[sgdesign]

Have you considered that maybe these guys want to develop iPhone games? Telling them that all they have to do to make more money is simply stop developing games, and choose a different platform might be true, but it's not very helpful if they want to live their passion.

[bravura]

Patrick gave a handful of ways they could have tweaked their business model to improve the bottom line. Not developing iPhone games was just one of them.

They wanted to live their passion and they wanted to support themselves off the app. ("We wanted the game to be free but also we want to make a living off of it since we’ve spent 2 years on it.") But they only fought to service one of those goals.

Thankfully, most of us here on HN do things where our passion is something that has enough monetary value to support a family. But nonetheless, "live your passion" is just bad job advice. "Find a way to make your passion work" is much better.

[Impossible]

This... Mike and Greg are definitely game developers first and businessman second (or 3rd, or 4th or whatever).

"amateur hobbyist artistes (who have "that vision thing" and are willing to starve to deliver it for free)" - I'd say that Mike and Greg are already in this category. If you check out their site (http://mikengreg.com/), you'll see that they release most of their stuff as free. They live in Iowa because it's cheap. They want to be able to make their own games and not starve or be homeless while doing it.

Software isn't necessarily the best way to make money period, if all I cared about was money I'd rather be managing a hedge fund or something.

[richardw]

This... Mike and Greg are definitely game developers first and businessman second (or 3rd, or 4th or whatever).

Well, then they succeeded and we should be happy for them. They don't have a business, but they've got a great game.

If and when their priorities change, they'll move business skills up the priority list. I guess they could get a publisher, or something?