CA... feels wierd.. I've spent 8 years of my life here... so like 1/4 :S It's going to be exciting, we'll have a few announcements to make once we're indie and some cool things we're planning alongside just being indie devs :D so it's exciting times...

[PappaWayne]

I work in finance as my main job  and make games in my spare time. I recently changed from full time to four days a week to give me more time to work on my games. I want to transition to games completely but it's hard to balance everything in life . If my next game starts to take off in popularity I will probably reduce my days at the main job further. Atleast my employers are happy for me to do that.

[Columbo]

I did not quit my job to go indie.

I released my game recently on iOS. Got featured by Apple, got into the top 10 Strategy and Arcade charts in many big countries (including UK and US). Got good reviews off some major websites 4.5/5 at Touch Arcade, 4/5 at 148Apps for instance.

Basically, it all went way better than I expected. Except the income... now, I was prepared for a massive flop so the income we did make was a lot more than I feared, but it is nowhere near enough to compensate the time we put in.

I'm very happy to have achieved what we have, and there's loads of other avenues and possibilities to explore with this game before we move onto the next, so I'm not writing it all off or anything, it's been a great ride and has been a good start for our company.

But overall I am very glad I did not quit my job! If I had, I'd be scrambling for a new one right now

[invicticide]

I did. I worked in commercial game dev (third-party at first, then first-party AAA) for nine years, learned a bunch, saved up money... and then the industry got gross, my studio pivoted into F2P and it finally became time to jump ship.

I'm not just working on my game all the time, though. I also do game dev consulting, which -- combined with savings -- is effectively how I'm funding my own indie work.

I have no idea how viable this is in the long-term. It's been okay so far, but I have yet to feel truly secure or stable in this career decision.

[anotheryeti]

Quit my job at a smaller MMO company after working there for a year, wasn't a fan of California. We'll see how this indie thing pans out.

[oahda]

Getting laid off in about a week due to bad economy within the company I'm hired at. Looking for new jobs – not going to kill myself doing fulltime indiedev again – but I suppose I'll be working hard on my projects until I get a new job.

[eyeliner]

I won't.

I have expenses, wife and a beautiful baby girl that are the light in my life. No way I would jeopardize now my whole life on an impulse.

If you are living with your parents, have negligible expenses and are fairly young, spend a couple years being "indie" and see if that works out for you.

If you have responsibilities, think really hard on making such a drastic change.

But either way, best of luck for those that are able to do what I was unable to.