No worries, that's not really what I meant -- I wasn't suggesting you weren't up to it. But I talk with a variety of aspiring indies from time to time, and that's one of my standard disclaimers. I've talked with a few dozen aspiring indies over the last two years, and I have yet to see one actually finish a game, let alone get to selling it. I have no doubt that some of them will, but it's a long process. Etc.
Again not saying anything specific about you or anybody else, but I think it helps to have in mind that even if you are very fast at things it's still a multi-year process generally. All of the professional indies I know are lightning fast as well, but most of them only put out a game every 1-2 years. I did AI War 1.0 in 7 months, which was damn fast, and we did Tidalis in about 6. AVWW is on 8 and counting, and is probably more like a full year for a team of five of us. Dwarf Fortress has been in progress since 2006 or before, and doesn't have to worry about things like graphics or much in the way of sound/music.
Other games can take less time -- I know a few professional indies that put out 4-5 games per year. But they have established, fully functional, custom engines that they are just developing new art/stories/puzzles in. That cuts down on the work substantially, too, although I'm not calling what they do trivial -- at the speed they go, it's an incredible undertaking of a different sort. But it's more like writing a graphic novel than doing a full game from scratch (and graphic novels are hard enough).
Anyway, so it really varies, but you should plan for a long time to be spent and be pleasantly surprised if it takes less. Rather than expecting a short time and getting depressed if you don't win the lottery, so to speak.
