"If you can make a demo, you can make a game", thus starts The Indie Game Development Survival Guide. A sound advice in this book is to keep your day job, at least in the beginning. Now, could this day job be "professional game programer"? Is it feasible (too little spare time), or even legal (ownership issues)?

Spare time? That's gonna be somewhat of a problem, especially during crunch time. More than that, though...after programming a game eight hours (or more) in a day, are you really going to feel like spending a few more hours programming a different game once you get home?

Legal issues I don't know much about, aside from that it varies greatly from place to place, so if it's important to you make sure you know about the company's policy regarding that sort of thing before you accept any job offers.

The latter will be the big problem, and one I'm dealing with right now. Your employer will likely have you sign an IP agreement as part of your employment contract, and there will likely be a non-compete clause. This clause simply states (in legal-ease) that you can't compete with your employer.

So, if you're employed by a game developer then it's unlikely they'll simply let you make games on the side. Of course, if you have a bit of pull with your employer (they really want to keep you), you may be able to weasel out an exception for indie game dev. The problem is then defining the limits, and doing it in such a way that the legal department (1) understands and (2) agrees.

For my self, I actually avoided signing an IP agreement for several years at my employer (lost in the paperwork). An HR review eventually turned up that I didn't have an agreement, at which time I had already proven my value to the company. As a result, I was able to get an exception put in for a book project I've been wanting to do for quite a while: a book on indie game development. As supporting material they have a suggested outline of the book (fairly detailed) which clearly outlines the work I'd be doing. It was probably a bit easier as I was targetting single developers (not teams) using freely available tools, so not too much overlap with profesional game development.

Note, the exception doesn't actually allow me to make a stand-alone game, just one associated with the book (a complete game from inception to completion was a pillar of the book).

I'm currently trying to get an additional exception added to my IP agreement to allow me to develop indie games. I'm sure the limits will include things like not working as part of a team, not releasing source code, first right of refusal, nothing that would seem derivative of any work my employer is doing, etc.

Of course, the process is a bit simpler as my lawyer is free (my dad).

The thing that makes it tricky for myself is that my employer is EA, which covers a huge range of games (retro 2D mobile games and casual web games, all the way to the latest-and-greatest 3D), and I specifically work at a "worldwide" level, meaning I'm involved with any and all projects inside the company (though I really only work on next-gen with any regularity). As a result, it's somewhat blurrier what my job overlaps with.

The kicker is that I don't actually make games. I help people make games. So, my gamemaking itch doesn't really get scratched at work... which is why I really want to do some indie stuff...

That really depends on where you work -- both which country, and which company. With the right choices, it's certainly possible. In fact, we have people right here who are also running their own online indie games.