Where do you start?
Start focusing on very small projects and slowly and steadily aim bigger as you build your skills. The trick is to improve and get better with each and every project that you do. Did you know that the company which made Angry Birds made 51 unknown games before that. So one lesson that you can learn from this is to never give up. You should not lose hope and that is the most important part. So if you’re interested in building a network communication based multiplayer game you can start by building a simple game with multiplayer feature.
Learn from everything
Learn from your mistakes. When you finish your project the first thing that you should do is make a list of all the things that went right and wrong. Have this handy and and do not throw it away before the next project begins. Studying your mistakes will help you avoid making the same mistakes again. You can also learn as much as possible from the Internet as there are so many resources available for developers like you.
Attend events
One of the biggest and best place to learn new things is to make more like-minded friends, network and show your game. If you feel that tickets to these events are expensive, you can consider them to be an investment for the future. There are so many workshops being conducted in these event from where you can pick up new skills. Being seen as one of the most appropriate ways to do networking, you will end up meeting many interesting people who have a lot to share and you can also make contacts for collaborations in the future. Let people see your game, especially do it in front of other developers and journalists.