Is there another way to use my game design skills than creating games?

I would have no intention of micro managing. My manager at the engineering firm where I work used to do that (a lot). We've butted heads a few times over the years. As the company has grown, both he and I have gotten better. Me with taking more initiative to progress work beyond what he requested and him with not constantly looking over my shoulder or setting deadlines without consulting me.

My management style would be to work with the individual to develop milestones toward the end product. Then have them set their goals and a timeline to reach the each milestone (targeting a date for only the milestone we are on at the moment and maybe the next one). I've read from several management resources that by allowing them to define the targets, they are more likely to meet them and to maintain a better working relation with the manager. It has certainly been true for me and my manager in recent years. It's a psychological thing where they are making a commitment to me and don't want to let me down rather than me dictating to them and adding stress or resentment toward me to their life. Obviously I would have to adjust some for different personalities.

I would provide grace on the first few deadlines or on any new task that the individual isn't familiar with doing. I understand it is sometimes difficult to predict how long something will take, especially if they have little to no experience on that task. But I would also set the expectation that with repeat tasks they should become better at setting their deadlines as I would need to coordinate work for multiple people. (If we were to try this experiment, then I wouldn't be dealing with multiple people. But would still want to try out various tactics such as this to learn and grow.)

I would then be generally hands off unless they ask for direction or until we get within a few days of the deadline to see if they still plan on meeting their self imposed deadline. If they seem stressed or don't think they'll meet it, then I'll see what work of theirs I can offload to help them meet that goal. This is to build trust and hopefully some loyalty by showing I care about their success.

I have to work on myself through this process as well. I tend to be blunt and am always honest (often without regard for feelings). This comes across as cold or abrasive to many other personalities. I've gotten much better in recent years, but still catch myself being to direct rather than empathetic with people.

As far as my fellow millennials go, there really seem to be just two types. The ones who haven't truly had to sacrifice and are more prone to belief in heavy social policy and collectivism (act more on feeling). And then their are those who prefer strong personal responsibility and individualism. There are very few in between, it seems. It sounds like you are more familiar with the former @quest (and they seem to be more common right now, or at least more vocal). I would be looking more for the latter. Besides, by the time I am ready, Gen Z and some of the next gen after Z (what comes after Z anyway?), will be working age. And from all the things I see and hear, Gen Z is more conservative leaning than millennials. So I might have a more preferable pool to choose from with them.

I appreciate the inquisitiveness @quest. It helps organize my thoughts. I also really appreciate the insight into your experiences. Very informative. Thank you.

Rather, you mean that a person works on a game idea up to a certain point, then passes it on to another. That second person works on the idea up to a certain point, and then passes it on, and so on. Eventually the passing stops, and what has come out of the process is a game that has had discrete input from several different people at different points of the development cycle.

If I'm wrong at the outset on this, I apologize. Assuming my understanding is correct, here's my opinion.

Personally, I think it would be more interesting if you gave several designers the same components, then asked them to design a game that uses all of them. At the end of the design period (weeks, months, etc.) you allow everyone to present and showcase their works in their current state of completion.

Sure, this sounds like a normal "game design contest" with specific component restrictions. This would be almost like a piece-pack game design contest. But to me it sounds much more interesting than an "exquisite corpse game design process." Not to say that the end product would be necessarily terrible... But I suggest that the likelihood would be pretty high.

I love Civ 5. I would be willing to test WizCiv and help you get unstuck with ideas. Let me know what your expectations would be and we could start there.

First I promised Juzek a review of his game (I am having trouble finding a person to play it with since Covid is discouraging any of my game friends from getting together). So I would not start this until I can give Juzek the respect he showed me.

Things that came to mind while reading this very long thread:

Where to work full-time as game designer

Video
Video game studios that can hire designers make games with significant budgets. They are very reluctant to risk that budget's well-being on a novice designer. Designing tabletop games doesn't count for enough, generally (Knizia is an exception - though he is freelance, not salaried). No, they want someone who's already worked in the industry for a long time, as (usually) a programmer, perhaps as an artist, before they become an assistant designer. There's often a "creative director" above the designer(s), who is the real designer.

Many people who work as programmers in video games, really want to be designers.

Tabletop
Generally, mass-market publishers may have (or had) in-house designers. Non mass-market games don't make enough money. (M:tG and D&D count as mass-market here.) Further, many TT hobby game publishers began as self-publishers (even FFG, practically).

To look at hobby game publishers, it's not ideal even then. Rob Daviau (Hasbro), Kevin Wilson (Fantasy Flight) left their companies. (I don't know why.) FFG's designers were paid poorly, according to ads I'd seen.

There was a tradition that publishers did not value designers much. That most of the value in a game came from the publisher. That may still be true, for mass-market publishers.

"Creatives" find it harder to make ends meet these days. There is a great deal of competition. The idea that the web is "content" goes a long way to minimizing the contribution of writers. Even in film, who gets the credit, the director not the writer. Individual games suffer from a commodity market, selling far fewer copies than in the past. Most of the video games on STEAM or Apple/Google Play lose money (almost all of the mobile games). To use a comparison I like, with novelists, perhaps 50-100 SF/F novelists make a living at it (all freelance, of course).

(Note: There are game designers guilds in some areas with enough populating, e.g. North Carolina Triangle. Montreal ought to be large enough! They meet, talk game design, and playtest. My area (250,000 in entire county, no other population centers nearby) proved to be too small in the long run.)

(Another note: I have many hundreds of ideas salted away over many years. I may have more than a hundred actual prototypes. Novelists also have far more ideas than they can ever execute. This is normal.)

(Reviewers don't make enough money to day so, compared with the time it takes to do a good review (mostly, time playing the game). Reviewing used to be much more important, because there was no Web. Now we have sort of "crowd-reviewing" and formal reviews and reviewers are much less important.

Given that most games are not good these days, harsh reviews would not be surprising, provided you can explain WHY.)

That is constructive on life.

Meanwhile...
Make notes of what you want to do.
Make lists of what belongs together and reconsider things.
Also consider time consumption of whatever you wish.
Eventually something will draw you closer, more strongly than the other lists.