I haven't left it yet, but I'm starting to plant the seeds now that I'm hoping will eventually lead to full-time board game designer in 5-10 years. I've got several prototypes, one being evaluated by a publisher currently, and I've been going to conventions and networking with other people in the industry. If one of my designs ends up being a hit, I should have enough money to make the transition.

I still enjoy programming, but there's a lot of "Keeping up with the Tech Jones's" with constant new flash in the pan API's or frameworks and not a ton of just "get shit done", and BA's/managers with minimal technical experience making decisions on what you have to do is the rule, not the exception, and it seems a little pointless after awhile.

Like I could be replaced by someone else and the work would still get done, so what value am I really adding to this? At least in video games I had creative input on the look, feel, and design of the game. In corporate dev I've had almost zero input, except sometimes in how the data is structured (which doesn't excite me anywhere near as much).