Building a Game Portfolio:

For the Games Industry

Feb. 25, 2019

Michael Shah

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Build Things

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Building a Game Portfolio:

For the Games Industry

Feb. 25, 2019

Michael Shah

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Goals for this evening

• Eat Food
• Build a portfolio
• Strategize your time at university

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Grab Pizza Now if you have not

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About me - as a person

• Name: Mike Shah
• Studied Computer Science BS,MS, PhD
• Worked on games at Graphics at a variety of places:
• Ohio Supercomputer Center (building games)
• Intel (Graphics/Computer Vision)
• PlayStation (Compilers and Tools)
• Oblong Industry (Wii-like large-scale interactive experiences)
• Joined Northeastern this Fall

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Some photos of my games

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About you - as a person

• Name:
• Program/Major:
• Interest?
• Programming, art, design, music, etc

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Let’s Build

• So you probably had your last lectures of the semester today.
• So I want to start with a little exercise by showing some portfolios and you can say what you like and don’t like.
• Then we will build our own.
• (First 3 hits from google)
• http://www.michaellevall.com/
• http://www.arashshirazi.co.uk/
• http://www.mollyjameson.com
• (More tips: https://www.gamedesigning.org/career/game-design-portfolio/)

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Portfolios

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Samples on what to write in your portfolio

• What you did?
• Clear, action verbs (google “action verbs” for a good list)
• Verbs alone should tell your story
• How you did it?
• Skill or strategy used
• How many?
• Use data to prove your point
• Why does it matter?
• Results and goals
• Give your point significance!

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From: https://www.gdcvault.com/play/1024411/Get-Noticed-Get-Hired-Upgrading

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Samples on what to write in your portfolio

• What you did?
• Clear, action verbs
• Verbs alone should tell your story
• How you did it?
• Skill or strategy used
• How many?
• Use data to prove your point
• Why does it matter?
• Results and goals
• Give your point significance!

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Example

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Programmed a custom game engine in C++ that allows for collision detection functionalities with a team of 3 engine programmers

From: https://www.gdcvault.com/play/1024411/Get-Noticed-Get-Hired-Upgrading

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Build a web page for your portfolio

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Get some webspace

• Options at NEU
• https://www.northeastern.edu/its/services/web-hosting/
• Digication: https://northeastern.digication.com
• Options specific to CCIS students
• https://www.khoury.northeastern.edu/systems/kb/
• Click on “Web/Personal Web Pages” and login
• or
• Create a directory ~/.www
• run: chmod 711 ~/.www; chmod a+x ~
• Visit: http://www.khoury.neu.edu/home/login_name/index.html
• where login_name is replaced with your CCIS login name.
• Or even just a “Google Doc”
• Get some content drafted up quickly (may save you some time than worrying about layout)

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Here is a template!

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1IIC2saosXYUklJD1k7tS366vhPTzoLOjoiho_eeR624/edit?usp=sharing

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A little bit of Strategy for your time here in Boston

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Join NEU’s Game Club

• That is where you will find like-minded people to build games with.
• (If the club does
• (I formed a Game Creation Club in my undergrad)
• https://web.northeastern.edu/gdc/
• ​

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Participate in Game Jams

• Especially the Global Game Jam in January!
• It’s hosted here at NEU
• You can learn a lot in 24-48 hours
• The games you build DO NOT have to be polished AAA titles

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Take some of my classes :)

• Computer Graphics
• Game Engine Development
• Computer Systems 3650/5600
• Human-Computer Interaction

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Game Industry Events

• Boston Unity Group (B.U.G.)
• meetup.com/B-U-G-Boston-Unity-Group/
• Boston Game Postmortem (BPM)
• bostonpostmortem.org/
• Women in Games (WiG)
• wigboston.wordpress.com/
• Boston Virtual Reality (VR)
• meetup.com/Boston-Virtual-Reality/
• Boston Indies
• bostonindies.com/

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And there are more

• One of my colleagues Jason Wiser has a nice page here:
• http://www.madwomb.com/tutorials/GamesBoston.html
• My recommendation while you are a student is to commit to one
• It helps to regularly go to these events.
• The talks themselves are often very good
• After you go to 3 in a row, folks will start recognizing you.
• Perhaps this could be part of a creatively designed independent study.

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Game Industry - Local Events

• PAX East http://east.paxsite.com/
• Boston Festival of Indie Games (BFIG) http://bostonfig.com/
• Global Game Jam http://globalgamejam.org/
• There is one atNortheastern in January.
• Everyone here should participate
• You will meet other colleagues (maybe this will be your first company)
• You will learn something!
• My first game jam in 2015 I used to learn the Unity3D engine.
• You will complete a game for your portfolio in a short time
• You will build something (“Our mantra for today”)

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How to go to one of these events I just talked about

• Well go!
• Folks are very welcoming at these events if you let them know you are a student learning about building games
• Send me an e-mail and ask if I or anyone I know is going
• I am happy to make an introduction or otherwise go
• Showing up to your first one with a pile of resumes, is probably not welcome
• Get to know the community first
• Most events however will have announcements at the beginning, and companies looking for interns/co-op/part-time/full-time work will let you know.
• Then by all means, talk to them!

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Closing Thought

You have all of Spring Break to build a portfolio that may get you a job for the rest of your life.

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