[cableshaft]

I think you'd find Jason Robert's story very interesting. He studied computer science in college and worked in the tech field for over a decade, but then decided to take a break from that and taught himself how to draw and worked on a video game that he developed and illustrated himself over 7 years, that became the award-winning Gorogoa, a clever puzzle game where you slide a 2x2 grid of panels around over each other or reposition them to progress further into the game.

He's got a few hour long talks out there, but here's a good interview from him.

https://gamepilgrim.com/2020/01/20/developer-interview-jason...

As for myself, I've dabbled in art since I was a kid (often doodling while bored in classes), and have released video games with my own art in them and electronic music I composed myself, some of which have done pretty well (although it was still basically just 'programmer art', i.e. not anything terribly beautiful). I also enjoy writing humorous stories and have had a few short stories published in anthologies.

I've also done my own graphic design for board game prototypes I've created, a couple of which publishers had said they probably would just use if they were to release the game. I'd still call it just barely serviceable, though.

I see myself more as a creative that is skilled at computers and has to do that for my livelihood, but I'm hoping I can get to the point where I can take a long sabbatical to pursue creative works more directly again, instead of a handful of hours here and there on the weekends.