People think indie success is all about luck or making a hit. But personally I prefer to focus on SUSTAINABILITY and being risk averse.
All of my games were built on a low budget (basically just my time, which basically means just rent) which made it easier to turn a profit.
For my whole career, I've controlled my expenses by not living over my means, I saved up and I did everything I could to make this normally risky endeavor (indie game development) much less risky.
That's how I was able to survive for over a decade even though I had several flops in my career.
When I first moved out of my parents house I was living as cheaply as possible on about 600 per month. That meant that for a 10 month project to turn a profit I just needed to make 6000.
For me personally my nightmare is running a giant studio with 20+ employees that I'm responsible for. With a studio like that the monthly burn rate is in the hundreds of thousands so even if you get a million dollars in funding it can dry up super quickly.
But that's just my personal view. Some people have a dream of running an indie studio and if you have that dream I hope you achieve it! Just be aware of how difficult it is.
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