So he has a net income of about 150k first year for a successful game. You also need to factor in already spent development time, but on paper this sounds ok. But the second year the net income dips down to 40k. Oops!<p>How long can you do this? Is this sustainable? You probably have to churn out successful games year after year for the rest of your life. But this is a gamble. What happens, if one game is a failure? One year of development just went down the drain. Oops!<p>So, how can you survive as indie game developer? What I believe:<p>1) Either you do this for fun in your spare time. But this gets more difficult the older you get, if you consider family and children. Finishing a polished game that way is possible but tough, I guess. If you&#x27;re doing this for fun, maybe release the game for free.<p>2) You try to copy as much stuff from the previous game as possible and try to go for a short release cycle. You go for the long tail, so the more games you release the better! The result: 455 total games per day on the app-store (<a href="http:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.pocketgamer.biz&#x2F;metrics&#x2F;app-store&#x2F;" rel="nofollow">http:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.pocketgamer.biz&#x2F;metrics&#x2F;app-store&#x2F;</a>). Good luck competing with them.<p>3) You go in full-time. Yeah right... My wife would declare me insane for doing this.<p>The bad thing: regardless which path you take,it takes a lot of time and dedication. And in most cases, there&#x27;s no money and no reward waiting for you. Most people do not even consider spending a buck for your endless evenings spent in front of your monitor trying to make something entertaining.<p>Ain&#x27;t this sad?<p>Previous discussion on reddit: <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.reddit.com&#x2F;r&#x2F;gamedev&#x2F;comments&#x2F;3syzuc" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.reddit.com&#x2F;r&#x2F;gamedev&#x2F;comments&#x2F;3syzuc</a>