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A fortuitous decade as an indie software developer

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Re: A fortuitous decade as an indie software developer

#41

Post by dd8601fn »

hermitcrab wrote: post #27

As someone who has made a living as an Indie developer for 20 years (creating Windows and Mac apps) I feel it is getting harder: https://successfulsoftware.net/2025/12/22/is-the-golden-age-...

You focused largely on the promotional aspect, though I think the product competition angle is more interesting.

The other day I saw someone famous(ish) announce a new desktop application, to meaningful reception.

Thirty minutes later I had the same application, in every meaningful way. Built, working, ready for distribution.

It was just a test and I’m not about to sell it, but I can’t see how this doesn’t come down hard on indie developers.

This example produced reasonably done swift using appropriate system libs… so while “slop” will be a thing people might ignore for now, I think the bar has to go way, way up for real developers.

Re: A fortuitous decade as an indie software developer

#42

Post by saulpw »

dd8601fn wrote: post #41
hermitcrab wrote: post #27

As someone who has made a living as an Indie developer for 20 years (creating Windows and Mac apps) I feel it is getting harder: https://successfulsoftware.net/2025/12/22/is-the-golden-age-...

You focused largely on the promotional aspect, though I think the product competition angle is more interesting. The other day I saw someone famous(ish) announce a new desktop application, to meaningful reception. Thirty minutes later I had the same application, in every meaningful way. Built, working, ready for distribution. It was just a test and I’m not about to sell it, but I can’t see how this doesn’t come down…

I don't see how you could verify "same application in every meaningful way" inside of 30 minutes. Even if the other fellow just vibed it up like you did, him caring about the product and doing thoughtful QA and actually using the application and making little tweaks and staking his reputation on it and committing to its ongoing maintenance is what matters. You may even have an identical application at the end of the day but I'll pay $20 for one that I'm better able to trust.

Re: A fortuitous decade as an indie software developer

#43

Post by dd8601fn »

saulpw wrote: post #42
dd8601fn wrote: post #41

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You focused largely on the promotional aspect, though I think the product competition angle is more interesting. The other day I saw someone famous(ish) announce a new desktop application, to meaningful reception. Thirty minutes later I had the same application, in every meaningful way. Built, working, ready for distribution. It was just a test and I’m not about to sell it, but I can’t see how this doesn’t come down…

I don't see how you could verify "same application in every meaningful way" inside of 30 minutes. Even if the other fellow just vibed it up like you did, him caring about the product and doing thoughtful QA and actually using the application and making little tweaks and staking his reputation on it and committing to its ongoing maintenance is what matters. You may even have an identical application at the end of the…

> I don't see how you could verify "same application in every meaningful way" inside of 30 minutes.

That was not difficult. Though obviously I wouldn’t declare it so and actually ship it to paying people in 30 minutes.

As for the rest of your point, that’s certainly going to be a fair assessment, much of the time, for now.

But that wasn’t really the point. We’re already pretty close to being there on “just tell the machine what you want” for huge swaths of non-critical software. And I don’t think pressure from that is going to let up.

Re: A fortuitous decade as an indie software developer

#44

Post by hermitcrab »

dd8601fn wrote: post #41
hermitcrab wrote: post #27

As someone who has made a living as an Indie developer for 20 years (creating Windows and Mac apps) I feel it is getting harder: https://successfulsoftware.net/2025/12/22/is-the-golden-age-...

You focused largely on the promotional aspect, though I think the product competition angle is more interesting. The other day I saw someone famous(ish) announce a new desktop application, to meaningful reception. Thirty minutes later I had the same application, in every meaningful way. Built, working, ready for distribution. It was just a test and I’m not about to sell it, but I can’t see how this doesn’t come down…

>You focused largely on the promotional aspect, though I think the product competition angle is more interesting.

They are linked. LLMs mean reduced barriers and more competition, which makes promotion harder.

Re: A fortuitous decade as an indie software developer

#45

Post by inigyou »

pipes wrote: post #38
inigyou wrote: post #22

Earlier quoted context omitted.

But the corporations are where all the money is, and the system murders you if you don't have money.

It doesn't reward you if you don't produce anything that someone is willing to pay you for. Who has been murdered for not having money?

Literally every person who died of exposure while homeless.

Re: A fortuitous decade as an indie software developer

#46

Post by nullpoint420 »

socalgal2 wrote: post #23
202508042147 wrote: post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I had the fortune and grit to build and release something on my own. It took years and a lot of pain. Then came the pain of supporting it in production. I generally regret putting myself through this and I do look back. I do think it is worth trying something, but you need to be careful what exactly you are building. Too many times I got lost in details or spent way too much time on things that were not worth it. Als…

We need more of these stories. A week or two ago game engines came up where I see so many wanna-be indie devs effectively throw away their chance at shipping before running out of money by spending time making an engine instead of getting to the game by using an existing one. The comments were generally "so what if they had fun". My reply should have been "it would be nicer to have shipped and kept the fun going long…

what if the fun for them is the game engine? because game devs are customers too, it's technical product dev.

Re: A fortuitous decade as an indie software developer

#47

Post by socalgal2 »

nullpoint420 wrote: post #46
socalgal2 wrote: post #23

Earlier quoted context omitted.

We need more of these stories. A week or two ago game engines came up where I see so many wanna-be indie devs effectively throw away their chance at shipping before running out of money by spending time making an engine instead of getting to the game by using an existing one. The comments were generally "so what if they had fun". My reply should have been "it would be nicer to have shipped and kept the fun going long…

what if the fun for them is the game engine? because game devs are customers too, it's technical product dev.

their stated goal is to become a self-sustaining indie game dev. They fail because instead of shipping a game they spent time making an engine and then running out of funds an having to get job not making their own stuff.

If their stated goal was to make a game engine then sure. That wasn't their stated goal.

Re: A fortuitous decade as an indie software developer

#48

Post by frizlab »

diskzero wrote: post #29
jesse__ wrote: post #5

"surfing is not a sport, it's a way of life" Agreed friend Also, "it takes five years to become an overnight success" is a fantastic line. Great read

"It takes five years to become an overnight success" I heard a variation of this from a VC who invested in my startup in the 8Os. I had to use it on him when we went back to the well a few times for more funding.

why did you put a captial o instead of a 0 for the 80s?

Re: A fortuitous decade as an indie software developer

#49

Post by williamsss »

hermitcrab wrote: post #27

As someone who has made a living as an Indie developer for 20 years (creating Windows and Mac apps) I feel it is getting harder: https://successfulsoftware.net/2025/12/22/is-the-golden-age-...

As someone who took years investing in a system to easily spin up indie projects before vibe coding was coined. It’s been crushing to have built quality projects that are now swallowed up by a tidal wave of AI slop.

It may or may not be a great time to be a popular indie dev, but for the less known folks - it’s a lottery

Re: A fortuitous decade as an indie software developer

#50

Post by Madmallard »

popularonion wrote: post #26
Madmallard wrote: post #25

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If you haven't made games and can't show them on the spot you won't get hired in the gaming industry depending on role

Games industry is a special case, more adjacent to the design industry. I worked at a few Fortune 500 companies and interviewed a lot of candidates for both simple CRUD and harder systems programming work. Side projects, GitHub stuff, or even an independent bootstrapped business almost NEVER helped the candidate and more often seemed to hurt. The only thing that would definitely help was getting your patches into maj…

I showed them my battle arena game in XNA at Amazon and it seemed to be a key thing that swayed the hiring manager
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