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[TheHermit]

I didn't, but I'm kind of taking a risk with this anyhow. I've got an academic job right now with a finite lifespan - one or two more years at most. The last time I did an academic job search, I ended up getting only one interview out of all my applications (it was for the job I currently have) - the market there is kind of rough but also my particular subfield isn't very trendy right now.

Its coming up on time for the next academic search, but I've decided to put a large chunk of my free time towards getting a game out and seeing how much it makes or if I can get contract work based on it instead of towards finding and applying for lots of academic jobs (which is a very time-consuming process since you basically have to write a short paper proposing your research that is customized to each job, rather than just sending a resume and crossing your fingers). Doing so might hurt my job search, so that's basically the risk I'm taking, but the plus side is that if it works I can hit the ground running when my current job ends.

[Tuba]

Second, I made too big of a game.  I thought it was going to be a quick 6 month project, but now its looking like a 24 month project, and that's still with me cutting stuff I had planned to include.  Common mistake, but made it anyway. 

I think that is the most common mistake. I thought my game would take 3 months... after 6 I was barely finishing the first level.

[MasterLee]

Understand your work ethic/style.  Find out what you need to work hard. 

This a brilliant piece of advice and self realization. We all think that being our own boss is great, but it's easy to get slack about your own work ethics. I'm pretty lazy by nature, and eventually recognized the triggers that would cause me to just procrastinate. I just force myself to stay on top of those things now.

[Orymus]

*cracks knuckles*
Aight, let's do this.

Starting my own indie business is an idea I've been toying with on/off since 1992.
For a number of reasons, its never become relevant until 2011.

Circa 2011, my area started to 'move' (its probably the bank-thing?).
There are 5 serious game development studios in my immediate area, 3 of which I've worked for.

In 2010, I knew close to 40% of everyone working in video games locally.
In 2011, I knew about 40% of the indies.

It was literally that simple. An exodus... 5 serious indie game development studios started during the first months of 2011, each headed by a few folks I knew.
Bunch of friends became freelancers.
Loads of them approached me with potential work.
I've approached lots of them with a plan to invest in their business.
Somehow, it wasn't meant to be.

I've met individually with most of the new 'leaders'. I was unsatisfied with leadership at my day-job, so I wanted to evaluate the possibility of teaming up with other indies (preferably a team size of 5 or less). Unfortunately, I was also unsatisfied with their personalities. For the most part, they didn't convince me they had what's required to succeed as a business.

2011 is also the year I became a dad for the first time.
Someone above made a comment about us, fathers, making sound parenthood like a prison.
Let me rectify the sentiment here:

Having a house, a family, choosing to have your wife at home raising the family, are all choices you make which have consequences financially. Specifically, they affect the recurring income and expenses that you must live with.
Attempting to start a business by falling from one income to none, or by sending your wife back to work but spending more to babysit your kid, is a serious penalty on your ability to diminish expenses in the early months/years.

Unless you've made a tremendous amount of money and put it at the Caimans, the 'you can't have it all' applies here. It's not impossible, but it requires a solid plan, and most new indies can't plan for nearly enough.

Then, there's the social pressure. When I've started discussing the possibility of seriously going indie with my wife, she initially thought that I meant I'd "be at home and take care of the kids (and sometimes, when they're asleep, I'd do some hobby stuff which is just fun and all)". In other words, she thought I was nuts, and she felt like I was under-evaluating the work she does at home to raise our kids properly, and that I was refusing to grow up and wanted to play games all day.

I'm sure I'm not the only one that has gone through a similar discussion, and I feel that its only rarely discussed. It is true that there is very little to evaluate the resolve of someone that says he's going indie. Oftentimes, the only metric to analyse how serious they are is to have a look at the risks they take. If the risks are minimal, its often because the person is not serious, but likewise, if the risks are too dire, its because the person has no clue what they are doing. So how can you really define whether someone has the resolve, and understanding of what they're doing?

When I chose to go indie, I knew damn well I was setting helm for hell, and hoping to see it through.

Thus, flash forward to 2013...
I'm not an indie yet, at least, I didn't quit my job for it.
What I'm doing is working on my first real shippable product (and its coming along very well!)
My dayjob is that of a game producer in one of the local studios. On the plus side, it pays decently. On the minus side, it takes insanely more time per week than any other job, unfortunately.

