My hat is off to you, in any case. Especially with the highly competitive indie games markte. There are just so, so many competitors. I am afraid being successful also involves things that many game developers probably won't enjoy that much, like marketing.
Overall it seems likely that you acquire a lot of skills while making the game, though. With the demand for Software Developers still being high, it seems to me the risk is low, as you could always find another job. Of course you can't make back the money you didn't earn. But perhaps you could find a better paid job than before to make up for it.
For now, I wish you success with your game so that you don't have to go back to "standard employment".
Thanks! Yes the marketing is the most challenging part. I happen to enjoy showing my work off, I try to post a video a few times a week on twitter. ( https://twitter.com/LeapJosh )
The finer points of marketing still elude me, but as I come up with things to try I test them. I've written some machine learning models to try and optimize things, no breakthroughs yet.
My game is a creative writing game / text editor where you're a tentacle monster with a magic typewriter. It's called Tentacle Typer. The idea is that you power up machines, activate magic devices, and progress through levels by creatively writing next to things.
You learn different magic spells depending on what genre you're writing in. (horror, love story, something technical -- all different spells)
You use that magic to fight monsters and take on bosses. It also exports txt files. It's pretty weird! :)
My hat is off to you, in any case. Especially with the highly competitive indie games markte. There are just so, so many competitors. I am afraid being successful also involves things that many game developers probably won't enjoy that much, like marketing.
Overall it seems likely that you acquire a lot of skills while making the game, though. With the demand for Software Developers still being high, it seems to me the risk is low, as you could always find another job. Of course you can't make back the money you didn't earn. But perhaps you could find a better paid job than before to make up for it.
For now, I wish you success with your game so that you don't have to go back to "standard employment".