Richard James Cook has worked on titles such as 30 Minutes or Less and Super Combat Fighter as well as working on the UI of Battlesloths due to homelessness. SCF missed its funding window, whereas Battlesloths became signed for.
Rami Ismail has worked on titles such as Nuclear Throne, Radical Fishing, Super Crate Box, and Ridiculous Fishing. Ridiculous Fishing was second to another company's Ninja Fishing which was based on Ismail's Radical Fishing, but Ridiculous Fishing released and was supported by the community. His company, Vlambeer, ended up dissolving.
Conventions one could attend for promotional work would include: PAX; ECGC; RTX; any other gaming convention/expo.
Kickstarters and crowdfunding can yield great results but, due to the negative nature of some of the resulting products, not many people contribute to or generally talk about them as much.
Ryan Zhem worked on games for roughly three years while homeless.
Becca Blair has worked on titles such as Arcadian Atlas, which was successfully crowdfunded via Kickstarter to her surprise.
Jay Tholen has worked on titles such as Dropsy after dropping from college.
Sometimes games are successful, sometimes they aren't. Measurement for success can also vary from "does it make me money to live off of?" to "do people actually enjoy this mess I've made?" but it usually also comes with hindsight about the flaws of the product.
Many risks were taken which could've easily been avoided - such as having a job and working on the game on the side so you still have a stable source of income. If anything, they could've just put the game on the side temporarily. I admit that's a little harder if you actually have a deadline with which there is no lenience and you're a full legitimate business, but still.
On a side-note, after watching this documentary, I'm asking myself questions I've always asked myself at the start of every academic year:
Is this course really the right one for me?
Is this industry really the right one for me?
Now, however, I'm getting even more questions:
Am I mentally equipped to handle what happens if things fall flat?
What do I do if, one day, if/when things DO eventually not work out, I get incredibly depressed to the point where it becomes a serious issue and affects my life negatively?