Game/Level Designer Portfolio

  • IGDA Bits & Pieces: Finding Funding

    ‘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…

  • BittersBBB Episode 002 - Mass Effect 2 Introducing Core Elements

    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 Report

    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 Report

    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
Forum
Job and Work Experience

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 AMPermalink

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 AMPermalink

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 AMPermalink

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
Forum
Job and Work Experience

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 AMPermalink

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 AMPermalink

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 AMPermalink

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.