As far as the indie side, it's about the same as making an app that you need a bit of luck to get attention for your work.
I remember sending out resumes to numerous game companies, back between '08-'11 few of them emailed back and those were rejections. Pay can be great, but the turnover is very high, even moreso for AA - AAA. There is hardly any job security unless you work the non-game related stuff like PR, Marketing, Producer, etc.
Indie there's more freedom, but you have to make the right game at the right time and get noticed very well. Flappy Bird's success was due to PewDiePie playing it (moreso his fans jumping on the bandwagon)