Here's some, perhaps brutal, advice regarding getting into game-making, for the beginner. If you've never made a game, or for that matter hardly anything in your life, you in for a huge disappointment if you attempt to make a game because, whether you know it or not, it's a huge amount of work and time.
If you're serious about making an actual first or 3rd person game, which is what I will focus on in this post, and you haven't actually written a story that received praise at school, or drew up a full story board that also received some sort of acknowledgement, then you're already missing two of the tools required to making a good game. All this isn't to say that you should try and get involved with the process on your own game, but keep what you're doing in perspective or you may look a bit silly to potential teammates.
So my advice, keep it simple and do it extremely well, so you can become an asset to a future game. That is, find a component that excites you other than making the entire game yourself, and do that one component very well. Start to define what it is you do well and what interest you… is it modeling? Then make some assets, is it people, then make some figures and animations, is it natural elements, or music, or storyline? You get the idea, as most games that get any attention are games that involve 10's or hundreds of team members.
And then there are game engines, modeling and texturing software, etc. all requiring expert handling to build a great game. so those are great places to start, to become proficient at a variety of tools and have the grades and degrees to backup your claimed knowledge in those areas.
So why post this advice? It is my hope that more people with specific skills will find each other, and as a team will produce better games. I hope you understand that to make just one component in a game that is worthily of having people spend money on it, can take days or weeks. As one adds up all the components required for just one game it's easy to understand how the making of a game can take years with a small team of people, who inevitably will run into areas that they are not experts in, which will only exasperate and delay the release of what is a huge investment in time.
Not sure about this? Make a list of everything that is required to go into a game. For instance: how many vehicles will you need to make for your set, what type of vehicles, are they new, used or wrecked, are they functional and if so how functional, do they include interiors, if functional can you make the entrance/exit animation, steering wheel animation, radio music? If you can't make the list, then you're really not ready to make a game and should instead focus on making yourself a valuable team member. During the process of learning you'll begin to understand what it takes to 'make the list' and what time is required to complete those components on your list.
Whatever path you choose, start with managing your time and schedule. Leverage your time to allow you to have more time for making something, rather than just doing 'what is required of you as a human' if you know what I mean. Good luck, and if you take my advice please let me know what area(s) you've chosen for yourself to become good at. Oh, and if you're good at all areas, then I hope you're making a game so I can check it out one day :)
