I love this (and the story behind it). I have run out of ideas on what to do with my RPis over here. :-)
Sometimes, a distraction such as a side project like this can be a good thing. I often find kits (like the ones from CircuitMess) to build with my son since he has shown a lot of interest in both electronics and programming. He is 11 and has been soldering for years. He has been programming his own games in Scratch for just as long and only recently started to tinker with Python (to eventually learn PyGame).
A lot of this game related stuff that I do is really to inspire and motivate him. Although, I too am learning as I am going along. My day job is a Linux kernel and file system developer. So, while it involves coding, it is coding in a different way.
Anyway, a break usually helps with the creative juices. So, take that time to recharge.