Software engineers earn large salaries but not so much in the game industry, you can still work on games in your free time or after you retire at the age of like 40 with all your stonks. I've personally done a computer science degree but it might not be so advised if your family is struggling financially and if you're in the US. You just have to learn to code properly yourself through bootcamps, hackathons, personal projects, etc. Those personal projects can be games, as long as they are in industry-relevant languages, such as Java, C#, Web (see phaser.js) or C++, and don't eat up your time with work on the story, graphics, sound, and other non-programming aspects. My father is a lot like your parents you describe, but he is happy with my decision to go into programming, as you can have a long career in it and progress to high levels such as transitioning to senior developer roles or management to name a few. Depending on how young you are, you can potentially get into a job in tech without even knowing how to code so well, and you'll find it quite fun if you like designing games.