I’m really interested in how other devs/designers/programmers perceive the Design Process page.
2 Likes
I think the Design Process page is missing a little bit of detail, but I might just feel that way because I immediately want to know the implementation details of the system. However, that’s not really the point of the page. I do get the general idea of how the system works!
Are you planning on releasing Bullet Hell bossfight as a game on itch at some point? Do you know when you’d be done with it? I think last time I’ve talked to you, you were working on the fetch quest game still.
The bullet hell fight is actually a part of Fetch Quest!
What kinds of implementation details are you curious about? That’s the kind of stuff I’d like to add in.
You provided several examples of different systems (Bullet Spawner, Fins, Phases, etc) that make it easier to configure the behavior you want, but you did not provide an explanation for how all of those systems are tied together.
It would be neat to see the code that utilizes these systems in concert for a bullet hell bossfight, since I feel like a programmer’s job often involves tying different systems together.
1 Like
Hiya Delaney!
I’m gonna just start this by saying that my understanding of portfolios primarily comes from talking to art and creative directors about it, as well as looking at a lot of professional examples… I am not a programmer (I do technically do a bit of professional game design as of recently), but rather a 3d artist.
The problem I see currently with your portfolio is the same problem that creative directors have pointed out to me when I was making them - it’s a little too varied. From my understanding, the strongest asset a potential hire has is their deep specialization - but your portfolio shows a bunch of very generalized skills as opposed to the areas your strongest in.
Take for example the second half of Game Design - ‘Accessibility features’, ‘color-changing materials’ and ‘3d modelling’. These skills are valuable, but they don’t really slot into game design. Accessibility features shown are something a UI developer would handle. Color-changing materials is a tech artist role, and 3d modelling is an artist role. While these skills are good to have, it shows a bit of a lack of specialization and uncertainty about what you want your role to be.
Furthermore, I feel that these pieces don’t properly show off the true depth of your skill in these fields. The one I can speak to best is 3d modelling - what you show says two things “you can model basic shapes” and “you know the fundamentals of animation”. This is not enough! If your goal is to show a good understanding of the 3d pipeline, you’ll generally want to show completely finished assets with a breakdown of their creation. This would mean you aim to show Topology, Material layers, and UV layouts because these are the skills that are more important for a 3d artist than just 3d modelling. A good example for that is here [though it doesn’t have UVs it does have everything else thanks to Marmoset].
Additionally I think it would help a lot to highlight your work a bit better. You’ve shipped a number of impressive titles as a producer, but they aren’t really highlighted in your portfolio like the games we haven’t heard section. Interviewers are busier than ever right now (we got 800 applications for a job last August) and therefore will be mostly glancing at your portfolio rather than deep diving into it. By having your impressive shipped titles as a list, it risks interviewers glancing over it to look at the games you haven’t section - which is neat, but probably less likely to land you employment.
I do like how succinct the first page is though. You instantly get a feel for you and the skills you have. That kind of short and sweet first page is really important because of the aforementioned busy-ness of interviewers. I heard my art director express frusteration at the 17th portfolio she looked at that started as a massive “about me” that didn’t clearly illustrate skills or artwork. She started just skipping over them after a certain point.
1 Like
Thank you for the detailed assessment! Between you and exo’s input I’ll make some changes and report back.
It’s definitely hard to avoid wanting to include some general stuff because of my Opinions that it all cumulates to game design, but I get why someone just reviewing portfolios would see it differently.
Patched it!
-Added more detail to the Design Process page to show how the scripts are attached to one another and why (specifically the BulletSpawners/Fins)
-Changed the Shipped Titles page to a dual list, similar to the Skills on the Intro page.
-Changed the list of Titles You’ve Heard Of into a list of logos with links to a store page for each to add some more pomp
-Removed the 3D modeling from my Game Design page, shifted the Accessibility Features to the bottom (until I have something more interesting to replace it)
This topic was automatically closed 30 days after the last reply. New replies are no longer allowed.