4 hours ago, Zombibonez said:

I am not entirely sure where that leaves me, but the first step seems be to get a better understanding of the work that is ahead of me if I decide to commit to undertaking such a project.

Not only should you work on your skills for making games, but the next step after that might be working on a simple game with a very small group. Something that might take a month to make. That way, you'll also understand the basics of team production and management. You'll quickly learn your own strengths and weaknesses in a group environment, as well as how to deal with others' strengths and weaknesses. You're going to meet all types of people, just sayin'. ?

Speaking to the value of prototyping...

In software development it's a necessity, it is a logical progression on the way to test driven development. If you prototype and test your design constantly during development it dramatically lowers the risk of getting weeks or months along and producing crap, or failing.

It's silly and trite but our company had to do the marshmallow challenge in small groups no long ago:

Every team that didn't prototype and test their design before committing the full time block failed the challenge. The damn thing flopped over. Point: invest the time to prototype, test and redesign constantly so you fail fast when it doesn't cost much instead of failing when your ass is on the line.

I think prototype