I’m fortunate to have known the strong indie developer presence in Michigan over the past few years. But passion and creativity aside, it remains a struggle for many of them to get noticed and make a living. My own view about whether or not it’s feasible to make a living off of your passionate hobby has solidified over the past decade, but even if it’s just the way things are for most people to not make money doing what they love… that doesn’t mean it’s right or the way it has to be forever.
Local communities have seen how hard it is, and are trying to elevate their groups, to bring more attention to the work their colleagues are doing. I’ve seen different ideas thrown around, and I have a few ideas of my own. My ideas are primarily from observing the mature “indie” scene in music, film and comics / books, which I think we could learn from. I thought I’d share a few of my ideas in detail below.