During the last year I started a three year BSc (hons) game dev course. Although I am only half way through my first year I am wondering just what I should be working on developing for my portfolio so that I will have the best chance of progressing into the industry? Would I be expected to have full games? or just a level or two? and what else would would the portfolio be expected to contain? Thnx

Creating a portfolio can be difficult and can take a long time to get right so it's good that you are thinking about it now. But I wouldn't get too hung up on making everything perfect yet, not when you still have another (at least) two and a half years until you graduate.

When you do come to look at your portfolio, then content depends on what you are interested in. Game development (so you're looking for a portfolio of completed games maybe with a slant towards areas you are interested in like ai or effects) or technology development (so a portfolio containing tech demos, or games with a serious slant towards you particular interest).

But for now, just concentrate on making stuff you enjoy and playing with what takes your fancy. The stuff you do now will probably pale in comparison to what you could be playing around with in a year or so, and probably won't be finding it's way onto your portfolio no matter what you want to fill it with.

I wrote a couple of articles going into more depth about what you would expect to find on a programmers portfolio called The Elusive Demo Portfolio which would be worth a read.

Good luck :)

Quote: Original post by Hoody
During the last year I started a three year BSc (hons) game dev course.
...what I should be working on developing for my portfolio

It depends. "Game dev" is very vague. If you're focusing on art, you should make an art portfolio. If you're focusing on level design, you should make levels. If you're focusing on programming, you should write some elegant solutions to programming problems.
BTW, school projects don't always belong in a portfolio. It's not how many things are in the portfolio that impress us -- it's the quality.

Quote: Original post by Tom Sloper
BTW, school projects don't always belong in a portfolio. It's not how many things are in the portfolio that impress us -- it's the quality.

This very much depends on what the scope of the project is. If course projects have only been taken as far as they need to be for the marks then you're probably right, but if they have been taken further then it's worth thinking about adding them.

Dissertations should certainly be part of the portfolio otherwise it's not a very good dissertation.

Keeping it clear what is personal and what is course work within the portfolio is a good idea though.

Regarding the course and it's final outcome, as it's a BSc, I would certainly hope that it's a programmer focused course rather than an art focused course. Otherwise it should be a BA.

Unless it's one of those everything in the mix courses. :(

Thnx for the replies, The first year is pretty generic with most IT courses at this uni. You start with a piece of software called CeeBot to learn the basics of input/output and variables ect. then after a couple of months move onto C# and some torque scripting (there is also some flash/html/networking and game theory mixed in with this) In the second and third years it is mainly programming with C# and C++ although there is some 3D modeling and AI mixed in with this.