Portfolio Review at GDC

    This site uses cookies. By continuing to browse this site, you are agreeing to our Cookie Policy.

    • Portfolio Review at GDC

      Gaddam got me thinking about getting hired in the games industry and having a project to show off. Sometimes, in order to motivate us, we need to have a deadline. It's too easy to get pulled by the siren call of playing video games or other things unless there's a real time pressure. There's a level of commitment involved to give up so much of yourself and your time to make something that very few people will likely play.

      Personally, it doesn't really bother me. If no one ever played any of the games I wrote, I would still make them. I make games because I love the craft. But that's me. You guys probably want to get your game in front of someone who can help you get a job.

      So here's the deal.

      GDC is six months away and takes place here in San Francisco. It's expensive, but it's also the absolute best way to get a job in this industry, especially for those of you who live away from the major hubs of game development (for the US that would be SF, LA, Seattle, Austin, and a few around Boston).

      If you commit to going to GDC AND complete a game (using any engine you like), I will review it during the conference. I'll look at the game, look at the code, and give you feedback. If I like what I see and I think you're ready, I'll put your name into the EA job system. I can't promise anything, but every little bit helps. Just ask James (rickvanprim). I did the same thing for him last year and now he works up at EAC.

      Again, it's not a guarantee, but it's still a step above submitting your resume to the job board.

      So that's my challenge, complete with an opportunity for those who meet it. Who will accept?

      -Rez
    • Wow, talk about an incentive and an opportunity! I'm still in my early stages of learning the craft but if I was at a point where I could be ready, I'd have to take this offer up!

      It is one of my goals to attend such an event, one day at a time though! I can't wait to hear more about this and if anyone in the community steps up.

      On a side note, I agree that if nobody plays my game but me or my family I'm perfectly okay with that. It is the desire to pursue something that's larger than me, it motivates me to push myself to limits that I didn't expect to reach in the first place. This is a reference to my learning disabilities that I won't ever allow to push me down, I may have to read 50x over or longer but eventually I get my ah ha moment!
      You may call me char 71 97 100 100 97 109.
    • It doesn't matter to me neither if anyone plays the games I create. I recently just finished my first android 3d game with a friend of mine (at least most parts of it) and even if no one else wants to play the game I know I've learned a lot of stuff out of it. Even though I wasn't evolved in the programming that much I learned a lot of asset creation in Maya and stuff.

      And a very important lesson: never ever write a game again without a proper structure ;P It worked for this game because it is very small but I wouldn't recommend writing stuff up without actually thinking about the overall structure haha.

      Sadly, I haven't finished studies yet, but maybe I've the chance to get to GDC after finishing and thus I may have the chance to get in touch with some devs, too :) But anyways this is a very nice offer and I hope someone comes up with a great game. I would even come up just to let some experienced dev check my coding style because all the time I'm not 100% sure how good I am at programming. I know one can always improve but thats not the point. I can't really assess myself in comparison with other programmers or with the overall requirements. I mean all those requirements for the jobs just state five or more years experience writing c++ code but I could have five years experience just writing code which was totally inefficient and so on.

      I know that I'm a lot more experienced than compared to some programmers I know but I never really got somebody to know who knew more than me regarding programming besides all the books I read and stuff in blogs and so on.


      @Gaddam I've got this problem with maths ;P I need to read it over and over. I find it interesting but I couldn't imagine me writing some sort of graphics renderer or complex shader codes without a lot of help later on, but maybe I just need to get into it more :) And as you said to push myself to limits what I regularly try to do just to improve myself.

      The post was edited 1 time, last by gbarnes ().

    • Wow Rez! That's quite some incentive! You just boosted my motivation big time :-P. Given my current time crunch, it seems unlikely I'll actually make that deadline. That being said, life may feel a lot different once I'm actually finished with this master's thesis. Regardless, I'm going to try! :D
    • Here are the reasons I have for believing that I cannot do this:

      1. I'm living in Chicago as a grad game dev student. It will be very expensive to fly to San Francisco.
      2. I also don't know where to stay out there.
      3. I'm studying computer science in general more than actual game design, so I'm more focused on technically getting programs running, and not so much actually making compelling games just yet.
      4. This sounds hard, and I don't know if I can actually get the work done to do this.
      5. It sounds intimidating, and it can be scary to actually put yourself on the line and show a game to someone with lots of experience like Rez.

      HOWEVER, GCC4 is a phenomenal book, and has really given me a solid beginning path on building games on my own. Therefore, let me proudly commit to this.

      I commit to getting to GDC in March - maybe as a volunteer?
      I commit to getting a working game ready by that time.
      I commit to showing it to Rez - and maybe getting a picture taken with him too!

      I'm very serious about getting into the game industry, and this sounds like one of the most motivating ways to get something into shape. I look forward to seeing you in March Rez!
    • Originally posted by BrentChua
      @ Rez, does EA hire off-site contract engineers as well? I don't really see myself going back in the states anymore and have been doing this outsourcing jobs with some game companies for the past 2 years or so.

      Not really, no. We prefer to have our engineering staff on-site. There have been a few exceptions, although the consensus from the engineering team is that this doesn't work well. There are enough candidates here in the Bay Area that we don't really need to outsource over seas.

      -Rez