Steam

The best thing I ever done in relation to my gamedev dream/career was to make sure I don't ever get into a situation, where my livelygood depends on the art/games I make. That's a recipe for disapointment.

It doesn't matter if it's only working in gamedev instead of general software development, because that's where you get way less money for basically the same code-monkey crunching Jira tickets job, only there's now a bunch of exec exploiting your passion and underpaying you, or if it's more bold attempt to save up money and be able to afford to make a game on my own, because then you have to sell it, and that sucks if your livelyhood is on the line.

The best course of action I could come up with is to just go work to a generic corporate in software development/cybersecurity, get a part time job (which will get you basically the same money as fulltime in a gamedev company), and use the free time for my own personal gamedev projects that I don't have to tie in any way to my income. Finding a comunity of similarly minded students or art collectives also helps.

I've mostly given up on larger projects, because that exactly a ton more work, and now focus on a short gamejams here and there (usually two to three days, a week or two max). Being extremely limited by time means that the project usually fits into my short attention span, I can experiment with the obscurest of game designs, and you get to meet cool people, especially when the gamejam is onsite. So, if you're at all interrested in trying out gamedev, I highly recommend looking into those - it will take a weekend of your time, and if it doesn't work or isn't fun for you, then you won't loose much.