I was having an interest in the early development days of Starsector, reading through old blog posts, and read that Alex quit his day job to develop Starsector full-time (June 2011 if you want to check it out). I think that's pretty amazing. The developer of another game, Cogmind, wrote about his journey from part-time dev to full-time and I find these stories fascinating (lots of his posts on r/roguelikedev). It's pretty interesting to read how this game has progressed since the initial release.
I'd like to ask what experiences people in this forum have had in developing games or other software; like how you started, what big decisions you felt pressed to make, and what guidance you would give yourself if you could travel back in time. If Alex himself reads this, how have things changed since that 2011 decision?
I'm just starting out in IT and programming, so these questions for are nigh impossible for me to conceptualize. The broad skillset a person needs to make development happen (in a "you're your own boss" kind of way) is intimidating, and honestly, it's information overload for someone who'd like to transition into the field.