This was an incredibly fascinating read! I love learning on how other people got started in making games. I personally started trying to make games 6 years ago (trying is the keyword here, didn't really take it seriously until a year ago), when you see other people playing the games that you make, it feels AMAZING & that's definitely what keeps me going.
Same as you, I was also quite anxious reading my first few comments XD, couldn't sleep the night before, was absolutely scared on how people think about my game, what if there's a game breaking bug that I haven't discovered? what if it doesn't work? what if it's not fun?! But all of those worries disappeared when reading the positive comments (everyone's incredibly nice here, genuinely wasn't expecting that)
For anyone reading this, GameDev is a very VERY long journey, but an incredibly fun one, so keep on making games mate, thanks for telling your story ;)
P.S. congrats on your game btw! you did very well on the theme & story category!!