Just wondering, why do many programmers and modelers and the like try to immediately get a paying job in the indie game development market? I thought that indie developers were the one's who are working on games as a hobbyist project until they can get or will never recieve the funding that they needed for their project. It kind of questioned me for a while as I don't really understand the point of hoping to get payed from an indie developer when they are also trying to find a way to get payed themselves. Wouldn't they usually try to get a job at a real AAA company that is actually known? I mean I can understand they are trying to build a portfolio, but why try to get payed if most indie projects are freeware projects?

Being accepted by a small team / small company and building up a portofolio si much easier than being accepted as a freshman in a larger company, so it sounds like a logical step to me.

There's a lot of assumptions and generalizations in your post, many wrong, so you probably don't have a clear idea about the indie market.

For starters, Indie doesn't mean amateur or hobbyist, or someone that's unpublished - It means independent, without obligations to a studio or publisher. There are successful, full-time indies out there making a living at what they do. There are others who treat it as a small business on the side, holding a day job and releasing a couple games for the love of it and a little extra spending money. And yes, there's plenty of others who just want to create something "cool". But indie doesn't mean they're not professionals.

Not everybody is only trying to build a portfolio. Many already have, and are looking to monetize those skills. Some already work for a company, some might not want an industry job, but they make their skills available for smaller budget projects. Asking to be paid for contract work isn't the same as a salaried job. With the sheer amount of project abandonment within amateur communities, it's pretty foolish for a talented professional to do so much work up front without being paid, a project can fail at any point for a zillion reasons. Then they're left with the most invested and the least gained.

Not all indie projects are freeware, either. Have a look at Wikipedia's List of Indie Game Developers and see how many games you recognize. And the creation of the App Store, XBLIG, and the Android market, as well as Steam's willingness to take indie submissions, make it so pretty much anyone can get their project out there and make a few bucks off it.

Yes, there are a lot of zero budget, dream-filled amateurs who are trying to break into the industry in their free time, but it's a little unfair to group all indies into that category.

There's a lot of assumptions and generalizations in your post, many wrong, so you probably don't have a clear idea about the indie market.

For starters, Indie doesn't mean amateur or hobbyist, or someone that's unpublished - It means independent, without obligations to a studio or publisher. There are successful, full-time indies out there making a living at what they do. There are others who treat it as a small business on the side, holding a day job and releasing a couple games for the love of it and a little extra spending money. And yes, there's plenty of others who just want to create something "cool". But indie doesn't mean they're not professionals.

Not everybody is only trying to build a portfolio. Many already have, and are looking to monetize those skills. Some already work for a company, some might not want an industry job, but they make their skills available for smaller budget projects. Asking to be paid for contract work isn't the same as a salaried job. With the sheer amount of project abandonment within amateur communities, it's pretty foolish for a talented professional to do so much work up front without being paid, a project can fail at any point for a zillion reasons. Then they're left with the most invested and the least gained.

Not all indie projects are freeware, either. Have a look at Wikipedia's List of Indie Game Developers and see how many games you recognize. And the creation of the App Store, XBLIG, and the Android market, as well as Steam's willingness to take indie submissions, make it so pretty much anyone can get their project out there and make a few bucks off it.

Yes, there are a lot of zero budget, dream-filled amateurs who are trying to break into the industry in their free time, but it's a little unfair to group all indies into that category.

Okay's great! Thanks for clearing that up for me!! Maybe I can come to you for questions if that's okay with you.

Okay's great! Thanks for clearing that up for me!! Maybe I can come to you for questions if that's okay with you.

I don't mind helping people, but I also don't have all the answers. If you post your questions to the forum, you'll get more information from different viewpoints, and it'll also be there to help others that might ask the same thing in the future.