It was always my dream to head an indie studio and create niche videogames (old-school jrpgs, which would be pretty niche for a western-based developer. But I'd also want to experiment with other genres as well). But it takes a lot of upfront capital to pull that off and it's a very risky industry. And I'd have no interest in working as an employee or doing projects for a big publisher. I would want creative control over the design process.
These guys at Watermelon Games (www.piersolar.com) are following their passion (western-based guys who are creating a 16-bit jrpg) and see what they are accomplishing is quite inspiring. But they work on a volunteer basis. They aren't making a dime off their work.
There is also an old-school japanese-styled rpg on the Xbox 360 Indie Games line called Breath of Death VII, which is a few hours long and sells for 80 MS pts ($1). Great game. But at $1 a piece, I doubt the developer could live off that game unless it sold several tens of thousands of copies. I'm pretty sure he didn't quit his day job yet.
http://www.spiderwebsoftware.com/ This guy, Jeff Vogel, is actually making a living off his passion as a indie game developer of old-school western rpgs. He talked about how it cost him about 120k (including living expenses for himself) to create one of his recent rpgs and he was able to recoup that investment in a matter of months because there is a significant fanbase out there for old-school computer western rpgs. He wasn't always completely indie though. He worked for a publisher back in the mid-90s. Going completely indie from scratch is much more difficult I would imagine.
In this day and age with digital distribution being king on the PC front and with Microsoft allowing aspiring indie game developers to create and sell their own videogames for the Xbox 360 platform using XNA, ANYONE can get their own videogame published and sell it to the general public. But at the end of the day, indie game development isn't very attractive if you can't make a living off it. Sure I could theoretically keep the day job and develop games during the evening and on weekends. But I need time to actually play videogames too (what kind of a game designer doesn't play videogames? That's their main source of inspiration) and to have fun doing other things. All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy.
It's all just a dream though. Right now I'm working in a field that I'm not passionate about (it's not like that field is particularly bad, I'm just not passionate about any field right now unless I'm a captain of my own ship. In order to achieve "fulfillment", I see myself as someone who would prefer to take on personal projects rather than work a standard 9-5 job as an employee or contractor.) I like my job because I like working with the people I work for and work with. My co-workers and the appreciation and recognition I get from my superiors and co-workers is what I enjoy most about my job (oh and getting paid too. lol). I'm not necessarily passionate about the field itself or my work itself (unless you count taking pride in doing a good job).
