Rampant Games - Contradictory Advice

Jay discusses the two options for someone in indie development, burning your ships or not quiting your daytime job in his blog.

Which Approach Works Best?

While it’s purely anecdotal and may be driven by my own biases, but most of the people I have investigated and in some cases gotten to know who have been successful and stayed successful over the long term embrace the second approach – DQYDJ. And I’ve known several people who have tried the BYS approach and been crushed by it, and a handful who met some success with the first approach but then faded into obscurity and went on to do something else after all.

However – I also know far more people who have followed that second approach and – like me – have never turned it into real, quantifiable success. Yet. And while it’s all well and good to suggest that it’s not failure if you’ve not quit trying to succeed, the truth is we all only have a finite period of time to make it work. Life – and eventually death – will happen no matter our intentions and muck up even the best-laid plans.