I am, actually, in the same age category and have suddenly realized that I am super excited to understand, explore and (eventually) produce something that relies on 3D game engines. Not necessarily a game, but something leveraging the game/3D/ Meta/Multi/Omniverse tooling that is available for free/cheap. Watching Borderland game's creators explaining how the game is really produced on Unreal engine and knowing all the same tools are available to me for free is just mind-blowing.
Did you find any community on the web to hang out at with this new focus? I saw a couple (itch, etc) but I am curious if there are secret gems out there.
Also, I am curious if you leveraged any of the commercial tools that are targeted at pro-crowd but have free/cheap licenses? Something that is an overkill for your development needs but turned out to be a great return on (time/money) investment anyway. Unreal is that for me, so I am looking for other gems.
Ps. Yay, maple syrup :-)