Starting from scratch....

[slik13]

Hi,

over the past few months, I've been thinking and looking for a future career in the video game industry (I'm still in high-school though). As I looked around I realised that most of the programs offered required some sort of artistic skill, wich I don't really have (apart from an average talent for drawing), But I do like to use other peoples models and place them and move them around (wich is where level design comes in). I do have cheap home video game making experience (rpg maker, game maker), but I know that it is far from enough. I'm looking to become a level designer (maybe progamming too since I am very good in math, or game designer since I love to critize games and to imagine new possibilities or new things that would be cool in the game), but the problem is, I don't know of any free or cheap(in price not quality ) program that could help me learn and create things for my future portfolio.

I was just wondering if anyone knows any good programs or even books that I could get that would help me learn a little bit more about this aspect of gaming because I wanted to aply to ubisoft camp in the level design program, but it required a portfolio, I'dd love to make one if I could because other than my rpg maker I don't have much to base myself on.

Any other tips on how to get into level-design are also apreciated.