First thanks to Brian for pulling this site together, I’m impressed by the speed with which this went from notion to concept to fully functional site. A site that I believe will fulfill a need that’s been out there for a while: a place where freelancers can compare notes and improve strategies.

Freelancing is getting to be a bigger part of game dev every day, and we freelancers stand to benefit from sharing information. Even those of us in competition with each other! Rising tide raises all boats, yaddah yaddah yeddah…

I guess the first thing to establish is why freelance? Why take the hard road of fluctuating finances, contract negotiations, quarterly taxes, and lower profile games when there are perfectly good cubicles sitting empty in perfectly relaxed work environments offering perfectly enticing enticements such as good salaries, free Cokes, and free M&Ms in exchange for our talent, skills and dedication?

Here’s my reasons for freelancing:

• Going freelance feels like growing up: After a while, to me, being an employee started to feel like being a kid. The deal is: we’ll give you these enticements, and all you have to give up is self-determination. The longer I did it the worse the deal seemed. When it got to the point I was craving the risks and even the tedium of doing business - the very same stuff you’re comfortably insulated from as an employee - I knew I had to go freelance.
• Self-direction: I like to chart my own course. I prefer a sandbox game like GTA over linear games that lead me from one scripted event to another, with the same, unvarying tasks strung between. Same goes for my work life.
• Being an employee changed: When I started out in game dev the job seemed more like being on a team of like-minded individuals all clawing toward the same goal. We had challenging deadlines to meet, but we were given a lot of flexibility in how we accomplished that job. As a non-management grunt, I kept the hours I wanted, but like everyone else on the team I just went ahead and worked my butt off night and day because that’s what the game needed. Somewhere along the line someone started taking that kind of organically occurring enthusiasm for granted, and scheduling with crazy hours in mind. The deadlines got no less challenging, but the sacrifice was no longer voluntary. When strictly regimented mandatory Saturdays and nights came along, that feeling of being a self-determined adult eroded even further.
• Monotony: Even with the downsides of employment, I’ve liked every company I’ve worked at and never left one on bad terms. Still, no matter where I worked, monotony would creep in. Inevitably, the same commute to the same office, to the same cube, every day of the week got old. A year or two in, and I was going stir crazy. I don’t know how you people do it!
• Self-scheduling: Having a big looming deadline and figuring out how to arrange my days so that I make that deadline is way more appealing than keeping regular business hours (see: Monotony). Bonus: if I’m all caught up on my work, and if a beautiful day should present itself, I’m not above giving myself leave to go play hooky. That’s a luxury that outstrips any perk any real job has ever offered. You can keep the soda and the M&Ms.
• Freelance seems like the way artist do business. I went to school for painting, thinking I’d eventually be an artist or illustrator. I prefer CG, and I prefer games, but I’d rather do business like a traditional artist. They get by one sale or one freelance job at a time. Plus, that’s how Han Solo works. It just seems way cooler than a real job.
• Variety: At any given time I’m working on a two or three different projects, and I never know what opportunity will present itself around the corner (see: Han Solo). Beats looking at the same game for one or two years at a stretch.
• Portland, Oregon. I want to live here, but there are no game companies. Even if I wanted to give up freelancing, there’s not much available. Keeps me honest.
• Home office: pleasant wood-paneled upstairs with windows that open (!) onto a quiet tree-lined street. Best work environment ever.
• Everywhere else office: Just like with companies, I can get tired of my home office. Solution: I work on a powerful laptop, so I can move around. Coffee shops, clients’ offices, front porch, back yard. The plum tree out back provides enough shade that I can work en plein air and still see the screen. Nice for when the AC-less upstairs gets broiling. Also, I’m one of those East-coast refugees who left their family 3000 miles away. When I go back, I like to be able to take my time visiting, so I take my laptop and work while I’m there. Same goes for far-flung friends willing to take me in for a week or two. Let us give thanks for wifi.
• Indies and entrepreneurs: I’m a huge fan of indies and entrepreneurs, and being freelance gives me a chance to work with them (without necessarily hitching my horse to their wagon). I like working with the Davids taking on the Goliaths. It doesn’t hurt that they’re more likely to hire me to make interesting, core artwork than do big companies (who tend to hire freelancers only for grunt work, or who simply go to art houses that pay freelancers cut rates). And with indies I get to try work I might otherwise never do, like concept art. As a freelancer I can put professional experience and high-end skills at the disposal of rugged individualists, and help them make their out-of-left-field games competitive with the big guys’.

Downsides to freelancing? There are a few. Income is always on my mind. I won’t be bragging about my home office for long if I can’t make the mortgage. Also, as much as I like working on my own, I miss being in the middle of a team. Still, even when I was working at real jobs, I tended to fall into the role of one-man factory, which could be surprisingly isolating. With the small teams I work with, even remotely, I have more chance for collaboration an input than I did back in the office.

Basically, succeeding or failing on my own terms is way more invigorating than taking a paycheck could ever be.

So, yeah, I’m sold on freelancing. My goal in life is to never have a real job again . If this means working my butt off, so be it.