Full-Time Hobbyists
From an article on indie game development by Daniel Cook
We don’t talk about it much, but a large number of successful ‘professional’ artists are in a relationship with someone else that pays their way. They aren’t successful entrepreneurs with a deep understanding of sustainability. Instead they are full-time hobbyists in a fortunate financial situation. They accumulate excess leisure time and spend it on game development.
This sort of blessing is very difficult to admit. But embarrassed silence dupes less fortunate artists into pursuing an unrealistic fantasy of how to thrive. If you are kept developer and are living off someone else’s money, talk about it. Indie finances could use a little sunlight.
This whole article is brutal, fascinating, and probably just as true of all independent software markets, not just games.