For me I’ve been playing around with little bits and pieces in various engines for a few years now, nothing bit and nothing released as they were all quite poor let’s put it that way.
Game Making is a bit on the side and I am very lucky in that I have a Job that pays my bills so I’m able to make whatever I want and take as long as I want, which is a great bonus. I have an idea for a larger game but I’m taking it one step at a time. First I’m making a character, then when I have that I’ll make a village to run around and interact with, then some enemy to kill etc, incrementally making it larger and more complex each step.
I don’t think its bad to necessarily want to make something larger to begin with as long as your objectives are realistic. Is my game going to be the next big thing? Probably not. Am I enjoying the challenge of creating something that I want to play? Most definitely.
I class myself as very lucky to be able to use professional tools for my secondary work. Its a huge challenge to learn properly, but I think that if we manage our expectations and set realistic goals then I don’t think it’s unrealistic to make large games. The comes when people get upset when they mix UE4 up with a straight up level editor and want all the functionality programmed by Epic and all they have to do is put the bits and pieces down on the map. With that mentality then even then most rudimentary and simply concepts will be difficult.
Hope that makes sense.