I heard a discussion with prolific fantasy writer Brandon Sanderson* where he said something like the following.
I'm paraphrasing, but the gist was essentially:
As a writer, everybody always wants to know if and how you're going to make money doing it. There's a foregone conclusion that if you're writing, you must be doing it to make money.
But I don't think it has to be that way. Compare it to golf. People will spend a lot of time and money getting good at golf. Buying clubs. Paying a coach. Getting up at 6am to hit the links before work. Nobody ever tells their golfing friends, "You didn't make it to the PGA Tour this year, so you're a failure!"
People understand that golfing can be something that a person takes seriously, even spending significant time and money trying to get better at the game. Most of those people would be happy to go pro, but that's not really the main goal. They just enjoy the game and strive to get better at it, and enjoy the process.
Writing can be that way as well. Though most of us would be open to the idea of "going pro" as a writer, it should be completely fine for writers to treat it as a hobby they take seriously, being willing to put time, money, and effort into.
* I've searched long and hard to find the actual quote from Brandon Sanderson, and come up empty. Google's AI even fabricated the quote because it knew I wanted it, and later admitted it made it up. I've seen Brandon Sanderson say things along these lines, but I want to find the original quote. If anybody is able to find this, please let me know. And though I'm attributing this to Brandon Sanderson, I'm only 98% sure it was him. There's a small chance it was Dan Wells, another writer, or possibly even some other creator talking about drawing or something.
This comment fundamentally changed the way I thought about game development. I've spent a lot of my own time doing game development over the years. Like many of us, the idea of being able to make games got me into programming in the first place.
But the game development industry is competitive. It often demands long hours. Lower pay. Working in specific locations where the game companies are. And you don't usually get to pick the game you work on, nor the technology that you'll use.
I've found my way to a job that is game-like, with real-time elements, graphical aspects, network programming, AI (in both the new and old senses of the word), a bit of physics and math, etc. But it isn't game development.
I've struggled to sort this out in my head for years. Maybe decades. I enjoy the _craft_ of making games, and I'd love to do it professionally someday. But only _on my own terms_, and not on somebody else's. I'm not willing to move to Austin, Texas, make half the pay, and work 50% more hours, to work on Barbie Golf. (No offense meant to Austin, golf, or Barbie. It's just that none of those spark joy for me.)
Something clicked in my brain when I heard Brandon Sanderson essentially give permission to people to allow their craft--certainly at various points in their lives or careers--to just be merely a craft or hobby that you take seriously without demanding it become your source of income.
It aligns with Cal Newport's advice in the book So Good They Can't Ignore You. In that book, Cal tears apart the "passion hypothesis," which is advice I got a lot growing up, saying, "Figure out what you're passionate about, then find a way to turn that into a career."
We all want a job that is satisfying, but it doesn't need to be everything to you. If, like me, you enjoy game development, you could get a job in the game industry, but you could also just get a job you generally like, that you're skilled at, which pays the bills, and, crucially, that allows you to pursue the activities that give you a rich, meaningful, deep life, like some left over time, money, and energy to hone your game development craft.
As I've begun treating game development as a craft and serious hobby, I find myself enjoying it a lot more.
Before, I kept feeling like I needed to learn specific tools that I didn't particularly enjoy, simply because it was common in the industry. Now I can ignore those tools and focus on the ones I enjoy.
Before, I felt like I was obligated to try out a job in the game dev industry, even at a significant pay cut and increased stress. Now I can relax and enjoy my current job more, knowing it is already allowing me to have the time, money, and energy to do game development as a serious hobby.
Before, I felt guilty working on my book because it wasn't game development.
Now, I know I can treat the book as part of that same craft of using my programming skills to make games (just in book form, in this case).
Before, I felt that if I wasn't bringing in thousands of dollars a month, I was falling short. Now I know that there is value in the craft even if it doesn't directly result in more money.
I see game development through a new lens, now. It is more forgiving. Less intimidating. More open to interpretation. Less stressful.
I'm enjoying the craft of making games more now than ever before. Whether the craft and hobby of game development is your final destination or merely a stop along the way to becoming a professional, I hope that the possibility of game development as a serious hobby can be as liberating to you as it has been to me.