Arcade Berg aka. "Learning Game Design with Arcade Berg"

Different kinds of portfolios

When you're trying to get a job within the game industry, there are two things you need to do.

1. Be able to present yourself in an attractive manner.
2. Be ready to do a work assignment.

Today, I'll the discuss the first thing.

Presenting yourself is preferably done with a kick-ass portfolio. Depending on your profession this will manifest itself in various ways. Are you a designer, programmer, 3d artist, animator or perhaps a level designer?

Let's assume you're new and you want your very first job as a game developer, then you'll have a real hard time becoming a game designer.

It's very hard to build a portfolio on your own as a game designer. You can write as many game ideas and game design documents you want, but chances are slim that any recruiter will actually read them. The best thing you can have are actual games made and those usually require more than designers to make, right?

What are you gonna do, put a lot of .pdf's on a site? Good luck. Have fun.

Personally, I think that all the game development programmes at Universities are great for this. That's the "path" I took and it helped me greatly, as I had a couple of projects in my portfolio before my first job. Sure, none of them were a success, but it's still better than nothing.

Take note however, that my first job was not as game designer, it was as a level designer. I'll get back to that soon.

Artists can "easily" create a fat portfolio by himself, assuming he's actually good enough. Same goes for animators. Both have their pretty galleries and show reels to show off, having a very tangible way of showing their skill.

Here's an example of a show reel by an animator friend of mine, currently working at Epic Poland / People Can Fly; Markus "Metal" Hammarstedt:

http://www.Widunder.se (17/9/2009)

Demo Reel 2009 3.0 from Markus Hammarstedt on Vimeo.

Programmers are tricky, because it really depends on what kind of stuff they code. But they still often create something... Concrete. So if luck is with them, they can share their creations in one way or another. Demoing physics on YouTube or having entire applications/games on a site.

Lastly, Level Designers are kind of like artists but still... Not.

A level designer can in most cases work independently and create level after level, hosting them all on a website, take some pretty screenshots and let it speak for itself.

Here's an example of an amazing level designer I had the pleasure to work with at GRIN, who's done just that; David "CozyDave" Lundvall:

http://wizardext.se/maps.html (17/9/2009)

You can also record some videos. Like I did with my bachelor degree project DM-Theatre:

The problem is; screenshots and videos don't actually relay the actual play experience. You can't tell how fun the level is, just how pretty and a rough estimation on its flow.

If you got ze über-skills a lot of people will play your levels online and you'll build up a reputation and if you're mega lucky, the guys employing will have heard of it. But... That's not likely. And no, that sure as hell didn't happen to me.

But it's still useful to have that portfolio with levels, just to show people that you know how to handle the tools, editors and have an understanding of art in level design.

The funny thing is, I didn't have a portfolio site or any levels created available to the public when I got my job at GRIN. Oh no, what I used was luck.

In two days I'll publish my actual work test I got from GRIN and what I did to land a job as a level designer at what was at the time; one of the most awesome developers in the world.

PS. Sorry all you audio guys, producers and all other professions that I left out. Still love you!