itch.io

or do something I'll be able to enjoy
I won't have the time or the energy for a hobby especially for one as demanding as this

Did not sound to me, as you enjoy creating games. If you were enthusiastic about it, you would just finish the game and not ask for advice on the internet if you should do it.

You seem to make something like that:

https://itch.io/games/top-sellers/tag-roguelike/tag-top-down-shooter

If you filter for paid, you will see, that only 60 of those 80 games ever sold anything.

To guess how many sales were made, you might look at the ratings and the followers. You can also guess by looking at https://itch.io/games/on-sale . That will not tell you how many sales the game makes overall, but it will tell you a general magnitude.

So, you should be able to guess what a hypothetical game might generate. Just look at a similar game. The problem is, that you do not know if you would be able to create such a game. And more importantly, if you would be able to successfully market it to the people willing to pay for the game. The market for games is saturated. Creating a game is not enough.

If you have never created a game, you do not even know if you can do it. That is not a textbook homework in coding. Even if you toiled away for months from morning to night, the result might be ... just not be any good. At least not in a way, that people would be willing to pay for it.

You are on Itch. Have a look at game jams. And finish a few games, before you decide to try doing this full time. Or even as a hobby. You did not even finish your first game. That really does not sound to me, like you really enjoy game making.

I'm going to be very honest. Living independently usually requires many more hours and energy than an office job. The mistake many people make is thinking they'll develop a fun hobby and that it will turn into money. When you really want to earn money, that hobby usually becomes a job, and a more demanding one at that.

I don't know what country you live in, but generally, if you're self-employed and you don't want to work one week, no one is going to cover those hours. That's money you'll lose, it's that simple. And when you have to force yourself to work and meet goals and deadlines, you lose a lot of the fun.

Some people have no problem with that and are happy doing what they do, but it depends on the person. In my experience, if you have to ask around, chances are you're not that type.

If you really want me to tell you something... So, you should know that video games are an ultra-saturated market, full of people like you (and with the arrival of AI, the number of independent developers has skyrocketed) who are creating their games with the intention of making a living from it. The harsh reality is that for every success story, there are hundreds (if not thousands) of failures.

As others have mentioned, it's a lottery. But you're young and you have time to try.