It doesn't sound like there's any other option.

I worked at one place where there was a no side business clause but when I had an unemployment claim the judge looked at the contract and found that clause was so badly written it didn’t make sense and wouldn’t have been binding.

I also had a no compete that said I wouldn’t go to a competitor — well I did anyway and never got in trouble, I worked there for a summer but quit because there was no health insurance and my COBRA ran out, after I left the new place the old business folded and my former boss wound up working at the new place.

I should have tried some MOOCs at the time too.

Do you expect this situation to stay like this?

Boredom sounds like what you primarily want to address at present.

The alternative is to look for areas where you can contribute more to your current role, but sounds like you have already tried that.

I think publishing an app or game isn't really a "business" except in rare cases where they can grow to support ongoing development and multiple people. Same with many open source projects.

Passion-projects like solo-games can take years before they manifest as anything public too, pretty easy to keep something like that private. If "pre-launch" projects were also considered a business.

In the meantime, before jumping ship: Are there other teams that you could try to transfer to? Other products within the company? Do you have a skip-level manager you could talk to about your concerns? You say you have "ideas and energy". Would any of that be applicable within your current company? Anything that you could start building that would either help out the state of things, or at least get some positive attention for yourself?

For example, many businesses need a multi-tenant database. Learn all about that. Or user interfaces perhaps. Learn marketing, or double-entry bookkeeping? Whatever floats your boat, or learn them all. They'll be useful when you move on, or start a business.

Don't worry much about the contract, unless you are thinking of creating a business related to the current one. In which case you should be more careful. Keep important research on your own computer at home, and never access it at work. Wait a full six months post employment before debuting anything publicly. Doing a forced reset on any code repos to eliminate previous dates might help, though it's very unlikely to come to that.