I'm working a bit too, and have a girlfriend to keep me entertained so hopefully I'll be alright haha. Did you enjoy your year out?
I do think you pull it off well. I played your beta and was rather impressed by what you achieved. And, if you do need some help graphically I can probably help you out. I've made some stuff in 16 colours, and made tiles that were 30 something colours look pretty well at 16. As well as having a few other abilities in spriting. Just in case you ever need a hand, because spriting for rom hacking is a little less tedious than game dev due to design.
I dabbled, what I released was awful, because I was a noob. I went back to it just to learn how to do it properly a few months ago. Managed to insert some things, and mapped a little through hex on a red rom. Not easy...not going to do it again. Took me ages just to change one tile on a map through hex lol. But yeah, I'm not good at it or anything, but I enjoy a challenge.