Hi Maxime,

Outstanding story, I truly wish you the best on your new endeavors. Each lifestyle has its plus and minuses, so it is great that you were able to decide on the priorities you wanted to pursue. I wanted to point out one section near the end, however:

Indie games don’t suffer from big-project issues. I think the ideal team size is five or six people. That’s when team spirit is highest, as well as ownership and drive. You’re not wasting time with endless email threads and bad communication. There’s a lot less specialization, because a handful of people are doing everything. The job isn’t tedious, and it rewards you every day.

[Ed: Emphasis mine.]

While this is true to a certain extent, there is still plenty of difficult communication to deal with as an independent developer (fans, customers, press, contractors and vendors, etc.). For independent developers who run their studios as a business, you will have to deal with a lot of communication; a great many of those emails, meetings, events, and the like can become grating.

Essentially, in both environments (AAA and indie) you are dealing with some of the same problems, just to a greater [AAA] or lesser [indie] degree.