Programming Portfolios - How much is too much?
Author
As someone who's started to put together portfolios for summer positions in the games industry, I'm kinda stumped when it comes to the makeup of the portfolio. Currently I'm looking to have 3 pieces ready in the next week or so.
The question(s) is(are), what sort of things do people put into their portfolios? how many pieces do you put in, and how much is contained in each piece? how thourghly do interviewers look into the code? are first impressions paramount?
I don't work in the industry, but I feel that Blizzard does a good job describing what they want in a programmer:
The site.
-AfroFire/Brin
The site.
Quote:
The Programmer
Programmers form the inner workings of development. They create the secret technologies and engines that give life and energy to our games.
Aside from talent, the first and foremost thing we are looking for in a programmer is experience. Unlike most other companies, our definition of experience is pretty broad. We don’t need to see three years of Cobol background or nonsense like that. Our requirement that programmers be experienced is really a test of their passion for coding. Programmers who code for coding’s sake tend to write lots of little programs on the side, outside of school or the scope of their job. So if you don’t have two years of working experience in the game industry, let us know what you have worked on in your spare time, too. The more code you’ve written, the better.
For legal reasons, we do not want you to send us any game demo or program that you or your employer considers proprietary or confidential. So things like a game demo you want to have published eventually, the source code to NT 5.0, or the NSA’s encryption algorithms would be bad things to send to us.
It is okay to send us any shareware, freeware, programs for personal use, or currently available commercial applications you have worked on. In fact, it helps us to have a sample of your work. The only real exceptions are ideas or demos for games, unless they are already available to the public. A good rule of thumb is this: If the public can download your program from the net or buy it off a shelf for their own use, then it’s safe to send it to us.
If you do send us something, make sure to send your best stuff. It is better to send us one cool program than lots of mediocre ones. Pick the one best thing you have done and show it to us. We can read about the rest in your resume.
Finally, scan everything you send us for viruses! Nothing makes a worse impression than sending a resume or program that infects our computers.
-AfroFire/Brin
Thanks for quoting Afro, the site does not work for me.
As a side note - Blizzard's requirements should be a lot higher than others, as they are masters of what they do (perhaps I'm biased being FROM Irvine and lloving all their games since they came out :D)
As a side note - Blizzard's requirements should be a lot higher than others, as they are masters of what they do (perhaps I'm biased being FROM Irvine and lloving all their games since they came out :D)
Their site does appear to be down... but holla back from Irvine !
Where do you go to school? Ever SEEN the blizzard offices? They're magical... You may, more often then not, find me strolling about the UCI campus btw.
Where do you go to school? Ever SEEN the blizzard offices? They're magical... You may, more often then not, find me strolling about the UCI campus btw.
http://www.blizzard.com/jobopp/intro.shtml - Link to Blizzard's employment site
I've been told 1 great piece is better than 3 ok pieces.
I'd also try and make your demo look like a complete game - add a menu, options etc. Integrating other libraries might help with this (CEgui, Freetype etc.). This also shows you can also work with other people's code/libraries.
Re: showing code, I think they'll be looking at the end result not so much how you got there - as long as it doesn't crash when you show it.
Good luck :)
I've been told 1 great piece is better than 3 ok pieces.
I'd also try and make your demo look like a complete game - add a menu, options etc. Integrating other libraries might help with this (CEgui, Freetype etc.). This also shows you can also work with other people's code/libraries.
Re: showing code, I think they'll be looking at the end result not so much how you got there - as long as it doesn't crash when you show it.
Good luck :)
I usually skim through the code, looking for good or bad habits. If I see something of particular interest, I may pay more attention to it, but that's usually not all that necessary.
Having a few different things is usually better than just one thing, but if it's a choice between one good thing or three meh things, go for the one good thing.
Having a few different things is usually better than just one thing, but if it's a choice between one good thing or three meh things, go for the one good thing.
Quote:Original post by AfroFire
Their site does appear to be down... but holla back from Irvine !
Where do you go to school? Ever SEEN the blizzard offices? They're magical... You may, more often then not, find me strolling about the UCI campus btw.
Wow - I go to UCI - infact today I was looking for the campus (they have a building off UCI but I walked for about 10 minutes only to find a seperation, and I was late for class so I could drive and explore)
We should meet up, I'll PM you with contact info
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