Now it's time for another stupid poll :)
well, not so stupid, it may help the newcomers having a more realistic view on indie shareware dev.
The question I'm asking is really simple: for those who made just a few games (those starting out), how do they see their future?
They're already looking for another job?
Or they just bought a new house?

Too many times I've seen enthusiastic comments like "sold 1502 copies in 5 minutes" then other ridiculously contrasting sentences like "well 0,0000001% is the average CR for a windows game, you need at least 1 billion more download to sold one" :D

p.s. I wrote "plan" but what I mean is: "what is your actual situation" :)

Personally I'm currently unemployed, stuck living with my mother, but actively seeking a job in the games industry. However the whole job hunting is going terribly because only one in every 50 or so jobs will give you an interview when you don't have 1+ years commercial exprience (recent graduate you see).

I'm doing shareware dev as a kind of hopeful possibility, but I'm being realistic about it - I know it takes many years to set up a successful shareware company, and nobody gets rich off just a couple of games. So hopefully a games job will come along soon and I can start earning actual money and get a car/apartment/life. Until then I'm stuck living on welfare and have no car, no place to live, no life :(

Where do I see myself in the future? Well, surrounded by a bevvy of beautiful women who idolse the very ground I walk on, with 24ct solid gold rings on every finger, more money than I know what to do with and a celebrity status not unlike an A-list hollywood star.

And to think, people have the audacity to call me a dreamer. pfft.

:D

I'm also a recent graduate, looking for a job (not in the games industry). Right now my plan is to use the approach DavidRM recommends, which is keep a fulltime job until you're making enough from shareware to quit. This could of course change with time, but one good reason I want to keep a fulltime job is so that I could pay for high quality art. I have full confidence though that I can succeed at this eventually. There're just a lot of things I have to do to get there. :)

I would LOVE to spend the rest of my days working on indie games. Unfortunately, I'm 42 years old and I have about six people counting on me for financial support. So it's going to have to be a "spare time" kind of thing for me, I'm afraid.

Have daily job as a 3d programmer, but it is not as fun as it sound. I'm a code monkey, given short tasks like do this effect or that effect, now drop that and do something else...Quite depressing...Hope to became an indie and have a project of my own, not to be bossed around. But to make a fun game is hard...

Sadly I am unemployed and it is hard to get enough money from developing shareware games. I wish i could, so for now it's something in the middle for me. I hope to earn money with it, but i still am on the look-out for a normal day job.

Down into third, flip the bars and it's on its ear, gently ease throttle until the apex, wind it on and the zorst barks and the front gently lifts ooooh feck gravel earth sky earth sky earth sky black NO CARRIER

As the venerable Billy Connolly once said...

"sky-sky-sky-sky-sky-sky-sky-sky-ground-ground-ground-ground-ground-ground-ground-ground-ground-ground-ground-sky-sky-sky-sky-sky-sky-sky-sky-sky."

very funny.

I'm working professionally in the commercial games industry and doing my indie games in my spare time. I've released one game, which hasn't done very well, but I have a second game that I'll be releasing in a few months which I think will do a lot better. My plan is to develop and release games in my spare time until I have enough games out and am making enough money from my indie games to go full-time as a indie developer. My goal is to be making enough money to become a full-time indie within four years.
Right now the money I'm making is a pittance so I've got a ways to go :P

I'm still a student (one year away from hopefully going to uni), so have a fair amount of time to dedicate to working on shareware games. I'm still yet to release my first one but it is currently progressing well (a sports management game). Of the people who have tested it so far, I've been quite pleased with the feedback.

In the future I'd like to be able to earn enough money from shareware games to work full-time as a shareware developer but from another persons experience who had a reasonably successful product released and selling, it is unlikely to ever be financially viable.

I'm still yet to release my first one but it is currently progressing well (a sports management game).
ah good a competitor ;)

hehe good luck with your game then. May I ask which sport it is?

In the future I'd like to be able to earn enough money from shareware games to work full-time as a shareware developer but from another persons experience who had a reasonably successful product released and selling, it is unlikely to ever be financially viable.
Well in your country is even more difficult because of pound strong value... anyway if you look for money you will make much more as programmer than as a shareware dev, that's sure (with my previous job I was making 2x more and it wasn't even a good paying one...).

Like Cunning Plan, Im also a student, two years away from uni. Ive got to apply by october this year for uni, so I dont have much time because I want to have a game to put on my personal statement, otherwise they'll probably think Im just making it up or doing it for the sake of the form. I dont see myself becoming a professional indie, because Ill be busy for six years of med school. But who knows? :D

I'm 25, + gf, with an interesting job in the IT security field. I dont see myself being a full-time indie - not when I'm gonna have a mortgage soon and a family to feed :(

I did political philosophy and economic at uni. My current plan is to get myself a PhD in pol.phil and eventually a nice, safe job as a lecturer @ uni. Once there I will have the time, and the safe job, to fully concentrate on my interests which are far too many...

grimreaper

Come and help Pat & I build Indieapolis in France on the cheap! The Indie Village!

Cas :)

Hehe, Pat told me that your brother bought a house in Bretagne :) I've looked around and surely they're cheap!!

There was a show on TV yesterday evening, about english people moving to france.
Prices of housing in england is surely insane.


pat.

Bah you can't beat our italian prices ;)
Some examples? 60 mq FLAT in my town (Bologna) on sale for 250.000 euros... :P

Western Loire - my parents in law bought it, cost about £35k and it's huge and even has a field out the back! But it's completely knackered. Putting a new roof on it and redoing it inside and out is a big job!

Cas :)

An interesting article in The Economist about housing prices:
http://www.economist.com/finance/PrinterFriendly.cfm?Story_ID=2736477

May I ask which sport it is?
Cricket.

Ah ok :)

Go on then, I'll never make a cricket manager game, I don't even know the rules :P

Anyway, good luck!

Got a good job as a senior anylist programmer at the local piggery, it's the largest in the southern hemisphere! but it's head office is in my home town who's population is 6000. Gotta company car good package etc.

If you read into that I've got one of the best jobs in the region ( I'm a country boy can't stand the city ) but I've wanted to do my own games for ever so I'm busy getting my first (Rhys Quest 1) ready for an end of year release, and working hard during the my day job hopeing to gain enough knowledge on the complex systems (that no one else here knows much about) over here so that I can contract back in a couple of years.

Who knows what'll happen but for now I'm makin games, earning good money and living the lifestyle I like where I like to be.. so I've got nothing to complain about :)

Not too sound like the insane man in here but I see myself making a comfortable living in game audio and loving my job. Not need to knock yourself down before anything happens right??...watch a couple of Rocky movies, drink some coffee and you'll be alright! If you stick to it .....it will pay off! seriously... :)


NANDO ARCE