I am 23 years of age
I currently do online courses for game development on Udemy after having to drop our of college(unfortunate but happens).I would consider my self a student though I may not officially be.I currently live in the Caribbean island Barbados.If possible any position so long as it is making games will do I plan to be able to make games alone(small ones)but any area is fine the course I am doing is Become A Game Designer(Master Series) on Udemy by School Of Interactive Design.This covers a wide range of items so any area I can grow in is fine.
1) Are you ready to move? Worldwide? I am not sure how many game studios are located on Barbados.
2) Colleged Dropout... ouch. Now, let me tell you this to begin with: I am the last guy promoting college and universities as necessities to LEARN. Universities are pretty bad places to learn anything actually in some cases.
But: Game Development is a very, very, VERY competitive environment. Like Modelling, or Acting, there are few positions available, and a TON of talented young people trying to get into these few positions.
While a degree alone is certainly not enough (your portfolio of personal projects will count just as much), EVERYTHING counts when applying for your first job. With every new job you work some years on, the importance of that degree will shrink, as you build up work expierience...
Where you stand now, I would either urge you to look at possible alternatives to get a degree SOMEHOW (where I live, there are many options for people to complete their degree while working on a job for example).
Or to consider other jobs in other industries. Just as a back up.
3) Besides small Indie Studios and self employed work, it seems there is little need for a jack of all trades game developer. It is certainly good to know stuff beyond and above the specialization you are gonna pick, especially if you want to move up the career ladder later on. But at your current position, you will end up as a cogwheel in the studio, doing specialized work. Make sure you are fit for that specialization.
And no, don't blindly trust your school to teach you what is actually needed in the industry. Many "Game Design" Schools train Jack of all trades, for various reasons... that doesn't mean jack of all trades are in high demands.
4) Don't expect a studio to take you in as a trainee and allow you to grow on the job. That makes sense in industrys where there is not enough talent available, or there are many open positions. None of it is true in the game dev field. Either you are good from day one, or you might not find a lot of chances to get in.
There are entry level positions that MIGHT be open to you though. QA, as a tester, is known as an entry level position open to people without a lot of qualifications. Of course, unless you want to be stuck in QA for the rest of your career, you need to show a lot of skill and dedication both in your daily work as a QA Tester, and beyond what is expected of you... then you might get the chance to move on into a different department, like game or level design. I heard stories of people also moving on to programming, given of course enough skill and the ability to show it to superiors.
Level design is also often an entry level occupation. Though your competition at that point most probably will be much fiercer, including people with degrees. How your online schools degree compares here IDK, but generally the more "classical" a degree is, the higher its worth in the eyes of a future employer. So compared with someone having a degree of a known brick-and-mortar university, you will be at a disadvantage. If you want to get a job in level design, you will NEED a very convincing portfolio of prior work... so start doing level design NOW, and strive to get exceptionally good at it.
