On being a lone Indie Developer

What it's like being a lone indie developer.

The reason why I started this whole thing was because I was fed up with working in corporations and not being able to control my life. Now I can enjoy the sun during the day, outside, sitting at a lake, and work late into the evening - or vice versa work at the lake.

In the end, I'm a lone developer hacking away on a couple of Mac apps. I also have a few iPhone apps, but these generate little to no income. The Mac apps are better. Most notable is InstaDesk which generates my main income and I can live off it thus living the dream (i.e. right now I'm sitting outside in a small cafe, enjoying the sun, watching people, and fixing a couple of bugs for the upcoming 2.0.2 update; after that I'll head to a green park which features fast wifi).

I'd say it's a lot easier if you're working alone and have little costs. I have a small flat, and I don't have any employees. Also, I do the website myself, the customer service, the one or other ad campaign, the graphics, etc. So apart from my small rent and hardware (which is where I do invest, since I do think that good tools are really, really important) I have almost no expenses. Living in a small student town also helps since good and healthy food is really cheap here, too (like 3 eur for a solid and healthy lunch).

Even if a huge corporation would offer me a lot of money, I still wouldn't want to join since I would loose so much more. Money doesn't make me happy, freedom does. So, as long as InstaDesk (or other, future, apps) generate enough money for me to survive, I really doubt I would sell (with the exception that if the offer is, just as Marco said, really good and the continuation of InstaDesk is guaranteed).

However, a free life where I'm not obliged or controlled by anybody is just so so so good. (I say this after having worked in IT companies and startups since 2000).