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Game/Level Designer Portfolio

  • ‘When it’s cold outside, am I hear in vain?’ The first of IGDA Sydney’s new events coined: “Bits & Pieces” took place on a chilly 9th of August 2011 at The Arthouse Hotel’s attic bar to the crowd of approximately 100 local game developers, if…

  • In BittersBBB Episode 002, we look at Bioware’s Mass Effect 2 to discover how Core game Elements are Introduced at the outset of the game.

    BittersBBB is my somewhat new project where I aim to analyse/deconstruct a game along the lines of a…

  • Moving Target Games – March

    Deadlines, demos and development.

    Moving Target Games Team

    Andrew Bittman – Project Manager / Designer
    Matthew Tuxworth – Game Programmer
    Craig Peebles – Audio Programmer
    Roberto…

  • Moving Target Games – February

    I think this is our first report since August, and yes, I plan to do these monthly, at least, this time. Probably more when we get the full website up, but moving on to the report:

    Moving Target Team…

Submitted by Bittman on

With the upcoming events in November that I am attending such as Levelup, iDEF and GCAP I am working hard to produce a worthwhile portfolio to be proud to pass along to companies or agencies with the hope of a position in the games industry. Now I've read a lot of material regarding what is good for a portfolio with regards to game design, and to a lesser extent level design, and am currently working on many projects but time is getting the best of me with full-time work as well.

So I ask two questions based on the list of projects I'm undertaking below:
1) Are they all viable projects, or are there better projects I could undertake in my time?
2) What would you prioritise out of the following given the time, difficulty and usefulness towards my portfolio?

Current Projects (with current priority):
1) White Paper Complete Game Design Document - 60% complete - approx 20 hours remaining
2) Team Fortress 2 Map (Hammer Editor) - 25% complete - approx 30 hours remaining
3) Inform Fiction - 25% complete - approx 20 hours remaining
4) Game Review/Critique - 0% - approx 2-4 hours per review
5) Game Design Article - 0% - approx 5-10 hours per article
6) Maya-created Map - 10% complete - approx 60 hours remaining
7) White Paper Game Design Concepts - 0% - approx 10-20 hours per concept

For arguments sake, believe I have done nothing before this (though I have, a lot of it falls back into university assignments).

Thanks in advance for any feedback.

Submitted by Bittman on Sun, 26/04/09 - 11:35 AM Permalink

Actually, I scrapped my last one after realising that my idea was a bit unfeasible and that voluminous amounts of water are not actually that great for Team Fortress 2 given the graphics lag, pyro counter and general dislike of fighting in water.

So now I'm on a new one, which is probably at 25% now. Involves a lot of downwards travelling, and even a vertically traveling payload cart.

That said, the TF2 map is lower on the priority list than finishing the GDD, Indie Game and a creative story sample.

Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on Tue, 28/04/09 - 10:41 AM Permalink

I'm no game designer, but I say:

* Finish the 1) gdd, give yourself 30 hours and get it done.
* Reduce scope of TF2 and Maya map - use simple(r) concepts to illustrate your design philosophies. Make sure you are able to sell it easily, with some kind of graphic report with lots of pictures.
* Finish Inform Fiction.
* Don't worry about 4), 5), and 7) until you have finished or thrown out your other projects (why add more to your plate when you haven't finished your vegtables? :P )

Submitted by Bittman on Tue, 28/04/09 - 11:59 AM Permalink

It's a bit of an outdated list, bumped from the dead I think.

1) My GDD is at least 90% done now, probably 3-10 hours left...depending if I add more things (which I probably will). I could also use drawings in it, maybe a google sketch up level design sample? So, 3-10 hours for the v1.0 aim...version 1.x's will probably follow though =P

2) Just thought of doing that, completely spruce up the TF2 map to a point, expand points beyond that afterwards. Still haven't started that Maya map though...

3) Haven't touched the Inform Fiction for a while, working on two short stories though.

4) Actually, I've already gotten a few concepts

Here's the site: www.freewebs.com/bittman
(hasn't got the updated GDD, and screens are of an old TF2 map)

Thanks for the feedback anyway.

Posted by Bittman on

With the upcoming events in November that I am attending such as Levelup, iDEF and GCAP I am working hard to produce a worthwhile portfolio to be proud to pass along to companies or agencies with the hope of a position in the games industry. Now I've read a lot of material regarding what is good for a portfolio with regards to game design, and to a lesser extent level design, and am currently working on many projects but time is getting the best of me with full-time work as well.

So I ask two questions based on the list of projects I'm undertaking below:
1) Are they all viable projects, or are there better projects I could undertake in my time?
2) What would you prioritise out of the following given the time, difficulty and usefulness towards my portfolio?

Current Projects (with current priority):
1) White Paper Complete Game Design Document - 60% complete - approx 20 hours remaining
2) Team Fortress 2 Map (Hammer Editor) - 25% complete - approx 30 hours remaining
3) Inform Fiction - 25% complete - approx 20 hours remaining
4) Game Review/Critique - 0% - approx 2-4 hours per review
5) Game Design Article - 0% - approx 5-10 hours per article
6) Maya-created Map - 10% complete - approx 60 hours remaining
7) White Paper Game Design Concepts - 0% - approx 10-20 hours per concept

For arguments sake, believe I have done nothing before this (though I have, a lot of it falls back into university assignments).

Thanks in advance for any feedback.


Submitted by Bittman on Sun, 26/04/09 - 11:35 AM Permalink

Actually, I scrapped my last one after realising that my idea was a bit unfeasible and that voluminous amounts of water are not actually that great for Team Fortress 2 given the graphics lag, pyro counter and general dislike of fighting in water.

So now I'm on a new one, which is probably at 25% now. Involves a lot of downwards travelling, and even a vertically traveling payload cart.

That said, the TF2 map is lower on the priority list than finishing the GDD, Indie Game and a creative story sample.

Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on Tue, 28/04/09 - 10:41 AM Permalink

I'm no game designer, but I say:

* Finish the 1) gdd, give yourself 30 hours and get it done.
* Reduce scope of TF2 and Maya map - use simple(r) concepts to illustrate your design philosophies. Make sure you are able to sell it easily, with some kind of graphic report with lots of pictures.
* Finish Inform Fiction.
* Don't worry about 4), 5), and 7) until you have finished or thrown out your other projects (why add more to your plate when you haven't finished your vegtables? :P )

Submitted by Bittman on Tue, 28/04/09 - 11:59 AM Permalink

It's a bit of an outdated list, bumped from the dead I think.

1) My GDD is at least 90% done now, probably 3-10 hours left...depending if I add more things (which I probably will). I could also use drawings in it, maybe a google sketch up level design sample? So, 3-10 hours for the v1.0 aim...version 1.x's will probably follow though =P

2) Just thought of doing that, completely spruce up the TF2 map to a point, expand points beyond that afterwards. Still haven't started that Maya map though...

3) Haven't touched the Inform Fiction for a while, working on two short stories though.

4) Actually, I've already gotten a few concepts

Here's the site: www.freewebs.com/bittman
(hasn't got the updated GDD, and screens are of an old TF2 map)

Thanks for the feedback anyway.