I normally don’t create new threads only respond on other peoples but I’m curious as to how many of you out there are planning to make your game development hobby a full time occupation? What are your plans? How do you see yourself going full time? For me, I work for a fairly well known software company, doing pretty repetitive testing and not learning a whole lot of development skills. It has always been my goal to work in the games industry, but just recently I realized that I don’t want to work for some big name game company. I want to be an independent, making my own rules and writing my own games the way I think they should be written. The best way I can see to achieve my goal is to start generating some revenue that will allow me to gradually decrease dependence on my 9-5 job, so I can ease into working full time making games. I''ve teamed up with a long time friend of mine to design and develop a puzzle game to help kick start these revenues. I think a puzzle game is a great place to start, because the graphics don’t have to be 3D hardware accelerated to appeal to the target market. Also a puzzle game has a good return on investment because if well implemented it appeals to a large market of casual gamers that is largely ignored by today’s big name publishers. The plan is to release a few good titles to build a recognized and trusted brand, and then begin developing the titles I''ve always dreamed of making. How about you? what are your plans for greatness?

I would like to get into making games for a living but at the moment that isnt all that realistic because i dont have the skills. So at the moment i am going to get a job somewhere else in IT (I just left high school so i am doing a course). And then in my spare time make games and if i make anything good i will try to publish it. The thing i like about this is if i dont make any money it dosnt matter because i will have another job. And then if i become good enough i will start doing it as a full time job.


#define BLOODY_WORK_THIS_TIME;

The "slow build" approach is a good one. The important thing to do is create several products that can each generate revenue. And by keeping the idea that you are *slowly* building your new company, you can enjoy *any* revenue that comes in.

The first year you only make a few hundred extra dollars? Well, that''s good for a couple of software packages that you had put off buying because of the $399 price tag (or whatever).

Pull in a few thousand in a single year, and you''ve just bought yourself a near-top-of-the-line PC or laptop. Or more software. Or both. Or maybe you decide you don''t need those, and you take a vacation with the money.

Whatever you do with the extra money, it''s essentially "free". After all, you still have your full-time job, and you were doing this hobby-thing anyway.

However, there are downsides:

1. Once once hobby starts generating revenue, it has a tendency to kill off any other hobbies you might have. The reason is simple: Those hobbies don''t produce a pay-off, so you focus on the one that does. If you''re not careful, you''ll find yourself working 2 jobs, your day job and your hobby-job.

2. If you decide you finally make enough to live off of, and you quit your day job, all of that "free" stuff goes away. You no longer have a guaranteed income, no benefits like health care, and on top of those your taxes just went up.

It''s a lot of fun, and it''s great being able to live off income that *you* generated directly. But in the self-employed world, you really do "eat what you kill." Some days you get to eat filet mignon, some days you get microwave hotdogs. And Fridays are very special days...because it means there''s only 2 more working days until Monday...

Best of luck!


DavidRM
Samu Games

I want to have my first puzzle game completed and generating revenue inside of 12 months and I want to exit my 9-5 job in the following year.

If my game(s) are not generating enough income on their own to support my family then I will work contract work to fill in the gaps.

I think that if a person is motivated / driven they can take their hobby full time in much less time then 5 years of growing a business on weekends.

Is it risky? heck yeah, I’ve got a bank that wants $1500 every month to pay the mortgage. It just depends on how risk averse you are. Are you willing to take the plunge? I am. (oh and my wife backs me too, which is absolutely critical)


Edited by - ironside on March 2, 2002 3:55:47 PM

I really hope you all know what you''re doing. Only because there are some success stories it doesn''t mean it is easy. I know nothing about you, but if I were you, I wouldn''t even think about doing this without already earning a couple of thousand dollars a month with my games.

Well I live in an area where there is a good amount of contract work to be had. I don’t think it''s is that it is as difficult as it is perceived to be to make $1-5k a month selling your own software(games). Of course plans do change, and one must evaluate and re-focus their goals. Perhaps I should make my goal to generate a revenue stream of 3k a month so that I can exit my current position, rather then setting a deadline for the exit as a goal.

I am a firm believer however, that nothing great can ever be ever achieved without risking something. The true challenge is assessing which risks are worth taking and which will end in disaster.

Good luck to you, I hope you succeed. Its going to be hard, really hard, but not everyone can sit still watching their life pass them by as they do their crap 9-5 job.

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Black Edge Games
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Exactly, i refuse to have that type of exsistance. My job is actually more intense then 9-5 because we are shipping a product. In fact all of last year I worked 50+ hr weeks and only took 3 sick days and used none of my vacation time. I''m no stranger to hard work, if I stayed in my current occupation I could probably move up the organizational ladder and be set pretty much for the rest of my life, doing a job that doesn''t paticularly interest me but getting paid well do to it.

I would much rather be paid less and do something I really enjoy, where i''m not being told what to do and how to do it by some moronic managment team with no clue about how long it actually takes to get things done.