You hear stories about indie developers leaving their day job to do game dev full time. What you didn't hear about are the part time devs who make and release a game. Is it possible?
If you can swap a hobby for it, probably. But the transition to full time can be tricky. Especially since you are swapping from intrinsic motivation to extrinsic motivation.
However, if you can maintain somewhat consistent pattern of working process AND design the game to be feasible to do solo-ish then it is definitely possible.
The Solo Part-time Dev/Producer
The solo dev is required to self-manage. Required to wrangle the cosmos of their creative spirit alongside project deadlines. Not to mention is ALSO allowed to set those deadlines. Sound extremely fragile? Yeah. Ever hear of the story between an author and their editor? Tale as old as time.
For the ultra bedroom indie, it's a requirement. To be driven by their artistic vision and chase it. The issue when the chase becomes forevermore, or even just grand in it's scope and length.
Now those who can scale up usually spilt those roles. Which means it's higher cost but also saves fixed costs? As in you could probably wrangle the actual release date to be stable. So you don't pay as many fixed costs.
Navigating the Intrinstic and Extrinsic Motivations
One of the things that kept me up at night is being worried that I might destroy an artist because I wanted to commission commerical work from them. Why? I might convert an intrinstic motivation to extrinsic motivation.
Simply put... if you ask someone to do something for money that they love doing for free, they suddenly stop liking doing it. They lose motivation to do so.
Back in the day it was really hard to find an anime style artist that was consistent and willing to work for a commerical project. Now? Wow it's easier now. Having a consistent predictable quality of art is a major plus for being Indie-Lean.
Becoming Indie-Lean
What does Indie-Lean mean? Something I made up! Okay okay. It means you min-max production cost to mostly focus on player value. Gameplay, game content, a player impacting experience.
You do still need some basic production value. Box/Capsule art for storefronts is a good example.
Also how your labour is structed matters a lot. Contracting art assets out to people locally or afar if it's just smaller assets and limiting the amout of full timers. Are you spending more labour for more unique levels or are you making your 100th floor in a dungeon?
If you are super lean are you actually able to do creative stuff while doing management stuff? Very tricky... unless you are an artist at artist alley. But you can save big if you are capable of that.
Which Game Dev Gear Ratio Shall You Choose?
Just like shifting gears in a car, the game dev gear ratio balance shifts depend on how far indie you are. Just a solo indie? You really gotta get lean in production and how you game design features. Had some success with a step up in income? You probably need shift up a gear ratio for a little more production value. The choice is ultimately yours.