A portfolio is the face of each professional. It makes a first impression on the employers and determines your chances to get a position. Taking into account the fact that nowadays the position of a game designer is considered to be a prestigious and lucrative job, the competition is extremely high.
Unfortunately, a lot of people do not think about their portfolio as seriously as they should be. As a result, even aspiring professionals can’t get the attention they do deserve. Your CV must present your best skills and personal traits of character to persuade people to hire you! To make the developers’ life easier we created an inventory of the 7 most widely spread mistakes while creating a game design portfolio.
Table of Contents
1. Why should I have it at all?
It may be strange to hear, but some people forget about making a portfolio and just rely on their CVs. The reality is that in a CV you can write any fairytales you want and the employers know it! The only way to make sure you are a professional game designer is to look through your portfolio. Your works speak louder than words! Remember it.
2. Dull presentation
Even the most interesting information may seem boring if it is presented in the wrong way. While making a UI presentation make sure you don’t use lonely screens and separate files without any context. Try to be creative and captive. Your presentation should be not only informative but also eye-catching and thoughtful.
Make use of some psychological tricks: add visual animals, use specific colors, print, etc. It will definitely make your presentation more appealing.
3. Lacking sense
The UI must have the underground. You won’t impress an employer with a cool interface. Of course, it is also very important, but if you want to stand out from the crowd, take things a little bit more seriously! Give explanations of your thinking processes while showing the presentation and explain your choice of certain features. In such a way you will show deep knowledge and prove that you are not working intuitively.
4. The same type works
Your aim is to persuade the employer that you are professional enough to cope with a variety of different projects. Due to this, it is of pivotal importance to show your works for different devices, purposes, etc. Do not present similar projects! Moreover, it will be a good idea to differentiate the overall works’ style to show that you are creative enough to come up with interesting and bright game environment designs.
5. Don’t overload your portfolio with information
Some game designers try to show everything they have to make an impression on the employers. Our experience shows that some people even include their early works to make the portfolio bigger. Such designers make a great mistake. You should better show 3-4 of your best works instead of 30 just “normal ones”. Include projects you are most proud of and be ready to give some extra explanations to strengthen the impression.
6. Poor quality text
Well, actually you are not a linguist, although grammar mistakes and misspellings are inexcusable! Unfortunately, such pratfalls occur quite often and have a strong negative impact. Due to this, you re-read everything you write and make use of special programs available in PlayMarket and AppStore.
7. Copying other works
It may sound strange, but such things happen quite often. In fact, it is not difficult for any employer to find out whether you have stolen your work or not. And what is the point of doing it? How are you going to work without appropriate skills? Moreover, the attempt to deceive an employer is considered to be a fraud and can be prosecuted.
8. Drawing conclusions
All in all, try to be yourself while creating a portfolio. Just imagine that you should sell your knowledge and skills and choose the best wrapping for them. Be creative, original and sincere. Be ready to answer tricky questions and stay calm. Remember that everything comes with experience and time.
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