I'm an aspiring game designer with a good start but currently down on my luck. How can I break into the industry?

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The most important thing you can do is make a clear decision of what role you want to play in your career in the gaming industry.  Going in with a mindset of "anything to make an impact" will not give you a goal-oriented path to success. The next thing you need to do is develop those skills as well as you can, which often means a career outside of the gaming industry.  Ideally, it should be related to the role you want to have in the industry.  For example, I'm developing my programming skills by working professionally as a web developer.  If you want to be a producer, it might be helpful to learn about Project Management.  If you want to go into level design, perhaps you can gain some experience working with an architect.  If you want to be a tester, try to work QA at a mobile or web development shop. Working 40 hours a week on a skill that will be beneficial to your career in gaming will help your career advance that much further when you finally transition into gaming.  Hopefully, along the way, you'll come to the far more mature and developed realization that games are actually just a different kind of product, and that the project development process has common elements across industries. Lastly, as you have already realized, you need to continually work on your portfolio.  Make sure your portfolio is concise and shows off your best work, not just all the work you have.  Keep your portfolio continually updated and always strive for more ambitious projects so that your portfolio shows off the skills you've been developing while gaining your work experience.

It's very hard (if not impossible) to start as a game-designer right away. You should try something else and only then raise, position by position, to game-designing. A possible way is to create some really impressive work as artist and get it noticed in http://polycount.com or level design and make it get noticed in http://mapcore.org.   By impressive I mean not only quality, but also showing that you can make something from start to finish, since the conceptual steps to the end, ready to the game assets. Take a good look and both these sites to get the feeling of what are companies expecting from you.

There really isn't any trick! The thing with this industry is you need something unique, or else no one will buy your game! There are tons of games out there. Why should buy yours if there's another that's way better? Now, how do you make your game unique? (Keep in mind that I'm using "----------" to separate my 4 answers below) ---------- First of all, you have to be passionate enough to keep going no matter what. And I don't mean passionate with games. I mean passionate to MAKE games. If you don't push through because of a slight bug a disloyalty in the workplace, then making games is not for you, but seams you are passionate enough, so that may not your problem (That answer was for the others who would read who may not be passionate enough in making games). ---------- Second in making your game unique is in looking at each individual element and try to innovate it. So here is a brief overview of all the game elements: The game is separated into 2 major parts parts: Gameplay and Design. Gameplay is then separated into 3 elements: Mechanics, Dynamics, and Aesthetics. Mechanics – the things you will have to perform with and/or against to achieve the goals within the game. These are controls, setting interaction, and even enemy AI Dynamics – It's the range of your game! The overall emotional roller coaster. Aesthetics – How your game feels. What emotions does the player feel? Remember, you gameplay, even up to the core mechanics, are supposed to convey some sort of emotion. For more detail on Mechanics, Dynamics, Aesthetics, read it here: http://www.cs.northwestern.edu/~hunicke/MDA.pdf The second major part, Design, is also separated into 3 parts: Graphics, Aesthetics, and Art. Graphics – The style of portraying the game. Graphics, though looks 8 or 16-bit, can still play well on games today. So, success doesn't mean better graphics. Aesthetics – Once again appears in design. This works with your graphics and is the feel of your design. Why did you choose that graphic style? Once again, what emotions are you trying to convey? Art – This is the actual design style. Every designer has a different art style, but if you're making a game with a specific demand for a certain style, your designer has to conform to that style or else you'll have to get another artist. Design doesn't vene have to be just for visual. Remember, music is also part of the game and is the universal medium for emotions. All these 6 elements can be innovated. But beware not to innovate everything to the point that it doesn't work and move together as one. It's still important that your game feels like a game and not a hodgepodge of nice elements. ---------- I have said over and over that you have to question what emotions you are conveying, because it's true. Games are, after all, interactive multimedia, and should invoke emotions better than paintings, books, or movies. This is what most game designers overlook. Lastly, please remember to keep in mind that the console you are designing for is part of the game design. Each console has a different feel and set of buttons. Do not force your game into other consoles if it really doesn't work. ---------- That's the game design part. In the end, you will have to also work on marketing. You don't have to spend so much. Especially with facebook around, you can work word-of-mouth easier. Start with friends, reliable ones, and keep the word going. What I did in starting in the industry was I got companies to be clients so that I could make marketing campaigns out of games. You can also do that and market you company alongside your client.