The interview made me want to try Inkle out as well, he has a very keen eye for what engages people and I wish that approach was more common in video game writing in general.
Some narrative-driven adventure game with some light RPG elements.
I came across Ink because I imagined that integrating some concepts from old Adventure Game Books might make for richer role-playing experiences than we typically see in mainstream RPGs.
Then I discovered that Inkle's own Sorcery! games already did all of that, and it did actually provide for a rich role-playing experience where your choices matter.
Rock Paper Shotgun had an article "How Little Choices Make Sorcery! Feel Epic" [0] that I came across in my research that explains better than I could why their system works so well.
ChoiceScript [1] and Yarnspinner [2] are two other tools I looked at.
It never got off the ground though. I see GitHub is hosting a game-jam in November. Perhaps it would be an opportunity to revisit the idea (depending on the theme)...
If your dream is to become a full-time author, then pick the path that means that in 25 years you can become that.
There's money on one end (will staying in management mean you will have more money and flexibility in the future? or will going back to dev give you a pay bump that will increase your base salary years into the future?) but also it's worth considering what types of life experiences will enrich you as an author. For instance, maybe managing people helps you meet a more diverse group of personalities which will be useful for your future endeavours.
This is what I am thinking too. Also there is a high failure rate for authors, my job might be only option for any real money. So management track in long term is probably better option.
Only thing is that I could take a new job as a developer and then move into management track in the new company. I just don't know if we will have these jobs available for much longer or no.
What sort of game were you thinking of making?