I am studying game programming at University of Aarhus and am about to write my Master Thesis this spring. I am also going to the GDC in a few weeks. I've worked on making my website into an online portfolio of my work, and I'd really like to improve it as much as possible before going to the GDC. http://runevision.com I'd like your opinion if it actually works well as an online portfolio or not, and of course what I can do to improve it. - For the game "Flipside" I have added a lot of details about what I contributed with in the production. Does this work well? - I haven't included any actual code, since I can't think of any impressive code from the game that is less than 50+ lines and I'm afraid it would clutter the page. Should I include some code samples on the page anyway? Or should I make some classes available for download? In many cases, including the whole source code for download would be misleading, since several people worked on it, and I only had main responsibility over some of the classes. - The design contains a prominently placed "drawn" portrait of me and I have a matching business card design in mind. This is heavily inspired by the advice of Darius Kazemi. Do you think the web design and business card design works well at "making an impression" or how could I improve it? These are just a few specific questions, but I'd appreciate any feedback you might have. Rune

Your portfolio is far more impressive than 99% of the crap you find all over the internet.

The real problem I see with it is that it doesn't really direct viewers (future employers) towards what you'll be providing them with. What exactly, besides being a "game developer" do you want to do when you graduate? That should be the emphasis of an online portfolio being used to find jobs with. Right now it is more of a showcase gallery.

Quote: Original post by zer0wolf
Your portfolio is far more impressive than 99% of the crap you find all over the internet.

Thank you! That sounds like a good start at least. :P

Quote: The real problem I see with it is that it doesn't really direct viewers (future employers) towards what you'll be providing them with. What exactly, besides being a "game developer" do you want to do when you graduate? That should be the emphasis of an online portfolio being used to find jobs with. Right now it is more of a showcase gallery.

That is an interesting observation, and one I'd like to discuss a bit.

Of course, I want to work as a game programmer, but I understand that this is kind of broad.

What I want to show is that I am a programmer with insight in all aspects of multimedia from graphics, animation, and a bit of sound to interaction, user interfaces, and presentation. I care not only about technical aspects but want to bring the user/player a unique experience by integrating all the other elements though programming. This also makes me really good at communicating with everyone on the team and bridging gaps between programmers and non-programmers.

I don't know how to clearly communicate this though?

I don't want to work primarily on low level libraries and optimization (talented computer scientists can do that better than me), but rather on finding unique solutions to complex problems, that requires a combination of the logical thinking of a programmer with the creative thinking of a designer. I like simulations such as procedural animation, procedural content generation, flocking systems, AI, and generally features that have a direct visible impact on the user's experience.

Any suggestions how to best convey this message are highly appreciated.

Rune

One of the best ways to convey your interests in game development to whoever is looking at your website is probably to write it on the welcome page. When I visited your website and saw the thumbnails for the different sections, I felt slight disorientation, because there was no "intro" text. It should be seen first, then the sections.

I like that you have notification emails sent when site changes.