If you’ve ever considered living abroad, you’ve probably heard the usual advice: get a TEFL cert, teach English, live cheap.
I did that. I also did government contracting. Both paths had the same fatal flaw — you’re trading hours for dollars with zero residual value.
The problem with every “traditional” path
Teaching English: Supply goes up every year. New teachers arrive willing to work for less. Pay stays flat or drops. You’re literally training your own competition.
Government/embassy work: High pay, impressive title, zero control. They choose where you go. And when you leave the system, you have nothing — no products, no IP, no assets. Just a resume.
What actually works: asset stacking
Solo game development flips the model.
Every game you finish is a permanent digital asset. Put it on a storefront and it earns while you sleep. Stack 12 games in a year and you have 12 income streams running simultaneously.
The math is simple:
Month 1: 1 game earning
Month 6: 6 games earning
Month 12: 12 games earning
Nobody can undercut your portfolio. Nobody can reassign you. Nobody can fire you.
Why game dev specifically?
No certification required — start tonight
No employer visa dependency — you own the business
No “all-in” gamble — build on evenings and weekends while keeping your current income
Tools are free — engines like GDevelop cost nothing to start with
The full breakdown
I made a video covering exactly why the traditional paths fail, how asset stacking works in practice, and the three steps to go from zero to a working game on your phone in one weekend.
🎥 Watch it here: https://youtu.be/otJsCFpbdxI
If you’re a dev already, you’re closer to this than you think. Game dev is just software with a storefront attached.
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