[Pkeod]

I never had a fancy tech job, or really any fancy job. I've had jobs. I moved industrial pipe for a few years in my teens. Not my favorite thing, but it was a choice. I worked for Sears for a few years up until I was 18. Worst years of my life. Also a choice. I've been making games since I was 11 and I'm just about 25. When I was 18 I decided to take it seriously and now here I am. I choose to do this. I can do programming, but I like art more, and I work with people who are just as passionate as I am. I love programming when I do it. I have a game on Steam, games on iOS and Android. I am dead set on doing great things not just with games but with culture and the future of humanity.

>The fun part (gameplay, game balance, story-telling, level creation) all happen near the end.

Then you are doing it wrong. There are so many tools available which allow you to skip so much of the technical parts and get to the parts you like. You can choose to use them, or you can choose to build your own.

>You don't make a game, you make a series of tools

That's a choice, and a huge thing newbies to game development are cautioned against. Don't make tools - make games! The tools are already made, don't reinvent the wheel. Yet so many insist on doing just that, and I have no sympathy for them.