I Quit My Job To Make Indie Games - How It’s Going 

"I'm investing into something that will benefit me in the long run" this is pure gold and while it's not the easy choice, it certainly feels like the right way to live.

You rock!

Really inspirational, Thomas. You're going for the dream! It's awesome to follow along!

My biggest insight when developing a project as a programmer (and second trait artist) was the need for an art bible. I hired a concept artist after 3months in development and he changed the whole vision of the project just by visualising and setting up style guides. My future projects will definitely start with a game design document + art bible before I write a single line of code.

Love everything you're doing. Very inspiring to see and enjoyable to follow. Can't wait to see more

Your journey and progress are very inspiring, Thomas. I'll be watching that next video, too.

Thank you for making this! Super interesting to see how things are going, sounds like the benefits outweigh the negatives for sure, especially for you and the family time

I'm really looking forward to your video about the planning leading up to going solo!

Love this video, Thomas. Thanks for sharing these insights. Very curious about the financial video😁

Fantastic idea with "Fun Fridays" where you don't work on your main game, but instead have fun by messing around with smaller games/projects. Maybe not every Friday, but once in a while it's great to let go of the main game and just have fun with the engine and try new things. And sometimes it even spawns new ideas/ways to do things that could work for the main game - just be careful with scope creep!

Wow, subscribed just by hearing how much you have done. Love the energy! Keep it up!

Very happy for you ! Keep the good work 💪✨

This was a great watch, thank you and good luck with your future!

I think you’re doing a great job just pumping out new ideas. Keep up the great work and congrats on the big moves!

Really appreciate you sharing your full experience! Working my way towards going indie full time with my wife who is an artist, so it's awesome to hear your journey!

Love watching your journey!

Congratulations, sir ! And wishing you big success ! 🙌

Super inspiring!!! Congrats on the journey! 😊

You've given me a lot of motivation on my personal quest becoming an indie dev! Im 20 now and still on school studying game development but i can't wait to get out there!

Awesome video dude! It’s cool hearing your story with game dev and your perspective with work-life balance✌️

You are an awesome guy and I hope everything works out for you man!!! Gonna check out your games!

It's very inspiring to see you do what you love! Keep it up! 👏

Who ever is reading this... have a great day! 🔥🔥🔥

Inspiring!, Best of luck man ❤

Great video Thomas! You embody chasing your dream met with hardwork and realistic expectations.

Mad props going for it! I love how you are making small scope games and not letting creep turn it into 2 years of development.

your work ethic must be on point, thank you for the inspiration I'm sure you will be rewarded greatly in the future

This is so awesome, wishing you the best Thomas Stewart!

Thank you for sharing your journey! As person who also quit my job to pursue indie game dev I always love hearing stories from other people.

Great video, great progress

You are legit the best. I also love the honesty with what you said about wanting to work hard to support your fam, but then you are burning the midnight oil and actually spending less time with them even though that was the whole point of quitting. I tread that balance line all the time and sometimes it is just hard to get right. Great video man keep going!

Looking forward to hearing more about your next game that’s still under wraps 😅

Always feels inspired to watch videos like that. Nice work man! Interesting how match money you make on console vs steam (like in percentage) 🙃

Love it! *Motivational saying here*

Rooting for you!!

Love the video!

Amazing work

Thank you for sharing your experience. It shows me, that I have to work much harder than I am now...

Thanks for sharing all this Thomas. Enjoying following along with your journey. Hope you manage to carve out some regular time to step away from the work and hang out with your wonderful family!

Interesting! Im a small indie gamdev just started last year and this is really inspiring

As a developer who is about to start an LLC, this is really good insight. Good luck! This is really inspiring!

Liked and subscribed to follow your journey!

You're 2 months further along than I am. best of luck I'm rooting for ya.

Absolutely goals! Currently in a similar boat. I quit my Corporate job at the end of December. I had already started 2 business but still making the grow. Once they are both functional, I will be physically working about 3 days a week, while the 2nd business generates income. With my other free time at that point I want to dive deeper into Game Dev and make 2-3 small games to start! Cant wait to see more videos!

Man! I wish I had someone like you to mentor me through this path. I truly need help! Loved the video!

I just watched your older video about getting job instead of game developing own games, and after that was surprised to see this video. :)

You're very inspiring! I can relate to your story because I also transitioned from web development.

Subscribed!

Keep it up Thomas, we believe in you brother. Keep cranking out the games. Also if you have any experience with UE 5 the solo dev community could really use some good tutorials. Cheers

Man.... i really want uur next game to blow up!! i freakin loved it

Another sub, and a comment for the algorithim lol. Good video to watch while making my own game! Keep the motivation!

Can't wait for the Tanks Mico Game!

Congratulation 🎉

Thats cool. Only a few days ago that tanks game was in my steam que.

niiiice, good inspiration for me ;)

Great video! It's amazing how quick progress one can make when there's no need to sync with designers, artists, UX, QA etc. to get everyone on the same page on exactly how a feature should work and what's needed to implement it. I very much enjoy this low friction aspect of indie dev.

I wish you all success and happiness with your family.

