I think something in between is good. Honestly, betting your life savings and quitting your job to make a 4 year indie game is a mistake. Some people have got lucky, but I bet most went broke and were too embarrassed to tell anyone. I'd say don't work on something that is going to take more than 6 months, until you have funding and a team and are experienced enough to manage a longer project. Ideally, do something that can be made in 3 months.
This is the video that @fire7side is talking about and worth watching.
I think it's good advice if you want a sustainable business and not just trying to chase a hit.
Like I made Decay in 1 month. I didn't even have the idea to do it. I was testing something and got some art and it started looking really good and I realized it could be a demo by itself. To be frank, it hasn't made a lot of money so far, a few hundred dollars. Not really anything. But most people were impressed, and I got a lot of hits on the page and traffic on my social channels, so that made it worth it. I'm looking at maybe doing a sequel, or at least something else similar I can do in about 1 month. And if I can make a lot of them, then even if each one only makes a few hundred dollars, that can add up over time (especially if they continue to get sales). So I think this is a solid plan.
The other idea is to make cheap "cash in" games that you can do in a few weeks that aren't very good but good enough to make a little money. And then make 20 of them or 30 of them in a year. This does not interest me, I feel that games are an art form, and using it to just generate money seems cheap and defeats the point. If you just want money, there are stable and guaranteed jobs that can make you more money without all the stress.
