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Heya man, I just wishlisted this because of reading your comments in this post. You're a good dude.
I'm a programmer too, been doing it for roughly 27 years. Next year, I'm going to quit my well paying job, where I have a fully remote working position working with some of the most talented engineers in the field for one of the largest privately held companies in the world, a position I'll probably never be able to get/achieve again in my lifetime; and throw it all away and start an indie studio with my brother and another indie dev. I've wanted to make video games for as long as I can remember. This is a childhood dream of mine.
Life's too short, chase your dreams while you still can. It doesn't get easier when you get older.
Hearing about your passion helps keep me focused on hopefully realizing my own dream one day soon :)
Edit: I genuinely don't understand the downvotes? Could someone help me understand why please? :)
Thank you for the kind words. Personally I wouldn't do that, seems to risk. Please make sure you have enough funds to survive for as long as possible. I grew up poor and it sucks. I hate that kind of instability. Good luck with your studio! :)
I sincerely appreciate that concern :)
I am good on funds for a couple years of living frugally. I also grew up poor and you are correct, it does indeed suck. One of the few benefits of having been in the industry for so long and trading my sanity and health for $$ is: I've got a decent bit of that saved up. Which I'll be trading away for survival during this :) If it makes money, great, if not, I gave it a shot and I can always get a job again doing the B2B thing, even though it likely won't be as comfy as the position I'm in. I'm just totally burnt out with it today. To the point where the stress of going to work caused a major health issue to manifest that's given me a new perspective on life.
Thank you for the well wishes! I'll be checking out your game when it's released!
I'm not down voting you and I applaud chasing your dreams, but a well paying, stable, fully remote job is not something to give up lightly.
Maybe that's why people are down voting you? Not that they should but people be people.
Personally, I'm just some schlub on the internet, but I'd strongly advise you to reconsider leaving that kind of financial stability. At the very least you'll need a pretty good amount of money saved up to live off of. Most indie games aren't successful, most indie game companies fail. There's a gigantic risk for you and a huge lost opportunity cost (your income & benefits, particularly benefits like health insurance if you're in the USA) just to get started and on top of that you have to make something people want to buy.
Not doubting your talents but people would kill to be in your spot (remote, well paid, full time) - I'd think long and hard about the risk you're accepting.
I do, however, wish you well and hope you succeed beyond your wildest expectations! Just something to chew on.
Thank you for that writeup, I suspect you're right, that's probably why a few people are downvoting :)
You're not wrong though. It is a little crazy, I admit.
I have a decent bit of funds saved up to live off of, so I think I could do that for a while, and my company has offered to hire me back if I need (but likely without the aforementioned perks...). Worst case, I could take it and take the step down in comfort/lifestyle and go back to kind of what I'm doing today.
Earlier this year I had a medical disability thing that hit and put me out of work for almost 3 months due to stress related to my career.
I had to make a hard choice of trying to continue down this path I was on in B2B, where to get to where I'm at and maintain it is an easy 60+ hours a week plus a boatload of stress consuming my life.
In the end, I decided to try and follow my childhood dreams. The near death-ish experience has given me a new perspective on what is important and matters to me most in life, before I don't have any more time left to do it.
Truthfully, I might be able to ride out the remainder of my days no longer working, if I pull in just a little bit of supplemental income. I own my own home, and have a modest lifestyle with no children and live well below my means. I've been saving pretty hardcore for over a decade, and while it's not enough to live off of forever, it should cover me for a good while.
Even if this fails, I get a sabbatical from the job that's killing me, and some new experiences to throw on my resume.
I sincerely appreciate your concern and advice, and it is well taken. I just don't know how much longer I can even do my job today, every day is burnout day, I'm hanging in there until next year to get my bonuses and to ensure that my role's successor-ship plan goes through so my engineering team continues to thrive when I'm gone. I'm also not burning any bridges at work, and for the most part, I'm pretty well respected/liked there so I have no doubts I could come back if I needed in an emergency.
But for now, onward :) Going to give this game dev thing a try for realsies :)
That's awesome, best wishes! Sorry about your medical situation, I get stress/anxiety myself so can commiserate.
Thank you!
Good luck! I am about the same place in my career and I also wanted to actually release a game (not just make 80% of a game in secret!).
Haha, I feel that! I've got dozens of almost games in my wake. 🙂