Hi there!
Always good to meet another (soon-to-be) game designer.
To enter the game design industry, I strongly suggest the following:
(1) Understand which area of gaming you want to focus on. For example, casual gaming (such as Angry Birds) requires quite a different skill set than traditional video games (such as Dragon Age or Fallout).
The main difference lies in developing game mechanics as opposed to game narratives. For example, games like Tetris or Bejewelled are about the game mechanics. On the other hand, a game like Dead Space is about story, character, and atmosphere (the game's "mechanics" need to "disappear").
(2) To learn how to make game *mechanics*, you will need (besides visiting sites like Kongregate.com) to play a lot of analogue games (e.g. tabletop war games, Eurogames, CCGs, pen and paper RPGs).
These "offline" games force you to manually crunch numbers, so you will understand concepts of game balance. They also force you to think of game flow in terms of turns, phases, and probability.
(3) To learn how to do story and character, take up script writing or digital art. You don't have to become a super expert, but you must at least understand the basics. You should also get a sense of the "market rate" to charge for scripting or artwork.
Imaginary Friends Studio, for example, charges up to $600 per image. But local freelancers I've worked with only charge around $150 - $200 for some character art. Even if you don't intend to be an artist, you must have a sense of who to call and how much to budget when you're doing your design brief.
Otherwise will look like clown in the meeting room.
(4) Learn Flash. Program a few games and put them up for people to play. Apart from providing feedback, you will need it for your portfolio. Even one Flash game is better than saying "Just trust me" at the interview.
(5) Read a lot of e-zines and magazines to know what's popular. You also need to know about the cons (conventions) and attend when you can. There are a lot of cons that are WAY more important than E3!
Good luck! Maybe we'll meet someday!
