Not making any money

just wasting time

and filling my head up with garbage

>> 1. How much are you making with your games?

It is my job. And it is one of my hobbies.

>> 2. Are you an Indie or do you write games for a company?

I had a small-yet-profitable set of shareware projects in the past on PalmOS and Windows CE for platforms that no longer matter.

I now work for a company people love to hate, and don't really find my passion working on hobby games at the moment.

>> 3. If you are a successful Indie, what's your advise for all us noobs?

Run your hobby business like a business. Develop a business plan. Before you write a single line of code figure out how you intend to make money. Have a plan to build customers and build a brand.

When a hobbyist doesn't make money immediately they tend to give up. When a business owner doesn't make money immediately they measure things and change things until they make money. They measure how many people are visiting the web site, measure how many people look at the product, measure how many people put it in the virtual cart, measure how many people start putting in their financial information, measure how many people complete the transaction. Then they make small changes and measure the results at every step of the way.

Hobby developers don't invest in marketing. My first PalmOS shareware saw nothing until I invested nearly $500 in advertising. I was very worried that it would not turn out. I was extremely careful in who I marketed to, making sure that as much as possible every cent went toward my target customer. Bootstrapping was hard but once I hit critical mass it was easy.

i worked as c# + Unity coder under ~250 dollars month on a company that did serius/educational games.

now Im working on an academic project under ~425 dollars month, its a game for iOS, although Im hired as both programmer and 2d artist, ive been doing only 2d art on it..

i have a dream on becoming "professional indie", but theres one thing I dont get, its about the "only expenses" initial phase...from where he fuck you get the money from? I mean, youre assuming one should already have some stability and reserves ?

frob mentioned ppl turning away when they dont do any money..well, I dont see it as a choice, but as a unsustainable situation, ppl have to give up otherwise they screwed in debts

Most businesses start with loans and/or investments.

That means that they take the debts head on :D

Speaking of which - how do these individuals manage to get $ millions in start up funds ?!

You should add the option: "None, nada, zilch. And I'm okay with that."

I told them that I only code for hugs, but they insisted on giving me money...

You should add the option: "None, nada, zilch. And I'm okay with that."

or: "none, kind of want money, but not getting any...".

(hmm... getting money is kind of like finding a significant other... a person sort of wants to... but it typically doesn't happen...).

You should add the option: "None, nada, zilch. And I'm okay with that."

Done! Sorta..

I told them that I only code for hugs, but they insisted on giving me money...

Well if you don't need the money..