There's an extremely important design skill in knowing what kinds of algorithms might be fun to turn into a playable form, and doing that is a mix of getting pa

There's an extremely important design skill in knowing what kinds of algorithms might be fun to turn into a playable form, and doing that is a mix of getting past preconceived "all games are like this" notions, and having substantial breadth of technical experience(i.e. if you're still in high school, it's too early to expect anything, even if you're a prodigy). But I will agree on this point - it's not the same as doing the complicated engineering needed to match existing game tech feature-for-feature. Nobody will notice a better photorealistic renderer - but they might notice an aesthetic or a kind of simulation that's completely untried or previously abandoned. And there's also increasingly a place for "outsider" works now, because the off-the-shelf tools are very capable. Tech skills still help smooth the way with those, but I've encountered a lot of people who aren't deep into CS and get by with a lot of handholding from friends. I find this more interesting than traditional gamedev now, since there are so many perspectives outside of the tech sphere.