the luxury of having a job and a computer (or what the fuck, you can gamedev as a hobby on unemployment if you live in a cool socialist country for cool people)
That is like, the definition of a luxury
QFT
DOUBLE QFT COMBO
I didn't first, but then I did because people where pressuring me to do it (even in this forums)
At least I don't have to have stress AND depression at the same time ... but I feel like a fucking looser.
BTW there is also a whole sub dev community who makes game for pure fun and don't even try to "compete" aka make fun or "relevant" (tm) game. Game like mario cars 2are just fun to make and weird to enjoys, that's the ultimate form of loving games, to make games as doodle, curiously this community (which isn't exatly one, they aren't organize, have a rallying cry or even a fall back forum) is mostly made of women.
But even before indie there was a saying I was told in gaming, that was a kind of sturgeon's law:
90% of game idea never get made
90% of idea made are never finished
90% of finished project don't get to market
90% of marketed project don't get a return that cover cost
90% of project that have a return are not hit
So that's in the end 0.01 percent that succeed and 0.001 that are hits.
And 90% of all game are just bad or too average to bother
That was before the digital era, I'm sure it's still true. Making games is teh hardest, also survivor bias is strong in game dev.