I'm still targeting a 2015 Q2 Release, date at which I hope to be able to become a full-fledged indie.
In the meantime, lessons I've already learned and wish to share are as follows:

- Find value in failures:
In the last 10 years alone...
*I've started at least 100 projects
*I've produced code for at least 50 of them
*I've managed to produce a proof of concept prototype for 9 of them
*I've shipped 0 of them
Yet, it was worth it, because I was lucky enough to meet someone dedicated enough to call a partner during this journey.

-Don't settle for contractors:
Chances are, there's somebody out there that wants to do the same thing as you, and they're willing to take that risk with you. These people won't ask for an upfront salary, and will settle for equity when they are convinced by the project.
Don't stop trying to find them until you do, otherwise, you'll end up with more debts and no product to show for.
People that understand the risks (REALLY understand them) and are still willing to take on that journey with you are incredibly valuable. 10 years from now, if you're successful, they're the ones you'll raise your glass to, so don't treat them as 'resources'. Consider them business partners, friends, share everything with them. It's really worth it.

-No rush, welcome criticism
Don't rush into your project. You have a million ideas, all of which seem valuable. Reassess the scope, consult with fellow indies or even gamers. Try to see if your project has value. Don't just sell the high level concept, show them early stuff. Be ready to quit on a project if there are no signs of excitement.
However, once you DO know there is value in what you are doing, ignore the negative criticism, focus on getting the game better, and ignore everyone that says it will fail.
You're the only one that knows how much it costs to do for real, and the global vision of the game should be in your head. It is possible you are making a game that no one has ever tried before, so how could they know that its going to fail? If you've passed the curiosity step, don't let anything deflate you.
A lot of developers oscillate between the 'this is great / this is shit syndrome' the key to avoiding that is to set milestones. You have until your first milestone to determine whether you will make the game or not. If you pass that milestone, you will undeniably have to ship this game (although it will change in scope and feature set).

-
You need money to make money. Remember that being indie will not pay as much as having a job, but you'll be your own boss, and though stressful, this has value. It's possible you aren't born to be your own boss, recognize this for what it is, and join another indie if its the case.

- Learn from your mistakes:
Its actually interesting to make post-mortems about segments of your production cycle. It helps you word, define and narrow down problems you've felt by haven't identified. Production methodologies like a loose scrum structure are particularly fitting here. They're also quite natural for a self-deterministic indie team.
Sitting down as a group and discussing what we've done, and what we'll do, is something often ignored. If you plan to go indie, with a team of 3, keeping each other up to date on everything will be hard. Scrum is a framework that can really help with that, without putting an actual complex system into place (its literally as simple as cardboard if you wish it to be).

[Stimor]

no

[team_q]

Following this thread! 

[Pixelmoon]

Personally, I think the one thing that would greatly deter me from taking measures such as quitting my job is the financial pressure.  I cant help but think that by taking away your income source, you put yourself under a lot of stress to produce something that hits the mark.  I feel this would have a knock on effect towards creativity - but there are of course those that thrive under this type of pressure.

The other thing is that there is absolutely no guarantee that what you will create will become a hit, or even make enough to cover the time you invested in it.  I also believe that as a market (and by market I mean games produced by independent / smaller studios), its quickly become saturated.  It's not quite the same as when mobile apps were exploding, and games such as super meat boy were emerging.  So from a business perspective you are quitting your job to create a product in a saturated market where you have no idea how well it will sell.  It better have something special to out perform

That's not to say that there aren't people that have gone independent and managed to make it work, because there are numerous success stories in this thread alone.  There are also a number of people who can generate income via other methods, such as contract work.

I guess what I am trying to say is that the saying "don't quit your day job" has two meanings.  Its not just an insult about a lack of ability, but more a heads up about some of the pitfalls about pursuing a passion as a way of living.

Use your day job to fund your passion until you are certain that you can make it work.

[EvilDingo]

Wow, this is an interesting thread. I've recently quit to go full-time indie, but I waited until I was earning much more off my projects than my salary. I'm also a dad with a few small children, so I couldn't just shut out the rest of the world. I worked after work, and after the kids were in bed.

I'm reading a lot of mistakes in this thread. I think it's absolutely insane anyone who is considering going full-time indie without releasing a few games first. You have no idea what the market is like for your game or how it will impact your revenue long-term. You're looking at a best-case scenario only, and not considering the serious consequences of a failure - at least, that's the only way I can rationalize doing it this way.

Anyway, here are a few tips. These are things that worked for me.

- Don't bring in more people. More people are just more pains in the ass. Do the hard yards. If you need a service (art, etc) pay for it and keep your company 100% yours. If you can't pay for it, learn to do it yourself. If you're not willing to learn to do it yourself, you're not serious enough about the idea.

