Where to start?

[BobTD]

You can learn a lot about creating a game by working on game mods. I would suggest giving the game "Mount and Blade" a try if you want a good game to start with (the non steam one would be easier to alter). If you dont know anything about programming or game design it might be good to get your hands into something early.

Mount and blade has a lot of mods and modders in their community who are generally very helpful and friendly. Start by playing the game and making small changes. The game can be edited using Python, Wings 3D and a few other tool like a dds converter. But you can change text, music and event orders without knowing much about code just yet. Once you get the feel for applying mods and testing them its a lot easier to focus on learning more about these tools. Or confusing, but at least you will have a better idea where to start learning.

MB Repository - Browsing: Modding Tutorials

Another great thing to do is follow indie developers. Following them can help you learn more about resources and programs used in game development. A great development blog to read is the overgrowth project blog:

Wolfire Games Blog

By watching the blog you might get an idea of the scale and effort, and skills implemented in making a good game. Also if you are looking at a career in game design sign up for an participate in as many beta's as you can because they actually do like to see that sort of stuff on applications.

Read and learn anything you can. A while ago valve posted their employee handbook and by reading it I not only got to learn a lot about a great company but understand what they look for in a skill set:

http://newcdn.flamehaus.com/Valve_Handbook_LowRes.pdf

These are just general suggestions and you ultimately have to choose what you learn and how to go about it, but using google you will find a lot of advice given to people asking the same question you are. The best thing I think you can do is to get an early start on as much as you can handle. After highschool you can go to school for game design but ultimatly the people who make games are the ones that are motivated and already moving down that path.


*edit*

Concerning beta testing, in my opinion thats a small perk on a resume. Its like volunteering and looks good, but its not what really gets you the job. There are a ton of beta's you can participate in if you do a simple google search. Computer game beta testing is usually the easiest to get into. Right now Path of Exile is about to go gold, so its almost over. But the closed beta for Hawken is taking applications, For example. Some games claim to be in beta but are so far advanced that they wont be changing much and may just be trying to advertise, the Tribes beta actually has or had a micro transaction system up. Technically not a beta once you start trying to get people to pay money IMO.

[CraeSC111]

Came across this page today and though you might appreciate it. It contains information about useful game development tutorials. Enjoy