Where to go yesterday's under-programming student who wants to get into game dev?

Question

Game development

I studied for 5 years in a sharaga not very prestigious university, without acquiring almost any skills and came out with a diploma in "computer engineering", which could not write anything more complicated than a helloworld or a Batch script.
As for relatively useful skills, I seem to be able to get into game design, but this is due to my significant experience in playing almost all genres (except online ones - I hate all sorts of xdots), from NES to modern computer and console ones, and I roughly know how many things should work already purely from experience. I also tried texturing 3D models, composing textures in Photoshop from googled images and experimenting creatively with layers and effects, and the feedback was positive. I am also fond of gaming pixel art:
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I also know English at the level of "watch videos on YouTube in the original without subtitles" and "read books in the original with looking into the dictionary and googling expressions."
On the creative side, in general, I’m not bad, but it’s bad with programming itself - alas, a humanist. When it comes to some kind of complex mathematics or too complex logical abstractions, my stupid brain simply turns off. Even simpler math problems I solve several times longer than other people, even if I fully know how they are solved.
From experience - I made the game twice in a team, once as a term paper as part of my group, the second time - at the Global Game Jam with a programmer and a 3D assistant. Both times as an artist and game designer, and both times the game came out unfinished and crooked, for various reasons (the first time everyone was lazy, the second time they stupidly did not have time to invest in 3 days of jam). Now I'm slowly sawing the third, already my own game (the art on the links above is from it), which was originally made for my thesis. It's going to be a small, relatively simple 2D platform game for Android, with some interesting ideas. I do in Stencyl , "write" in Scratch (probably the only programming language that my brain masters).
Actually, returning to the question : where in theory can they take me with such skills?
Right now I see these options:

1. Look for a full-time job in your city. What I don't like is that we have only a couple of game development offices, but they all specialize in casual games with donations for Vkontakte and mobile phones. It's not that I'm strongly against this type of income (especially since I really need experience now), but I would like to participate in the development of such a game that I would like to play myself ...
   
2. Search fulltime in other cities of the country (Ukraine) too. What I don’t like here is that I really don’t want to move, for several reasons.
   
3. Distant work. There are both pluses and minuses at once, which are too many to list them all. One of the main disadvantages is that I would like official employment with a record in the workforce, which does not happen with remote work or freelancing.
   
4. Finish your game, put it on Google Play and try to earn something on it or use it as a portfolio. Here the only negative is that you have to sit on the neck of your parents, with all the consequences.
   
5. Forget about game development, try your luck in finding a job in regular development. As I already wrote, I’m a bad programmer, besides, the vast majority of vacancies relate to any web and SEO that I don’t like, and the remaining few vacancies require specialists with experience or knowledge of a bunch of everything (or did I search badly?).
   

Interested in the opinion of people who have already gone through this and / or understand the subject.
I apologize for such a sheet of text, but I'm really confused and don't know what to do :(

Answer 1

On the creative side, in general, I’m not bad, but it’s bad with programming itself - alas, a humanist.

Learn Unity3D using OFFICIAL video tutorials and create an application (game) for your portfolio: let it be 2D, but beautiful and with interesting game logic. You won't have to code much for your games there - the engine does most of the operations itself. And all the development of primitive actions is visual. In parallel, gradually - learn C#.
Basic training will take about 3-4 weeks (assuming you don't know C#).
After creating the game, upload it to the stores (Google Play, etc.), write a resume with a link to the portfolio (in the stores) and look for full time in this direction.
Only after all this - you will be able to say that you are of value as an employee for the employer in the game dev.

Answer 2

First, who do you see yourself as? Gamedis, artovik, programmer (although the latter is unlikely, judging by what you write).
If you go as an artist (artist, modeler) - then look for the position of junior / trainee. Although, in fact, I have not yet seen 3D-shnikov, who were taken directly from scratch (without a portfolio) for training.
Artovik needs an artistic taste, and it is almost impossible to instill it in a person (especially in adulthood) - in this regard, it is much easier to learn to program, IMHO.
Here, it’s better to work on a portfolio for some time (modeling, drawing), post it on the AssetStore, for example - and already go somewhere to get settled with it.
According to the game design, I got the impression that getting there is extremely difficult. If there are no released indie projects, then acquaintances are needed. Accordingly, either look for connections, or do your own projects and you will have a relevant experience.
I'll go over the points yet
1) In fact, most of the CIS game developers are geared towards mobile phones and casual games.
2) Based on paragraph 1, I don’t see much point in trying your luck abroad. Gain experience somewhere nearby.
3) No, you are unlikely to be hired remotely without experience, and you don’t need it as your first job.
4) Do it anyway. In the end, this is the pumping of your skills, it will return to you a hundredfold.
5) If you like gamedev, it's better to try and understand that it's not for you than to regret later that you didn't try it

Answer 3

Ubisoft Kiev is looking for Junior Tester to participate in challenging project in cooperation with Ubisoft studios worldwide!!! Feel free to contact me: E: [email protected] S: d.popovichenko I'll be happy to provide you with further information, answer your questions and help you get a good job. And don't forget to like and share this message with your friends.

If you are not 100% sure that you can pull programming or design, then you don’t need to spoil the games. Go to QA.

Answer 4

Hello) With such skills and life experience - definitely a GD or Narrative.
Yes, and skills will have to pump up. I would recommend to practice on some thread indie project.
Here vkantos, FB and GD.ru to help. Well, you can look for an undemanding game design vacancy.
I would recommend - on the InGame Job aggregator.