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[True Valhalla]

I've been full-time indie for nearly 6 months now, and it's been a lot of fun so far. Yesterday I met my goal of making $18,200 online this year and just wanted to share this milestone.  

I've already posted a topic in this forum linking to my blog so I'm a bit hesitant to post another (not trying to blog-spam, promise!), but I wrote a follow-up article that might be of interest called "How To Go Full-Time Indie".

To add some discussion value to this topic I'd love to know what is stopping others from going full-time indie. It's something a lot of indie devs seem to aim for, but how many actually take the leap? Family and financial risk seem to be the most common reasons I hear.

Well, I've had a great past 6 months. I'm excited to see where this crazy career takes me next

[PompiPompi]

I don't even know what is the game that made you all this money. Seems like a mobile game by the look of your blog. But I am not sure.
It would help if you did a "walkthrough" of those six months.
I think examples and detailing real life experience is better than just saying "Oh, you should do more intensive marketing, you hsould make contacts" without actually telling when, where or how it happened in reality.

[True Valhalla]

Since I've already explained that in other posts before I try not to repeat myself constantly so my frequent audience doesn't get annoyed.

But you're right, for clarity what I do is create HTML5 mobile apps and license them to publishers for a fee. That's my main source of income, anyway. Check out earlier income reports for a full overview, or some of my earlier posts.

I wanted to try and avoid giving a life story with this post, since I've done enough in other blog posts. Thanks for your comment.

[Virion]

Nice. I've just went fully indie as well, starting from this month. Currently (less than a month) I have earned more than what I would get working a full month at my previous company lol but not from the game that I've made but some freelance jobs. Still pretty good so far.  Thanks for sharing.

[True Valhalla]

That's a pretty good start - I think I made around $300 my first month, not very good!

[Klaim]

True Valhalla, I wanted to ask: did you start going full indie with a project started and? If yes, what was the state of the project? If no, then you started a new project when you quit your job?

[Skull]

Wow, that's really inspiring!

Hahah, I'm basically reading through your whole blog now.

Since I'm still graduating in college, I have no way to go full-time indie right now by any means, but do you think it's possible to achieve similar success as a part-time indie gamedev?

[ColeyWoley]

Well done.  You've done a really great job scoping out reward/effort ratios.  Not easy in this industry.

[ChrisRandle]

Excellent blog post! Thanks for sharing Matthew.

[True Valhalla]

True Valhalla, I wanted to ask: did you start going full indie with a project started and? If yes, what was the state of the project? If no, then you started a new project when you quit your job?

Well, I had a major project in development called Myriad Online at the time, but it wasn't making enough money to sustain me so I had to look elsewhere. That project went on hiatus while I worked on my HTML5 games, but I recently resumed work on it now that I have some financial stability again.

Wow, that's really inspiring!

Hahah, I'm basically reading through your whole blog now.

Since I'm still graduating in college, I have no way to go full-time indie right now by any means, but do you think it's possible to achieve similar success as a part-time indie gamedev?

I think so, definitely. Obviously it's going to take longer to see a pay off, but if that was my only option I'd still be working on my games part-time (in fact I did for several years, just without a commercial focus). I happened to be in a fortunate situation when I started this (with no mortgage to pay, family to support, or tuition fees).

It all depends on your time management. But it may not be appealing to work or study all day, and then go home to work more on games. It's exhausting whether it's part time or full time.

Thanks for the comments everyone