Here is a boost of motivation. :)

Amazing video and your journey so far has been inspiring others ❤ Just a thought but I'm seeing youtubers and gamedevs in general participate in gamejams (2-3 days usually) so that they can focus on something else istead of the game they're developing. Do you plan on doing something like this in the futute if you're annoyed by deving your game? 🤔

nice work my man, live that dream

Good for you!! I did the same thing about 2 years ago. We left the US and moved to Portugal and at the same time of course I had to quit my job. So I decided since we were moving to Europe and had to leave my job at the time, I decided to finally start working for myself. Though I am not building games, I am building game development tools and libraries. I have been investing all of my time building Velaptor which is a 2D cross platform game development library, CASL which is a cross platform audio library, Carbonate which is a messaging system that a lot of my projects use for various reasons, and a 2D particle engine that I will be building a tool around as a paid product. Best decision I ever made. You got this!!

I’m currently a part time developer just getting started and learning code while juggling a couple day jobs. Your story is very inspiring and encouraging. Had to subscribe, think you sharing your story will help me have a clear vision of my steps forward. What was your method of learning coding? I’ve had issues but starting to find footing in consistent classes to learn. Just asking to better help myself hopefully. Looking forward to your uploads!

Great vid, subbed. I'm doing something similar, transitioning to being a full time artist. Graphic design and everything else were a bit of a cop out. I have so much energy working on my drawing skills and compositions. Good luck!

leaving your job (that you like) to persue a hobby takes a lot of courage, what a legend :D

appreciate the vid! how many games have you released so far? It always feels like anyone would have to release a whole bunch to get any sort of money in, not like breaking even, but just any money

Subscribed and bought your game on Steam. I often fantasize about quitting my job ann making indie games (been slowly learning godot but I’m a hobbyist coder and have a long way to go)

Great video have u thought bout out sourcing some of the none programming work?

YOU GOT THIS

Put your battery on a trickle charger. I work from home a lot. Had same problem, trickle charger solved it.

I keep an active log of my work time. I'm about 1.5 x ~ 2x slower on art in general, and 2 ~ 4 x slower on the draft stage of art specifically. It's much more mentally draining so I take many more breaks.

Thanks for sharing. Which platform would you recommend focusing on? (Steam, XBox, PS)

Good job investing in yourself and your family's future! No one else is going to do it, I had worked at a difficult labor job for 10 years when I had my daughter I finally decided I wanted more for her and my family and myself, I joined a bootcamp to learn a lot about coding and software development, 5 years later I still grinding and learning I would like to get into game but it seems very volatile at the moment. Players tend to very kind or very toxic and you don't always know what the majority will be when they play your game which gives me a lot of anxiety in that aspect. Your games look fun and the aesthetics are great so it's definitely a great start. Good luck!

Also, about the amount of time that you work...I agree. Knowing that everything is on you without any guaranteed paycheck, means you work more. But the difficulties are worth it. I am lucky enough though to not have any more responsibilities when it comes to kids. They are all adults now. Great video...keep it up.

"Watch Thomas destroy his financial future" That hit me close to home

I'm currently working 2 jobs and trying to make it as an indie dev. Less stressful, but much slower.

Dude, we are on the same path. I would LOVE to connect.

Hey i got a yellow ducky at my firm 😂 The jokes they it tells quack me up 😂😂🎉 Good work man!

you got this on lock

Other than not being yet 100% confident that I know the gaming engine, Having a 9-5 job helps my family survive but that makes me delay releasing my game. Really not easy when u have family :)

Father of a 2 year old and while I don't plan to go full time, I'm investing a ton to a point where my assets will let me go part time.

I hope doing well rn, kinda inspiring, wanna be like you but it's so scary

Just had My first Kid. I feel What you Said ✌️

How did you end up getting publisher relationships? Through your released games or something else?

3:06, you already know who your first hire should be, if you have any leftover consider hiring someone par time, imagine how much you would get done

Might want to invest in a trickle charger for that car battery 😂

Cool video. Thomas looks like a young Gary Oldman , maybe he should consider acting too !

Just stumbled on your channel. I'm a fiction writer myself, been working on original content but I know a few game developers so it's a bit familiar.

More or less I did the same thing friend!

Thanks for sharing a six month update! Having a supportive wife is the best.

Subscribed on patreon - take my employment money, I hope you succeed. I am planning a similar move in 6 months.

What did you use for task management?

This is my dream

Have you considered outsourcing some aspects where you can’t /wish not to spend time like an accountant or YT video editor so you can focus on your main tasks? Also, try to keep some moments for you to chill a bit and charge your batteries.

Great stuff Thomas. We are also indie developers with a team of five. Our current biggest challenge is to scope down. We had big ideals in the beginning : ) Feel free to check it out (we switched from English to German though but there is still some older content in English)

I'm doing the same, however, I don't make enough money in IT in my small town to set aside enough to quit for 6 months. Therefore, I am repairing computers during the day and coding at night. Working my butt off but I love it. I just hope I can make a nice future for my wife and step daughter.

Does this awesome beard only come if you go into indie dev? Coz I've been a freelance web dev for years and can't grow one like that

The thumbnail 😂 aged 40 years in 6 months 😂 jk you look great ❤

I'm a baby coder and I definitely recognize the rubber ducky lol

Brooo your name is like big calculus master’s name mix. Are you good at calculus???

I Just subscribed, i liked your videos 👍🏻 Actually im information technology student, its my second year in the college, so i spend many time studying programming languages and some courses like data base, networks, visual programming, and networks , etc, and it takes a huge time , so im confused about starting to learn game development, as i know its need many hours and a huge time, so as a university student i need to pushing myself, do you guys think its worth or deserve to start learning game dev and studying in the same time to earn some money? Thank you