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The Games Game May 2012

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Each month, industry veteran Tom Sloper provides career guidance to game biz wannabes, newbies, and junior professionals with the goal of helping them break into the industry, and stay in. Submit a question to Tom for developer-oriented advice in this column (IGDA members only).

Student Projects in my Portfolio

Dear Mr. Sloper,

In my portfolio, I have four games from my B.S. curriculum; one individual project and three small team projects. It's a strong portfolio -- it has more stuff than most guys' portfolios.  I've heard of guys with just one or two projects who've successfully gotten hired in good game jobs.  But the companies where I've interviewed say what I have in my portfolio is not enough.  What's going on here?  

-- Puzzled Portfolio Guy

Dear Puzzled,
 
You've probably considered this, but you didn't ask about it, and it has to be said:  Quality versus quantity.  You say your portfolio "has more stuff than most guys'."  That might be true, especially if those guys are recent graduates like yourself.  Regardless, the number of pieces in your portfolio doesn't reveal the whole picture.  A portfolio might have four pieces, but they might be unimpressive.   Or a portfolio might have just one game, but that game might have won a competition award, or received positive reviews in the press.  The portfolio with that one game, then, would be a lot more impressive than the portfolio with the four blah demos.  Point being, quantity isn't everything.
 
Then there's the matter of student projects vs. indie or professional projects.  For the most part, student projects do not make a good portfolio.  A portfolio piece isn't supposed to be just something that demonstrates that an applicant has some basic knowledge.  Rather, a portfolio piece is supposed to be something impressive, something that shows mastery of a skill.  The problem with student projects is that, more often than not, a class project is just something a student managed to make while learning how to make things.  Employers aren't interested in looking at your homework.  They only want to see your masterpieces.  
 
I said that student projects don't make a good portfolio; there can be exceptions.  For example, if you made an exceptional student project, one that won a competition, or earned a lot of attention outside the school, then of course that is a good portfolio piece.  But you still ought to have more than that one project in your portfolio.
 
Your portfolio can contain solo pieces and team projects.  Your portfolio should make it clear which are which.  When you include a team project, you have to include information as to what part you played in the project, like what you contributed to the art, or the design, or the programming, or the audio.  Maybe you led the team or served some other intangible role.  If so, you should spell it all out; let it be known what you did.
 
Since your interviewers have told you that what you it isn't good enough, I'd recommend that you get to work making more stuff.  Give those projects your all -- they need to be masterpieces. 
 

Please note that there is no guarantee that Tom will be able to respond to all the questions he receives. It is up to his discretion which questions he uses for this column. For further advice and resources, check out the IGDA's discussion forums, theBreaking In web site and the Students & Newbies Outreach section.

 

Tom's Bio

Tom Sloper's game biz career began over twenty years ago at Western Technologies, where he designed LCD games and the Vectrex games "Spike" and "Bedlam". There followed stints at Sega Enterprises, Rudell Design, Atari Corporation, and Activision. In 12 years at Activision, Tom produced 36 unique game titles (plus innumerable ports and localizations), designed four games, and won five awards. Tom worked for several months in Activision's Japan operation, in Tokyo. He is perhaps best known for designing, managing and producing Activision's "Shanghai" line. He is currently consulting, writing, speaking, teaching, and developing original games. Find out more at Sloperama.

 

© 2012 Tom Sloper. All rights reserved.