Career in Game Development

I currently study computer engineering and I want to lead my career towards game industry which I always want to be a part of.
But I am not sure where to start.
I applied some of the companies in the industry for internship and so but most of them wants experience and some work in game developing. Many asks whether I developed a simple game or something similar which I haven't done so far. I am proficient at C, C++, Java, JS, HTML etc.
Any tips from people experienced in the industry on where to start ?

Answer

As a person who just got hired in a major game company as my first real job, I'll tell you a little part of my story.

I didn't graduate from DigiPen or any other game-specialized university. I have a B.S. and M.S. both in general Computer Science. But just before I started applying for a job, I thought that lots of people would be applying for game industry jobs, since, well, I know a crapton of people who want to make games. So I just had to make sure I had something to stand out in between everybody else. So I thought I'd make a game.

Sure, I had been wanting to make games for a long time, and had made lots of prototypes for games, as well as other applications. Checking my source code folder from the past 5 years, I counted 500000 lines of code. But so far, I hadn't made a single complete game product (or any finished product for all that's worth).

When I say complete, I mean that not only the program must be in final version, but also must come with a manual, and an installer, all in a CD with a nice design. Also I needed a webpage.

So instead of trying to challenge my technical skills by making a game with overly complicated gameplay, AI and 3D effects, I thought I'd make a small project, but one I could make sure I could take from beginning to end. Since I'd be also making the graphics and music (I'm not so great at these), the project should be as simple as possible.

Eventually, I decided I'd make a tetris clone. You should be able to play tetris yourself to get a huge score, play with somebody else, or play against the computer. It should have menus, and the resolution, the sound and music volumes and the controls should be customizable. I'd make that game in 2D, as even though I have made lots of 3D programs, my 3D modeling experience is null. So I'd make everything in pixel art.

And after 3 hours, I had a prototype. I was playing games of tetris with an XBox controller, and it felt really nice. I was almost over...

Or that's what I thought. The entire project took 2 more weeks after that until I reached a beta version (feature complete), which I took to the first interview at a company (the one that eventually hired me) the very same day I considered my game to be a beta.

So why did it take so long? There are so many details in making a game! if the main menu fades out so the game fades in, how long should that fadeout take? 0.5s? 0.2s? what about the fade in of the game? 0.7s? What about the repeat rate for menu items when you keep the controller button pressed? should it be the same for the keyboard? How are two people going to play on the same keyboard at the same time? What about sounds? I bought an sfx pack with hundreds of sounds. Which one feels most like a turn, and which one feels more like a drop? They also have to sound like the same family of sounds! What happens when you clear a line? does the line disappear immediately? or should it be animated? should the other blocks fall immediately? or should this be animated as well?

Well, that is what Edison meant when he said genius is 1% inspiration, 99% perspriation.

If you take such a simple project and show (and tell) to a prospective employer that you were able to do all that and consider all those tiny details, I am convinced you will impress anybody. Not only you're showing you care about all that, but you're also showing that you can manage your project from beginning to end, and overall that you're a great hire.

So try something like that. Make a game from start to end, and not only you'll have a great thing to show at an interview, you'll also have a taste of what making games is about, and therefore have a chance to meditate whether or not this is the industry you want to join.

Good luck!