Generally speaking, yeah, without directly-relevant industry experience you'll get stuck entering a more junior or intermediate role.
The vast vast majority of job postings are looking for experience in particular areas, such as programming langauges, game engines, commonly-used libraries, software suites etc. Some places will literally not even consider candidates who don't match some of the stricter requirements, like a certain number of years writing C++ or whatever. Fortunately, many places will overlook a "miss" in key categories if there's a lot of good stuff elsewhere.
As someone who has been programming for work for over 20 years, I'm going to disagree with some suggestions you got on here about getting a master's degree. My personal advice, based on my own experience, is you're better off getting in the industry as soon as possible. You will be literally getting paid to learn, and making contacts who can inevitably be your "in" at other companies over the years (if necessary).
Everyone's experience is different of course. I'm one of very few people at my job who are at my level and have no degree at all. On that note, I know many people who say their degree was completely useless for getting to where they are now (other than maybe looking good on the resume).
I think most places will look at your Github profile if you link it -- depending on the company. Even if I didn't mention it to them, I've looked at the open source contributions of every single candidate I've ever evaluated, if they linked it.
From what you're summarizing, you can absolutely put "software developer" on your resume. It sounds like you've done a bunch of programming over multiple years and built a bunch of real, working projects. Though unfortunately, those are not usually given much weight because most companies want to see your experience building shipped products, with a team, over some period of time. Regardless, you're applying for a certain role, so tailor your resume (skillset and experience) to correlate best with that role.
Anyway, yes, search around for places that seem interesting and look for the roles they have open. You may have to apply for many! There were many places I was so sure I'd get an interview at, who didn't even respond -- even when I had quite a bit of experience. It's not a big deal, just keep trying man.
When you get asked about stuff you don't know in interviews, don't worry about it - just say something like "Ahh I don't know about that, but I'd love to learn about it". I mean, assuming you actually would like to learn more stuff, and excel at new programming/technology skills! :)
If you want to discuss further I'm actually totally glad to talk, though my experiences might not be directly relevant to where you're living. Either way, take care and best of luck!!