- Don't waste an enormous amount of time marketing. That almost never works. It can work for some, but it's hit or miss and unless you're sitting around with nothing to do, it's a waste of time. If your game is amazing, people will come to you.

- Consider the long play. Develop a game that's easy to extend and add features to.

- Don't listen to anyone about anything on the internet business-related. If you want to know how something works or how effective a strategy is, you have to do it yourself. I'd love to know things beforehand: Is this feature worth it? Do people enjoy this? Will they buy the game more if I add it? Is this market worth developing for? You will know all of this 100% accurately the minute you do it for yourself. Business advice on the internet is useless at best and misinformed at worst.

- Create a simple game that you can improve. The longer you develop something, the harder it is to tell if it's terrible. In a long development cycle, I second guess myself more and more often until I finally release. Then it's either, "I knew that was a bad idea" or "I'm a genius!" A quick fun game is more rewarding than a long slog, even if it pays off.

- Test the waters and expand your player-base. I once met a developer who had one hit game. He quit is day job to live off the proceeds. So far so good, but, quickly the competition closed in and he was living on less and less. He never created another game, or tried another genre, or anything. To me, it was obvious what the outcome was going to be. You can't rest on your laurels.

- If you make a great game, people are going to notice. Then they're going to clone it. Some will rip off your game entirely and sell it as their own, some will just copy your brand, some will just copy your gameplay, and so on. Either you make the best possible game of your genre so intimidating that no one even bothers to top you, or you just become a moving target and make lots of great games. I like the latter.

Either way this is hard work. The better you play the more jackals you'll have tailing you. You'll have to be nimble to keep them off your back and your lifestyle in the black.

[TheHermit]

Personally, I think the one thing that would greatly deter me from taking measures such as quitting my job is the financial pressure.  I cant help but think that by taking away your income source, you put yourself under a lot of stress to produce something that hits the mark.  I feel this would have a knock on effect towards creativity - but there are of course those that thrive under this type of pressure.

I will say that the upside to this sort of pressure is that if you're the kind of person who has trouble with the last 10% or finishing stuff within a fixed time-frame, this can push you over and get you to actually produce finished games rather than build up a bunch of half-finished projects.

I know that setting the deadline for myself of 'I will release something and test the waters by September' has gotten me to stick to a development schedule much more closely than if I were just messing around. It forces me to do the tasks that need to get done, rather than the tasks I most want to work on at that point in time.

At the same time, trying to make games for money means that you start to pay a lot more attention to what works versus making games you'd personally like to play, and I could see how that could harm creativity (e.g. its a lot safer to make another small web/mobile game that sponsors will pay $500 a pop for rather than embarking on some 3-month or 6-month project).

[Jungle Friend Studios]

I'd suggest to all prospective indies to finance their own dream game by contracting on the side. You'll make a lot of decent connections and buy yourself time to educate yourself properly while improving your development skills and getting paid for it.

[cesarpo]

After reading some posts here, seems that we are all more or less in the same boat, make a hit to quit the job, like some kind of frustrated rockstars xD

[void]

My job quit me around 10 years ago. I had enough cash to keep me going for 6 months and planned to develop a niche sports game (I had done related stuff in the past way back on the Atari ST).

The biggest surprise was that everyone I knew was horrified at the idea. I could understand the partner being unimpressed (a kid was on the way) but even close friends thought I was mad and should get a job as quick as possible. I realized later than people outside this world just didn't understand it at all. Maybe things are better now with the rise of the 'indie developers' but back then I think people either thought I was slacking and playing video games all day or just crazy (I have been accused of all those). Even now I get a lot of grief over the fact that I'm 'doing something on computers all day'.

At the time similar development jobs were thin on the ground (I had been a general non-games multimedia developer) so decided to go ahead. It was a tough six months. A low point was sitting in a tiny bedroom struggling to finish the thing with money running out and having been so close to the game for so long I was beginning to doubt weather it was any good at all. All this to the soundtrack of my girlfriend hammering on the door demanding I get a job at McDonald's or anywhere as long as it got me out the house and started a wage coming in.  

I had a target income of the same amount as my yearly salary in my previous job and after a year just made it. I kind of got lucky with a deal to get my game in retail on a small budget label. This helped drive traffic to my website also for later versions of the game and I just about made the target. Being a niche game I charge £19.99 and have done since I started 10 years ago.

