Maximum honesty, please and feel free to elaborate in the thread.
Because there are games that don’t exist and that I want to play, and because I love making things move. My aim is to release simple and unique games that earn just enough profit to pay for the tools I bought to create them. If I can make any money beyond that, I would be super excited! Maybe it could be my job someday… or maybe it would lose all of its fun if I went professional. I’ll worry about that later, once a career in game development is actually an option.
I’m a grumpy 40 years old and just want to get rich now! 
Because I still have that magnificent feeling I had during the magic era of computing when I would code in Commodore 64 basic. Man those were the days.
To answer in full; I need to develop and work of contracts in order to make my living and keep business from failing.
It’s mainly a hobby, but I am also going to make some cash off of it by posting it to fgl.com. I’m only a teen and would much rather make some income doing something I love as opposed to flipping burgers and the like 
As a hobby, because its fun and a massive sense of achievement. Maybe I’ll make a little money from it, time will tell. I don’t think that its just game developers that just want to make money from their hobby/passion; I know photographers, musicians and artists that all attempt to make a little money from their hobby (and maybe dream of making it big).
For me hobby making games, but I use unity at work for educational developments.
I hope to make a good amount off them one day but I doubt I can make more than my day job for the foreseeable future.
Because I used to work in the film business and see games as a far more immersive experience in both the playing, but also in the bloody hard creation of them. I see this medium encompassing all of the arts and that is really exciting.
Right now, purely for fun- but, if I had the choice I would become a professional game developer in a heartbeat. What do I vote for, then?
I used it for 3 years before finding a real day job, which I love. I used to work construction. I have a second job on weekends for another local company that pays very well. Not really doing “games” so much, more like “experiences”, and we’ve developed apps for other companies.
Some of the toys I have to play with are oculus rift, kinect for windows, asus xtion pro sensor, leap motion, 2x sphero ar ball, and a bunch of tablets. Lots of plugins. etc
On my free time I work on kids games.
Same as DallonF.
I have very fond memories and feelings of awe back in the day when I’d copy code in magazines and try to get them to work on my Ti99/4a.
I remember writing my own animated title screen for a ‘bards Tale’ game I wanted to make,…only to crash while saving to my cassette drive and losing it all.
I am an animator by proff, and coding now serves as a hobby and outlet. If I can make a sell-able game, even better.
This is the same for me.
I hope I can make a game that would be loved by many people around the world. I hope to become rich from my games but not to buy a Ferrari or mansion but to have more money to put into the development of games and high sales would prove that many people like my game.
But I’d only wan’t to have enough money to live on and buy lots of games, software and hardware. Then I’d be very happy
For me it’s a second source of income that I hope to build to the point where it will replace my primary source of income. Not looking to get rich - just to run my own thing from home and do game development fulltime. Even that seems like a lofty goal though. I guess we’ll see how it pans out…
I picked “day job”, but both that and “hobby” are equally valid as I explicitly and separately do both.
I have been wanting to get into Game Development ever since I wrote that first line of code on a Timex Sinclair more than 3 decades ago.
Despite my desire to become a programmer, life had other plans for me, so I ended up making a career in the PC / Video production industry selling, marketing and distributing video production tools and 3D modeling animation software to consumers, professionals and many game developers. Now that I am semi-retired having sold my previous company, I finally get to do what I have been wanting to do all these years 
Right now I would consider what I am doing as a hobby but I do intent to make it a full time thing. I do not feel like the term “Job” applies to game development as I am having a blast learning doing it.
It’s a great hobby. I’ve been “creating” ideas for games ever since I was just a kid. I got into dev tools around 7th grade, and haven’t stopped since. I’d call it a passion at this point. I don’t think I’ll do full time game dev because it’s very risky and very competitive, like most creative fields. I still have fun with what I do though (I’d be lying if the thought of striking a gold mine wasn’t part of my motivation, however)
I enjoy gaming and I enjoy the idea of making games. I’m kicking myself for not using my network connections in university despite the standing invitations for referrals. Got too darn comfortable in my job.
I want to turn it into a second source of income to the point that it could replace my primary. A salary has a 1 to 1 cost to reproduce payment. A digital product has a much lower cost to me to reproduce. It’s expensive enough to live, let alone think about raising a family.
DITTO! I have a bunch of good ideas that are burning in me. Some of them are old ideas redone, others are completely new, and it frustrates me when a game is released that I like – but it doesn’t quite do it well enough.
I tried learning QBASIC as a kid using the only book in the library because I wanted to make my own game. Then I learned HTML and javascript back in the IE 3.x and 4.x days. I modded Microsoft’s Monster Truck Madness and made a few racetracks. Unity is where it’s at now.
I feel like Dilbert at work. I’ve been in one trucking software company for 8 years. I like the flexibility and my coworkers, but I need new challenges. The pay isn’t competitive and raises are barely above inflation. Been passed over for new projects because it’s cheaper to hire a newbie than to replace a 30y/o with 8 years experience. If I could gameify my work (riiight… first dispatcher to match the trucks to the right loads and best trips gets to the next level!!! Guitar Hero for Accountants: Validate the A/R records and driver pay in order and unlock a new soundtrack!) or maybe turn it into some CUDA or graphics programming… that would be cool.
First comes portfolio, with it comes production, then comes experience, and then comes collaboration or employment in a gaming company.
And when doing anything game-creation-related, I lose track of time because I’m enthralled and enjoying it. I’m happier, and my wife likes it when I’m happier… as long as I eat on time and pay attention and take breaks So she wants me to make games too.
It doesn’t stop being a blast when you get money for it. lol It becomes a dream come true.
I’m lucky to live in a big city where lots of places are using it, not just game studios. Before getting employed I was working on games “I” could achieve with my minuscule budget, but when I got a job they were all interested in augmented reality, motion sensors and lots of 3rd party plugins I never considered prior because they cost a lot of money.
But it turns out specializing in those makes you really valuable and employment easy. The two things I’ve “specialized” in are kinect/openNI and 2 augmented reality plugins/frameworks. The company I do work for on weekends insisted on paying $45/hr after I charged almost half that. lol I got $500 for 1 long days work.
I consider myself a hobbyist because I don’t really need the money. Its nice, but I don’t need it.
I’ve been selling stuff on the asset store and it was a good way for me to do game art on the side. I left the games industry because I wanted a change in lifestyle. I can’t go back to working 80+ hour weeks but I still enjoy creating art so the asset store is a good outlet for me.
I’ve been prototyping games and I think I have most of the skills I need to make a game. My weakness is design so I’ve been doing a lot of reading and testing to get better. Its a slow process but I feel that I’m starting to make progress.
I’m hoping the end result will be a game that is artistically unique but still has solid, engaging game mechanics under the hood. I think this will be the next step on the ladder to being an independent artist.
It’s my day job. Right now I’m working full time for another company, I like the stability, and I’ve just emigrated to another country, so there are visa requirements too.
But as my ‘hobby’, I’m working on my monster truck game… because I want to be successful in my own right, I want to know what its like to release my passion and years of hard work to the world, and see people enjoying it… and eventually do that on a full time basis.
But ultimately I love it. I was a web/app developer for many years and despised it, as I always wanted to make games instead. I am now, and very grateful for it.
Oh yeah… I also want an Azimut 48…