So there you are:
The indie game developer — sifting through your options for a next project as the current one draws to an overdue close.
 The project you’d like to do next has a certain immensity to it… It might take a year… or two. It’s one of those epic tales. The kind that when forged correctly can make an actual mark on the fabric of humanity’s recent mythmaking history. A good game.
But there — ever looming, is the fact that your company’s only income during this development cycle will be whatever scraps come in from your first project AS a studio. Consequentially, the financial forecast is indeed a mite grim.
 There are, in addition to the epic project, a number of other project options that might inhabit the next-in-line slot. These would be shorter projects, which while inspired would not be a dream to work on. They may be alternately casual, niche, or outright bizarre… but each of them would promise to be DONE sooner — contributing according to their individual means to the corporate coffers within months rather than years, whatever the amount.
The epic project likely means another year or two of day-job servitude. The others, depending on which, could lead to faster freedom for full-time status.
The first also might mean a business loan — employee(s), growth, and the potential for great expression…
The latter would likely not contain any of these elements in any great degree, but could add to a budding young studio’s portfolio of games-for-sale in a fifth the time.
So which do you choose? Why? Would your choice be different if you had but five years left to live? (this I just think is interesting… the urgency factor)
Ah well… I’ve still got work to do on Blobyrinth… so I had better stop rambling. Just more madness to enter into the ongoing indie meme soup.
 ’til next time –
-Tim
It really depends. If your first game is a megahit, you can take all the time you have on the next one. If your game doesn’t sell a copy… well you might want to try another short project.
True enough — but you can never count on a megahit. The niche served by our first title is pretty small. We don’t anticipate any substantial revenue stream from it. Consequently, we’ll be tackling a shorter project after this one. For us it’s a matter of economics. Yay!