One word: Maslow.
Anyone with skills enough to produce a game for a retro computer can easily get remote freelancer dev job paying a significant amount of money. Specially in Europe. There's a global shortage of good developers.
So, it would be naive to think that anyone is doing that for the money.
Maslow. People are looking for esteem or self-fulfillment.
What really *amazes me* is: WHY some people let other people's opinion to interfere with their self esteem? Why people give bullies (and trust me, I'm an expert on the matter) all that power? Gee...
My (cheap) advice would be: create the game. Do your best. Forget and don't listen to critics. Take the compliments and be happy!
All the best guys! 
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