Thanks a lot for the extremely detailed reply, especially on a topic you probably have had to go over and over in the past. In that regard as well, sorry for asking, I don't frequent this thread often enough... due to work like yours making me feel so inadequate. :D
Not sure how much use this will be for you, but I'm exactly in the mirror situation: software engineer, couple decades experience in multiple (non-game) environments... but zero visual design experience. It would be a dream to be able to work with an artist like you, even for free / share of the profits (hopefully resulting in enough of a success to not make the distinction meaningless :D), but I'm far too deep in my own game now, and need more experience specifically with making games. There must be a lot of other programmers with more experience than myself that would love to have the chance to partner with a designer of your caliber, if you should choose to.
That said, I fully empathize with wanting to work alone, and know full well its perks, especially after working for years in office environments where you can't so much as change a typo in a class name without screwing five other people, and being now able to routinely perform radical refactors without having to tell a soul. Plus being pushed out of one's safe space and having to learn a ton of new stuff like making sprites and animations is just great.
About the paradox about having a little money being worse than having none, I think (as someone who wouldn't know about the first case) the issue may be that with that little money comes a lot of responsibility and expectations. It's one thing to work on a game at one's pace and with one's goals that may be changed at any time, but the moment other people give you money, you incur a debt with them, which changes everything. For the record, that's exactly what the devs of none other than FTL reported happening to them; the moment they did the kickstarter, even though the game was nearly complete, it became infinitely more stressful for them. This is why I'm avoiding any such thing myself for the time being (OK, so that's what I tell myself and the real reason is that I can't imagine anyone paying for it, but still...).
I fully agree everyone here is amazing, not just in terms of talent but how warm, welcoming, helpful and friendly they are; I do feel very welcome. It's not the people here that make me feel inadequate, it's myself; I know it's not healthy, it's just what it is. :)
No worries at all, having this discussion at all helps me solidify the arguments in my head and realize what works/what doesn't :-D
Also, to be precise, I am already working with a programmer right now, one of C2's best programmers I know, which is another reason I'm sticking with C2, as I can both work by myself (which is C2's main strength) yet still rely on his tech expertise when I'm stumped. Switching to Unity would make me useless, and rely entirely on his knowledge, which is far less than C2's, so it'd be a net loss for both of us - so I'd have to consider hiring someone else, etc... plenty I'm not in a position to deal with right now :-D
About the "no money better than none", you're also absolutely correct and raise other important points I wasn't referring to, but are also critical. The main thing I was referring to was more about the baseline day to day life - for instance, being poor in France allows me some help for bills or a baseline amount of health coverage, whereas having any amount of money would require me to pay in full for it - and it's pretty damn expensive, even for "low costs" tiers (which, somewhat ironically, cover far less than the welfare one). So I'm mainly concerned about my daily survival right now, but you're definitely correct - adding the weight of expectations on top will be something to look forward to :-D (though I do have that already to some extent towards my Patrons, though the relationship with them so far has been fantastically positive and helpful - I hope this will remain with larger crowdfunding campaigns.. though we all know the horror stories by now!)
I also didn't react previously to your comments as I was running off to bike (HEALTH!), but you should most definitely post here or at least in the Discord (Frogbert's nice, really): I was in the exact same position as you were when I started posting a few years back (and I relate heartily to your feelings of self doubt and inadequacy as I too have them daily in addition to a crippling dose of social anxiety), and it's because of posting here, discussing with the community and receiving their help that I've managed to make it this far without giving up, in addition to simply opening up in general. The help from here (previous threads, Discord, etc) has been immense, and I hope will benefit you as much as it did me - as far as I'm concerned, I'm still learning and will be for the foreseeable future... same as most everyone here, I assume :-D
To end this on an actual moving note, here's the latest stuff fresh from the oven: same as before, but with a Warrior flavor!
And lest we forget, for reference, this is what I had when I started posting here, more or less:
...so, uh, yeah! :-D
...so, uh, yeah! :-D