Myself, I prefer writing them to playing them. I just don't have time to waste playing video games.
I'm starting to branch out into writing desktop/Android games for a living, so my 2 older kids get to be "beta testers". The game I'm currently writing is for kids anyhow. I'm a child of my time, so I still prefer 2D old school or "retro" type games. (Think: Final Fantasy II or any Super Nintendo game.)
Are you planning to sell these games? if so, how do you m arket them?
I have found it is rather difficult to make a living as an independent game developer or small indie studio, unless you work for a mega corporation like Microsoft or get hired by a successful gaming company.
How can you make any real money making video games / educational simulations from home?
I didn't know we had an indie game developer in our midst!
:pc:
It is still in my future, and thus still a mystery, though I have *plenty* of ideas about how I'm going to get the word out.
I'm not a firstly a gamer, then a programmer. It's the other way around. My enjoyment comes from programming, problem solving, and bringing a game to completion, then my second wave of enjoyment is promoting it and seeing how well it can do. I love creating something, and for me I am most proficient at the art of software development. So that's the best way for me to express my creativity.
Some indie developers seem to be firstly "gamers" -- they really like games to begin with, they manage to write some games, but they quickly move on to the next game for whatever reason without spending much time marketing. Maybe they just don't have a knack for marketing? I've heard several of them admit, "I submitted it to a few app stores, and that was pretty much it."
Well, in short, that doesn't describe me. I'm the businessman and the programmer rolled into one person.
To answer your question --
There's the situation 20 years ago, and then there's today. When I first started writing games (few got finished, I must sadly admit) as a teenager, there wasn't much chance for a little guy to get exposure sufficient to market a game successfully. Unless you got published by one of the big guys, you were invisible. This was in the days before the Internet.
But today, we have app stores where people are accustomed to buy smaller games for $1 or $2, or even free (with embedded ads). Moreover, the modern plague of "3D, full motion video, or it's not a viable, professional game" is put on hold for the world of Tablet/phone games. Perfect for indie developers! I got very excited about this a couple years ago, and finally dove in last summer.
The game library I'm using makes it easy to target Desktop (windows/mac/linux) and Android at the same time, with no extra programming. So I'll have a Desktop version as a bonus. Though in my case, my game is VERY desktop-centric. It's going to have 2 player split-screen with full joystick support. But even though it's desktop-centric, I have to make sure it plays well on Android, since that's the world of "I'm willing to pay $1 for a small game". On Desktop, who knows.