There was a mixture of things. I never felt too burnt out but towards the end when stress and financial issues mounted up it made the process entirely unenjoyable (and to be clear, its never perfect, but this was the worst). When you have a solid window of time to accomplish something, things go ok, but when you run out of time you start flailing in an attempt to prioritize various things.
The bigger issue, which has been largely invisible to people, is that building a game on your own while you have a family impacts them in a really negative way (namely, you can't dedicate the time or money you would like to for them). If you have money you can compensate (with babysitters and such), or the same goes for time, but if you have neither than it is pretty hard on everybody.
Basically, it got to a point where I would rather the game be more of a hobby than a commercial venture; I was never good at the commercial part anyway. :)
Upvoted to the moon. I have been going through this for a few years now (building a game engine, no less, with a wife and young children). I can't give my kids the time I would like and I can't give my project the time I would like. It feels like being torn apart sometimes.
I don't know if this is healthy or not (would I be happier not pursuing my passion? Would I be guilt-tripping about too little time with the kids anyway, with a regular nine-to-five?) but I can't quit, it would fuck me up too much (sunk cost, shattered dreams, etc.). I might have to hit rock bottom first (or make it big, right?).
In that sense I envy and credit you for moving on - best of luck.
as open source, will you be administrating/managing the repo, or have you found someone to do so? I know the non-coding aspects of open source can be very time-consuming as well.
The comments I've read seem to indicate that people (myself included) want you to keep pushing on.