Whats more valuable on the resume?

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4 comments, last by Woland 11 years ago

Hey guys,

As an aspiring game developer, Would it be better to attempt at release some indie games on XBLIM/Steam Greenlight? (using XNA/Unity3D where most of my experiences are) or make portfolio pieces?

Thz

Stephen McKillop

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Your potential future employer is essentially looking for two things:

1) Will you do the job well?

2) Will you fit in?

You say "attempt to release some indie games". Why just attempt?

If you have a successful release on either of those locations you have strong evidence that you can develop games.

If you make something that doesn't meet their requirements, you have a portfolio piece.

If you make strong portfolio pieces you also have strong evidence that you can develop games.

In my opinion, it is good to have something published and if it's good enough to be shown to the world, it should be good enough for your portfolio.

But that brings me to a different point. Develop a critical eye for your work. When you publish something on a digital distributor like XBLA, Steam, or even mobile devices, you need to be very critical of what you're showing the world. Potential employers, clients, and colleagues can all see what you've put out there and they will all use that work to determine your skills.

Be sure to polish the game play as much as possible.

Clean up and refine all of the graphics.

Make sure the audio is exact and clear.

Just be sure to check everything and make sure it is as great as can be and not just good enough.

But that's just my opinion. biggrin.png

Check out my game blog - Dave's Game Blog

Make a polished game which is complete or nearly complete before submitting it to Greenlight, and you'll have a better chance of making it out on there. Steam users can be ridiculously fickle sometimes. But they do have a Concepts section which would be fitting for works-in-progress, so you can get a feeler from the audience and see what ideas can work or not.

New game in progress: Project SeedWorld

My development blog: Electronic Meteor

Thanks guys for the responses :-) Time to get to work!

I'd say your question comes down to "should my portfolio consist of unfinished or finished projects" :)

There's something my boss always says - you are not truly a gamedev before you deliver at least one title. Finishing a projects means you went through all the stages. You have seen shit going wrong or right on every one of them. Sure, there is certainly tons of other shits that can go wrong in other projects that you still can't even dream of, but at least you have some faint idea how it is like.

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