Making a game is a deeply interdisciplinary exercise. Sound, visual art, storytelling, game theory, acting (voice or full body acting if motion capture) and of course many fields of technology, ai, graphics, core performance tuning, esoteric OS and hardware knowledge...and much more.
We're also exposed to AAA works that easily took 500 highly skilled artisans several years to build. Expectations are sky high.
I would add: there is also no "happy path" for gamers. Users will do everything they can within the game and you will spend a great deal of time handling those "edge cases" in code.
I'm amazed any independent games get made considering all the skills needed, but that scene seems very rich in content... I always wonder how that is considering the breadth of knowledge required.
And even if you're not doing those things directly, you absolutely need to know how they all tie together and how they work at some level of proficiency in order to make a cohesive game.
We're also exposed to AAA works that easily took 500 highly skilled artisans several years to build. Expectations are sky high.