Thanks, I'm in agreement, I doubt I could ever give up so no fears there. The get involved advice is something I hear a lot and so I've been working at that, about a month ago I started reading up on an Open Source game project, a completely unknown game really but I figure O/S work on my portfolio on a game is good stuff independent of how well known it is (Bay12's Liberal Crime Squad) and since I play it a lot I am already familiar with mechanics. I also have the idea of joining in with minecraft mod making but haven't found an entry into that just yet.

Anyone reading this have an opinion on what would look better, mod development on a known game or O/S work on an unknown game? My time is short since I'm repairing peoples computers to make ends meet right now so I can't afford to do both.

I've had an odd education and career path for a while now, I'm a uni drop out and I'm currently working in web development, but I'm a programmer at heart, right now my plan is to build up a portfolio of sorts on a website and display my personal knowledge as evidence that I am game programmer material, and from there find my way into smaller studios, is this the right way forward, what other options do I have, any ideas?