My main issues are living in a country (Hungary), where a college degree would be almost mandatory for any dev jobs (mainly due to HR being dumb), also I'm disabled so my only job opportunity is a crappy government program one that pays half the minimum wage for full-time employment (!!!!!!), but this is the only no-12 hour shift and no-6AM starting option (most of which are also like 60+km from me, which means I would have to wake up even earlier, which isn't good for my health at all). however, not only a pay is very low, but also the 7AM starting is beginning to be way too much for my health. I'm already on sleeping pills to try to make myself fall asleep before midnight (almost impossible), and I also don't have the money to get my meds changed to something better at a private doctor. Of course no disability benefits, because "I'm not disabled enough", and otherwise I would just spend it on luxury cars (a common pre-2010 myth in Hungary was that disabled people could buy brand new Mercedeses).
I primarily have experience with game development (mainly from open source stuff), but without a long list of corporate experience, I have an even harder chance. I could work at other places too (I have some audio development experiences too), but would like to stay far away from web development.
Dev from Seattle here: game jams/hackathons are awesome for learning new systems (godot, defold, etc) and generate assets you can use to sell your portfolio of work.
Of course, linked-in and finding devs in your region to network with. That's how I've found most of my gigs - networking and linked-in. Wish I could offer better advice.
"¯ \ (ツ)/¯ "
I'm not going to register to linkedin.
Issue is, I need a new job ASAP, I cannot really spend my time building a portfolio. My health went from bad to even worse, thanks to my current job.
you can look at all the job listings in the world, without a portfolio to show you won't get any offers.
I know, it sucks, but this is one of those things you can't talk your way around.
I don't know if they let you browse postings without an account but LinkedIn is the easiest way to find gamedev postings. You could also check out https://jobs.gamedeveloper.com/. Another option is to go to the website for a studio you'd like to work at and check if they have any postings there.
Congratulations on not registering on LinkedIn.