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Why Game Developers Go Rogue
cliffski writes "Jay Barnson interviews the new crop of indie game developers.
How could anybody abandon the steady paychecks, access to the best tools and engines, large teams of skilled colleagues and the glory of working on one of next holiday season's blockbusters for a chance to labor in relative obscurity on tiny, niche titles?
Steven Peeler was a senior programmer at Ritual Entertainment. For him, leaving and forming the one-man studio Soldak Entertainment came down to a desire for creative freedom. 'I really wanted to work on an RPG, and Ritual only made shooters,' he says. 'There were some annoying politics going on that was really frustrating, I disagreed with the direction the company was taking, I was really tired of pushy publishers and I just wanted to do my own thing.'"
I am single. I am also on the autistic spectrum, but not enough to merit public assistance. As for me, I would rather not try to disprove that marriage causes terminal illnesses in females. Gold-diggers need not apply, may they all be raped and die from various opportunistic infections. For all intents and purposes, I will remain single. If you have a sick imagination, sorry, a +1 415 NXX XXXX lifestyle is out of the question.
I had done work on the side, but not enough to justify incorporating and filing five times per year. Unfortunately, I don't live in a jurisdiction that allows single-human corporate entities and I have a hard time trusting people after getting screwed more than once. There is a bright side to being a W2 loser. The law in my jurisdiction is that when one is bought wholesale and sold retail, a shield from personal liability leaps into existence...and I do not have to file five times per year for the privilege. As a last note for comparison. Unemployment may put one on the street, but a tax audit can put one in the slammer.
All this dream chasing is what is killing us.