Black_Stormy wrote:If you want to jump ship and move to UDK there's no downside to it. I have no idea why I prefer source - it's temperamental, hard to work with, valve keeps breaking it - but I just do, so I'll keep fiddling with it. Having said that, there's no harm in fiddling with both, I model for both UDK and source.
^Yeah I'm kinda running with this strategy right here^
Source is definitely a fun old engine to work with and isn't so blasted hard like some of the other ones Arma mentioned (I never modded Thief but the DromEd community gave me some insight on how difficult it was). Source is renowned enough that if you have a lot of experience in it that is not a bad thing to have on a record. Unreal, Crytek and Unity are others but yeah other people covered that so just keep learning and designing stuff.
Biggest point of advice I can give is to find out what you like best and are most comfortable with. Then start working on simple projects and scale them up over time when you are able to take on more. There is nothing more depressing then having a ton of unfinished projects that were too grand to complete. Even if it's extremely simple, just getting into the habit of finishing what you start is something that future companies will like to see on a portfolio. Oddly enough it also is good for increasing personal confidence as well as your resolve for later projects.
