Where's the Motivation?

So on iDevBlogADay.com, I came across a few posts stating the lack of motivation, or taking a few weeks off because they just didn't feel like working on their iOS project. Being only six weeks into the full time indie dev situation, I guess I haven't hit that wall yet. Or since I am not doing this nights and weekends, but full time I have a bigger downside if I lose focus since I don't have a regular salary backing me up.

I choose to go full time, leaving behind a pretty good salary. I did this so I would have the freedom and time to pursue some personal and profession goals I want. But I also have to make money long term, so this isn't just a hobby excursion.

My goals as an independent developer, and founder of new iOS studio, Skejo Studios, are two-fold: create a lasting iOS company; work on games and projects that will use myself.

Addressing the second topic first, since I have the option (not needing to make a market driven, clone-type game or app to fill the money coffers) I need only work on projects that intrinsically interest me. My first major apps, the Dog Park Finder and the iPad/PLUS version, were products of my love of wife and dog, first embodied in our www.DogGoes.com websites, and then in these apps.

My current projects are games that I or my friends have been inspired to create. In the last six weeks I have fleshed out a notebook full of crazy ideas that I may want to try, or will collaborate with others to increase our bandwidth to accomplish more.

This leads to my second motivation. I want to create a lasting company, not just an income flow for myself, but one that flows into a company, and becomes an income flow for many people, including other developers, as well as artists and game designers. Since this is also a goal, I want to be careful with my projects, but daring as well. Thoughtful and complete so that the games and projects have a good return, but also daring enough that I might hire or pay others to accelerate the development pace of the projects beyond just the speed of my coding fingers and mind.

This includes networking within the artist and developer community, as well as collaborating and possibly revenue partnering with others to create better returns for the effort for all of us.

Going independent allows me the fantastic opportunity to succeed or fail at these goals, and thus far this opportunity has fueled my motivation into 50 and 60 hour work weeks.

Will the disappointment of weak sales on my next project dampen my enthusiasm? Maybe.

Will a lack of collaborators, or the expense of contracting out portions of the work weaken my resolve? It might.

Will I run out of money and need to get a 'real job' again some day? I doubt it!!

If I didn't believe in both my abilities and my ideas, I wouldn't have quit my job. So maybe that is my motivation. I believe in myself and my ideas, and I want to as quickly as possible assault the world with my projects, and the projects of my co-founders. With that fire, I can't imagine losing traction or motivation.

But I am only one perspective. Let me know in the comments or on twitter.com/gholsclaw what you think. Also check out Who is an Indie Dev Originally posted on my blog.