But it’s important to understand that this portfolio comparison is the real entry point not grades, classes, degree, or the name of your college.
If you can get there without expensive schooling do it. If you need the school environment do that, just keep the focus on the work.
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End of 2023 advice for aspiring gamedev content folks looking to break into the industry.
This is about getting hired, not doing solo indie stuff which is totally cool, but a different goal.
Step 1 - pick a recent game you really wish you could have worked on.
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Step 2 - look through the credits of the game for the position you want to have.
This will give you a handful of names of folks doing that job.
NOTE: Don’t choose leads, seniors, or directors for this step because their hiring criteria is different.
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Step 3 - Go to LinkedIn and look up these names. As non-seniors most will have been hired within ~5 years. They will very likely have a portfolio link on their resume. This is what you are looking for although check out their resumes as well to get an idea of qualifications.
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Step 4 - Check out their portfolios. And choose the best couple find. Those will be your study guide.
Look at how they present work, how they talk about their work, how they document what they did. Look at what is included and what is left out. How it is organized.
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Step 5 - Pick the best pieces from the portfolios.
This is your target quality bar, your best pieces need to meet or exceed what you see there.
Be incredibly honest with yourself in this process. If you are just starting you won’t have anything that competes, that’s ok.
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What’s crucial to understand is that these pieces represent a hiring target.
If it’s art and the composition/lighting are better work on that. If it’s better posed, or proportioned work on your anatomy.
If it’s sample gameplay or a level break down why it’s fun/works.
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A constant struggle for anyone doing art/design creation is wondering “am I good enough”. This never ends, as you should strive to always get better/faster at what you do.
Those portfolios were good enough to land an interview & a job. So they provide a nice objective guideline.
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Step 6 - Find the weakest piece in those portfolio. This is your floor.
Nothing you ever include should be comparatively weaker to this piece.
That might mean you need to go back to a lot of work you thought was done and improve it. Or you need to make a bunch more. That’s ok.
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But it’s important to cull your portfolio of things that aren’t at quality.
Doesn’t mean those culled pieces didn’t have value to you as a learning experience, but they have a negative value in your portfolio.
And your portfolio is your primary foot in the door.
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Eventually you’ll have roughly the same number of examples of work that fit between those min/max quality pieces as the portfolios you identified as the top of the bunch.
You are now baseline competitive in the job market. This might happen year 1 of college or many years after.
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The quality bar improves every year so you need to periodically repeat this process.
And quality is only the first step. The speed at which you can generate that quality will become important as you start working, but the portfolio is the thing that will give you a chance.
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Hope that helps some folks.
Successful entry level portfolio reviews should be the first part of any school gamedev program, but often it seems like something that is more of an afterthought in academic spheres.
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