Of course, feel free to copy-paste anything I wrote! If something I learned can help someone else, I’m more than happy to share it.
I actually started my game-dev journey in my 30s too, so I really believe any time is a good time to start, as long as you keep learning and moving forward.
I’m sorry to hear about what you’ve been through. I’d recommend approaching game dev as a side project at first if your situation allows it. Look at what other solo developers have done, study their successes and especially their failures, and learn from them. Making a living from games is already difficult enough, so having some stability while you learn can take a lot of pressure off the creative process.
Narrative games are interesting because they can be relatively simple mechanically, but keeping the player engaged through a story is a completely different challenge. You need momentum: knowing when to push things forward, when to reveal something, and when to slow down and give the player some breathing room. I’d really recommend reading about dramatic structure before diving too deep into one.
And try to have the core of your story figured out early. Once you've built half the game around a narrative, changing its foundations can become very expensive haha.
Also, don't worry too much if “beautiful” isn't there at first. Programming, art, design, storytelling — they're all skills you develop over time. You don't need to master everything at once, and working with artists is absolutely a valid path too.
Thanks a lot for the kind words, and seriously, feel free to ask me anything. I always enjoy helping other devs when I can!