Being Indie is AWESOME!
Recently there’s been a meme going round that shows how people’s jobs aren’t what other people think they are and how they are boring or suck. So I thought I’d do my own version about being indie!
Because my picture viewer plugin bugs out when you zoom in, you might want to try this link instead. If you want to spread it, please use this yfrog link instead to save on my bandwidth, thanks!
Another point I’m making with the image that is less obvious is that I’m honest with myself about what my work is and most of my friends are indies, so they know what being indie is like. Also my family has seen me doing indie stuff for years and so has a pretty good idea of what I do. I like to be open about what I do with creating games because constructing facades takes too much energy and they are likely to break one day anyway.
Of course, maybe the reality of being indie is not quite as the image implies 100% of the time (like when I’m doing tax returns) 😉 But hell, it is awesome quite a lot of the time, and that’s good enough for me!
February 12th, 2012 at 6:58 am
That’s pretty cool.
And yes… being indie game dev is a sweet deal!
But to nitpick: a pic of you stepping in debugger through code is probably a better depiction of your work than a picture of you composing music.
I mean: how much time of the game dev goes into making music? Especially knowing that you hire a Dutch musician to make you your tunes 🙂
February 12th, 2012 at 8:00 am
That is true Bram. Some of my music went into my early games and I like some more to go in future games. That is really a picture of me having fun making music, and choosing when I want to have fun is also part of being indie.
February 12th, 2012 at 10:04 am
This pic made me smile because developing games and making music is what I love to do as well but it wouldn’t be economically sustainable for me to do it full time. Not yet anyway. My current plan is to build up savings to enable me to take a few months unpaid leave from my normal job to focus on game development and music to minimize the risks. I could do this in blocks, work as a consultant X months, develop/compose Y months until Y becomes rewarding enough to eliminate X completely =)
Because of the enjoyment/happiness factor it wouldn’t have to bring in nearly as much money as the consultancy job to justify the switch.
February 13th, 2012 at 7:56 pm
Hi Stefan, sounds wise! I’ve been using trackers since I was 12 on the Amiga and got Fruity loops as a self-birthday present in summer 2006. Love making trance music. Yours is great (I bought a bunch a while ago) and I’m pleased to hear in on some games like Decimation X.
When I went indie instead of X months consultant and Y making games, I just did small IT consultancy jobs as they cropped up and that helped, but I did have to juggle my finances a lot before I finally started making money and could stop doing consultancy. Still, you are right, being your own boss and doing you own thing is worth a reduction in income.
February 26th, 2012 at 8:35 pm
Hey, is that a FL Studio running in there?
Just askin’ because I just bought it! 🙂
February 26th, 2012 at 11:01 pm
Yep it’s FL for sure! Few years ago now. Great program!
March 9th, 2012 at 9:45 pm
Congratulations! I’m just about to go indie with my writing. Currently I’m making decent money selling children’s books, but hope to significantly add to my income by releasing some of my more serious works. Eventually I’ll work my way around to game development.
BTW, 80K/year to do what you love isn’t too shabby. Best of luck in 2012!