I ended up working on graphics projects in order to get a job in the industry, and felt the need to specialize. Still tinkering with my game, it is a base builder with simple spawn mechanics so far.

I learnt how to do simple 2d physics from scratch, collision subsystems, a UI subsystem, setting up tilemaps, implementing nav meshes and fluid sim, shadows and lights, and support for tons of sprites, experimenting with impostors for more realistic assets, and am now in the process of spinning up prototypes from the base code that I have so far.

I don't think I will have a finished game any time soon(the next year or so), since I'm still iterating on the core game mechanics.