this post was submitted on 06 Sep 2025
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With 20/20 hindsight it was obviously a good idea.
But at the time of making the decision, it was an unbelievably risky plan and the odds were stacked against it. As a matter of fact, for every successful 2D platformer made with care and love that gets released and becomes successful, there are dozens that fail miserably and that you will never hear of.
Yes, believing in yourself and taking risks makes success possible, but remember that it does not guarantee it.
People forget that Hollow Knight didn't do very well at first, also. It took an excruciatingly long time for it to pick up steam.
luck has a lot to do with success, people often forget
Luck and a good review from a relevant reviewer. The devs of Nightmare Reaper credit Civvie11's reviews of their game to the multifold increase of sales after they sent him a redeem code. And that's not the only game that he's helped out.
And the other way around, too. With the best conditions, you also need luck. (while still fully agreeing)
My friend quit his job and has been making indie games since 2015. It's been ~~20~~ 10 years and he's made like $40,000 total in the time with all his games combined. His wife pays all the bills. Every time he releases a new game he tells everyone this is the one that'll make him a million bucks. He points to games like Hollowknight, Stardew Valley, Undertale etc as proof.
If it has been 20 years since 2015 then I think I overslept.
It certainly feels like 20 years since 2015. Covid and Trump have easily stressed 20 years out of me.
This has scientific backing and isn't just a feeling: https://www.nbcnews.com/health/health-news/covid-pandemic-accelerated-brain-aging-study-rcna220048
Hey, you. You’re finally awake. You were trying to cross the border, right? Walked right into that Imperial ambush, same as us, and that thief over there.
Huh, I seem to have woken in 2011
In a just world, your friend would be able to create as much art as he wants without having to worry about who is paying the bills.
That's literally what he's doing. Ironically, his wife is a professional artist. She does digital art for a AAA game studio.
He's definitely taking the wrong approach by trying to catch lightning in a bottle.
Without people like him, we wouldn't have innovative indie games.
Yeah but the vast majority of those failed games look bad and are mediocre gameplay wise. Even if they are a true passion project. They don’t come close to the quality of games like Hollow Knight, Dead Cells, Rogue Legacy, Inside or even Pizza Tower. Most sidescrollers (including metroidvanias, rogue likes and souls likes) released on Steam are of low quality because it’s very easy to make a basic game in that genre.
Yes the genre is risky but if you make a very good looking game that stands out with top notch gameplay you increase the odds of success significantly.
Budding indie devs need to realize whether they can make such a game. If not they need to find another genre that is less crowded or a genre with a very high demand, like the horror / liminal space genre those games have a much higher success rate compared to the average platformer.
There is a great Bo Burnham clip where he talks about this.
This comment sounds like it's discouraging these kind of risks. But I feel like you should almost always take them, because otherwise your life is just hollow.
I think you've got to work out what your appetite for risk is. It's important to do take risks sometimes even if they scare you to move your life forward but also sometimes don't. I've seen a bunch of people really fuck their lives up because they just kept rolling the dice.
But what is "fucking your life up"? What is the end goal of life that you have to achieve, else you failed your life?
One of my goals in life is to not become impoverished due to bad financial decisions, and think of how many people quit their jobs to try to make a successful game just for their plan to not work out and them then trying to somehow get their lives back in order so they won't become homeless.
When I say fucking up I mean things like spending all their savings and maxing out their credit chasing a dream. It could have all worked out for them if things had gone different, but it didn't. As a result they're a lot less happy, don't have housing security and spend a lot more of their life fighting to stay afloat - their life is worse by almost every measurable metric. It's not about failing life, but it is about minimizing your suffering.
Despite this being a question for everyone to answer on their own, continuously failing risky bets and losing everything to it does not look like it will be a popular answer
But why would you even care about popularity? Right wing movements are also popular right now. I don't think popularity is any important measure at all to determine if something is right/wrong/good/bad
Not popular = nobody wants that, not because others don't want that, it's because what each will not choose on their own
Of course, your mileage may vary
Mummy, why can't we have dinner today?
I'm sorry honey but you have to understand that daddy took a risk otherwise he would feel hollow! Sure we're broke now because he quit his job to do a thing and it didn't take off, and your little brother Timmy had to go live with Gramma or else he'd starve, but think of how daddy feels now! Not hollow!
Yeah, that's not how it works when you don't live in the US.
GPs comment was hyperbole, but it holds true for most countries.
I live in Germany and make a pretty good salary as a developer. If I could, I'd take ½-1 year off work to develop one of a few games I've been designing over the last couple of years. In-between jobs I always start working on them, and those 1-2 months are a blast, much more fun than regular work.
But even though I have enough savings to do so, I really can't, because it would mean:
When the result is most likely making 0€, it's hard to justify the risk.
We have decent worker protections in Belgium, but if you quit your job here to work on games I don't know if you have the right to unemployment (since you weren't fired). Even then, it only lasts for a year or so if you have worked at the place for 5 years, with the monthly payment decreasing significantly until the last few months you only get like 500€ per month.
Yeah... The constant assumption that everyone who speaks English has to be a Yankee Doodle Dandy or that their way always applies is tiring
It's pretty bad in other English speaking countries too.
Where do you live that nobody needs to work? I would sure like to move there.
"A family whose business failed will not just be left to starve" is very different from "nobody needs to work".
I mean sure, your friends and family won’t let you starve. But you can’t rely on them forever. Government ain’t doing shit either: At least in my country, to get unemployment benefits, you need to be laid off or fired. If you quit your job to develop a game and fail, that’s on you. Yes, there’s also disability benefits, but those are small and require you to be disabled. Food banks exist too, but they don’t help you pay rent, nor do you get a full month’s worth of food every month.
All in all, a family with kids must have at least one working adult or HUGE savings.
So again, where’s the paradise where government will keep your rent or mortgage paid and your family fed if your game dev endeavour doesn’t pan out? I wanna move there.
I think you missed the joke
Depends on their financial position overall. If you live below your means and save up, especially in a professional position, you can offset expenses with passive investment income. Retirement is really just getting to the point where passive income and using up savings can last you until you expect to die.
If you have passive income that covers your bills, then the main difference between working and not working (or doing work without guaranteed income) is that you're not getting ahead as quickly anymore. You're not necessarily even falling behind, though even that state could be maintained for a while depending on how much you have saved and what kind of credit you have access to.
But yeah, if you're living paycheck to paycheck, this isn't an option, you'll have to do the work around your other job.
If take no risk then you guarantee to fail. You just got to take those risks. And if it fails, don't give up. Just get up dust yourself off and try again. Just at different approach.