Every year since sales have slowly increased. I'm not rich but I make a decent salary now. Things are never boring. The industry changes quickly and being such a small setup (there are three of us now) is fun, terrifying and exciting all at once. One thing that small guys like us can do is move quickly. We can wake up one day and decide to completely change direction. The big guy's can't do this. It's sort of like being an ant crawling around underneath the feet of Elephants. Next year I'm making big changes. I hope it will work out but It could all bomb.

One thing I would add is that if you go Indy and manage to make it work for a few years you may have trouble fitting back in to the 9-5 should the need arise. I know as I tried it five or six years ago. It was a good job but I struggled being told exactly what to do every day and not having control and probably missed the edge of the seat thing. So I went back to developing games. Luckily it worked out (so far anyway). But it's something to keep in mind. Once you take the plunge It's hard going back!

I had a niche. I don't envy you guys starting up in casual or more main stream games and trying to make a salary.

[phosphorous]

Well I was planning on quitting, but the job kinda beat me to it. I am glad things worked out this way since I might have postponed moving on to working on my own projects for the safety of having the job.

I have a long history as a hobbyist game programmer and couple of years of experience working for small (mobile) games companies. I've released some games on the internet on my own but never made any money off it. Now I am working on my first "serious" indie project that I hope to release this autumn. I work on this project alone and I have very limited funds, but enough to try it out for some time.

I have come to the realization that working in the game industry for some company isn't quite the same as working on personal projects in the creative sense. The original reason that got me learning programming was to make my own games. That is not likely to happen in someone else's company. And since I have these thoughts in my mind, working for another company feels like neglecting my true calling, so I think my only choice really is to try it out. If I fail I can always try again.

[DarkSiegmeyer]

I was laid off from a QA position in May.  Truth be told, I was literally a week away from handing in my 2 weeks notice... so instead, I got 8 weeks of severance, yay!

I had always dreamed of getting into Design, and I actually wound up landing an "Acting Junior Designer" role at my company - no official title or pay, but I literally spent my days in meetings with other designers, working in the engine, and creating new gameplay experiences.

It was probably the best, most satisfying 9 months of my life.  I knew that Design/Scripting was what I needed to do with my life.

Ultimately, though, the company decided to hire externally for more Senior Designers.  I was pretty disappointed, but that disappointment started the fire in me to create my own games.

I started off building an iOS title with Gamesalad with some friends.  A few months in though, everything just ground to a halt.  Without a budget to pay people, I couldn't convince my artists to actually generate art.  Molehill problems became insurmountable mountains.  But worst of all, I came to realize that I was excited about the project because it was ATTAINABLE - attainable as a finished project.  But it wasn't at ALL something that I was inherently interested in playing myself.  A few months went by and the project was scrapped.

6 months later I started learning Javascript for an open-source HTML5 game engine, and I made it my goal to create a 2D combo-based melee combat system as a portfolio-builder.  Of course, it became rapidly apparently that doing so without a dedicated artist is a freakin' nightmare, and so my prototype became a 2D platformer shooter.  But one thing led to another, and by the time the company and I split, I was pretty far along in building it.  Just a month or two ago I went ahead and legally filed as a company - Suppressive Fire Games LLC.  Who knows whether I'll make it.  I'm tutoring kids SAT test prep, and that and unemployment checks help stave off my savings dwindling down.  Here's hoping something comes along soon!

[Liza]

Not really the same, but I shut down my business to move to another country and look for work in game development, which ended up being AAA as opposed to indie. I was lucky because when running a business and only having to go on-site a few days a week I was able to pretty much shut myself away for a year and learn to code my own JS games. I ended up with a portfolio of a couple of games and a blog showing code snippets, progress, etc. Coupled with previous experience in game dev at a failed company and in training games, this helped me get a job after the move.

So...I guess I kind of went the opposite way. Contracting at smallish training games company alongside other freelance work to full time at larger studio and making hobby games on the side for fun.

[Muz]

So...I guess I kind of went the opposite way. Contracting at smallish training games company alongside other freelance work to full time at larger studio and making hobby games on the side for fun.

Usually there's stuff in the contract which doesn't let you do stuff that conflicts with the business you're working in, like making hobby games when working for a game company. Any issues with that?

Also vouch for the path of going from a small company to learn/train stuff then moving to a bigger ones. You get to learn a lot more because you're taking on a lot more roles for the company.

[Liza]

So...I guess I kind of went the opposite way. Contracting at smallish training games company alongside other freelance work to full time at larger studio and making hobby games on the side for fun.

