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Some 5 years ago I decided that I can't really be a commercial indie game developer because I didn't have time, money and risk tolerance needed to make the kind of indie games I wanted to make and sell. Instead, I was going to make games as a hobby to polish my game design skills
A problem I ran into almost immediately was that from my point of view game development just didn't make for a a very good hobby. I remember bothering @ChrisDeLeon about that many times in the weekly check-up emails he used to do back then.
I would compare it to other creative hobbies I tried like music or writing. In music I can sit down at the piano and play an improvised solo for 15 minutes and I will feel like I have accomplished something creative.
I can turn on my music making program and 3 hours later I'll have a cool sounding song starter. True, I probably will not do much more with it, but I have accomplished something. And if I push myself, in two weeks I can finish the song or at least be well on my way towards it.
In writing 2 weeks is plenty of time to write a first draft of a short story, or at least to be well on your way to do so. Even drawing, which I tried only a little, let's you make a simple comic-style character sketch in what - 20 minutes?
Making games, at least from the game design point of view, lacked this - creative goals you could achieve in an evening after a busy day and go to bed satisfied knowing you have accomplished something and that it was something good.
Now, several years on, while my newest prototype is still a secret (shhh!) I feel like I'm on a good trajectory to make it at least a published prototype and I feel like I have cracked the code of how to turn making games into a hobby, with small achievable creative goals.
So the secret is these goals appear on their own, but they only after you have implemented enough of the game for it to be playable and fun. Whaaat? Yes, because at that point you are not making a game, you are making features for a game.
E.g. making a strategic game takes a long time and you will get bored on the way... but making an extra unit and testing it against an already functional and fun game - that can be done in a week, possibly even a long evening.
Iterating on a unit - you can do that in an evening. Feeling extra tired - you can just run a play test, never enough of those :) It's almost like you are modding your own game.
I once read how one of the Adams brothers who are making the Dwarf Fortress said he treats development of Dwarf Fortress like a hobby, as he can always find some new aspect of the game to improve that he will find interesting.
Back then I was a bit jealous about him having such a productive approach, but now I get it - they already have a base game and now they are inventing new features - and that can actually feel like a hobby.
So to sum up - turns out game development becomes much more hobby like once you have achieved a certain level of usability and fun in your game, the problem is, that level is pretty high. I hope being aware of that will help someone. EOT