Usually there's stuff in the contract which doesn't let you do stuff that conflicts with the business you're working in, like making hobby games when working for a game company. Any issues with that?

Also vouch for the path of going from a small company to learn/train stuff then moving to a bigger ones. You get to learn a lot more because you're taking on a lot more roles for the company.

I exercised caution and got the OK for my personal projects before proceeding. If I wanted to start monetizing my personal games there would likely be more things to take care of, but since I'm just making my games for fun and learning and they are nothing like what I work on during the day it's not an issue.

[icoplay]

Even though a large part of this thread is cautionary tales and money woes, it's still pretty inspiring. A running theme is that you're not starting a studio to make a game, you're starting a studio to make a business.

People will say you don't need to worry about strategy and marketing and that's true - but it's true in the same way that an incredibly naturally talented tennis player won't need lessons to become a champion. Not thinking about your strategy before you leave your job to start up your studio is a pretty much sure fire way of failing. We've all seen those kickstarters where the game isn't great and the creators blame bad marketing and press. Once you've finished your game 100% you're only on the first rung of the ladder to sweet sweet cash.

The first time I realised this was when I started my first game studio about 5 years ago and I made flash games. After I'd finished the first one I found out (to my horror) that I was the one who would now have to sell this game and push it around all the marketing channels. I could easily have just put it on some game portals and waited, assuming it was great. What I did instead was talk to as many companies and blogs as possible and start setting up relationships so that my games would sell. It was nervewracking, but I'd say to anyone starting a company that it's essential you give good consideration to whether you can market your game as well as make it.

Quitting your day job is a liberating experience, but you'll sleep easier working at home if you know it's part of a plan rather than a scattershot workathon aiming at a vague release target.

[Muz]

I've actually started a business. The most important lesson I've learned:

Do not start a business to be your own boss.

Businesses involve tons of risks. A software one might seem less risky because of the very low capital you need - a used laptop and some free wifi and enough food to live.

But you take tons of risks with software. Something might be impossible to make. Something might take longer than expected. Your graphics guy might quit on you midway. Your targeted platform could shut down or become obsolete. Someone might release a very similar, superior game at the same time as you do. Your laptop could die.

When you work for a company, you take no risks. Do a bad job, get paid the same. Game your company release bombs, get paid the same. Boss makes the wrong decision, get paid.

You're also doing stuff like marketing yourself. There's a bunch of people who complain that indies can't stand up without marketing. IMHO, they're idiots who failed to acknowledge how important (and time-consuming!) the marketing/business stuff is. As mentioned earlier, I'm freelancing full-time, but there are at least 3 people to do full-time marketing/business development for me. They take a very generous cut, but otherwise, I'd take twice as long to make the money, and would probably end up losing out due to inexperience with negotiations.

If you're releasing apps, it pays way more to be in top 10% than to be top 20%. That's where marketing guys earn their pay, even if it's just talking to reviewers and doing SEO. Heck, if your marketing guy pushes your game to top 5% from the top 20%, you can probably get him a company car.

If you're planning to rely on crowdfunding and donations, you often need someone to do that too. Pushing a kickfunding up is a lot of work. Doing swag and investor relations is a decent amount of work. Fundraising events for donations is a decent amount of work. Plus the progress on the game itself has to keep going well if you want to keep them happy, so you're under pressure from both.

Then there's bookkeeping/accounting and taxes...
And HR once you have the people to do all that...

And you realize that you're never your own boss at all; your business and the market forces are your boss.

(but hey, at least you get creative freedom and don't have to make bejeweled style games)

[Onimwad]

I've got a story.

So recently, I quit my minimum wage teenager-level job to work on my latest project. For a while I was splitting my time between the two, but I got the game to a point where I was sure I would make something of it, then quit. I may have to go back to work soon, but I got a lot done with the game at least. I will continue to develop it regardless.

But before this, I started an LLC with some people I met in community college (of which I could only afford one semester). It turned out they had very little to offer besides ideas and crude sketches, so I left them and started my own project. The pattern here is that I am of little means, have no contacts, no resume, and no job or education prospects of any kind. Independent game development is the only plan I have to escape this cycle. I HAVE to finish something and get noticed or else I'm stuck.

I do not recommend quitting your job to make a video game for any reason other than it being your only option of advancement and you can stand eating once or twice a day, drinking only water etc. I especially advise against it if you are doing the art and programming by yourself.

Some of this really sucks, but it stays fun and fulfilling because I love making games.
If you can put up with all that, then I say go for it.
And stock up on coffee. If you don't become addicted, you're doing it incorrectly.