Design Portfolios – Is there such a thing?

This weekend, I had the opportunity to talk with numerous potential game designers while I was in Charlotte, NC. Each raised an issue independent of the other –

“How do I create a design portfolio?”

It’s a really good question, actually. The usual advice given to wanna-be designers is this: “Don’t try it. No one ever gets hired as a game designer straight out of school.” Except, that’s not actually true. In fact, in my own career, I’ve hired two guys straight out of school, and both were undergrads.

Four things are changing this old rule:

1. Language: As practicing game designers, we’re both defining and using a grammar of gameplay that allows us to pass this knowledge on from one generation to the next.
2. Education: Seriously good programs are springing up that actually teach game design – not art-as-design or programming-as-design, but the actual meat-and-potatoes game design stuff that you’ll find written about in books like Koster’s Theory of Fun or Bjork and Holopainen’s Patterns in Game Design. This is not to say that both art and programming aren’t valuable. Obviously, they are. So is design, and it is its own thing. It can be taught in conjunction with the others, but not as an afterthought.
3. Team Size: A hierarchy of design is becoming more the norm. Instead of the seer dictating how his or her game should be done (or coding it alone), there are usually multiple designers of varying skill and responsibility on a project, from the lead right on down to the design intern.
4. Industry Scope: The game industry is a lot bigger than just Blizzard, EA and Epic. There are hundreds of companies making casual games, cell phone games, serious games, collectable card games, flash games, advergames, tabletop games, pencil and paper games, board games, indie PC games and so on. These companies need designers, too.

This brings me back to the original question. How does one create a design portfolio, particularly if one doesn’t have access to the high-powered software necessary to create games?

Get Some Dice

The answer that I ultimately came up with was this: “Make games. Any kind of games. Flash games, board games, card games, collectible card games. Use whatever you have at your disposal and make a game out of it.” Access to hardware and software shouldn’t be and isn’t an excuse. After all, how many polygons are in the Risk board game? Of all the many, many games I have on my shelf, from Wii titles to 360 titles to PS2 stuff, Risk is the one I’ve been taking down and playing the most. Next, I’m planning to move on to Settlers of Catan.

Those two guys that I hired straight out of college weren’t hired on the basis of their amazing Unreal level or previous work on a AAA title. Fact is, there are a lot of designers working in the industry today who have neither of those on their resume. Rather, these two designers were hired on the strength of the existing non-commercial games they’d actually made, both digital and non-digital, as well as their amazing enthusiasm for games from a design perspective.

Don’t Send the Design Doc

This brings me to another point – they wouldn’t have been hired on the strength of their design doc. Many times, designers that are frustrated by an inability to program or a lack of artistic skill will instead create a game design document – usually something in the 250 page range – that covers every last detail of the game in question. While knowing how to write a solid design document is a great skill to possess (and if you’ve seen bad ones, you’ll agree with me wholeheartedly), it will rarely get you a job. When given the opportunity to a) hire a guy who seems perfectly competent based on his actual game or b) you after they read your massive design doc just to make sure they’re making the right choice, the dude with the prototype is going to win every time.

Game design is an interactive medium – and you can’t judge the value of that medium unless it’s in motion. I’ve designed perfectly great things that turned out terribly as well as accidental moments of complete joy. Neither of these incidents were illuminated by a game design doc. In fact, it is these shortcomings that lead developers down the road of iterative design, agile and scrum development.

So should you just skip the design doc altogether? No. With practice, you get to know what works and what doesn’t with some degree of accuracy (usually because you did it before). Furthermore, some sense of written direction is usually necessary when you’re dealing with dozens of different individuals or individuals in multiple locations.

For me as a contract designer, the ability to communicate the design of a potential game in a concept doc is my bread and butter. Often, that concept doc evolves from concept to proposal to a full design doc for a prototype. For students of game design, creating a design doc can be a seminal moment – the first time they actually think through everything that it takes to create a full-scale video game. Through the process, they see the game from the other side of the screen – the designer’s. It’s not the doc itself that caused that seminal moment, but rather the process of design. However, it’s often through this process that students first begin to see everything that’s involved in the creation of a full-scale game.

In a nutshell, writing a design doc is a phenomenally valuable exercise and key skill that designers should possess. However, and like I said before, your 250-page doc is unlikely to be the thing that gets you in the door.

Show Me Something

To get in the door, you need some kind of artifact. If your idea is compelling and your desire to be a game designer is sincere, have something to show for it. There are literally hundreds of possibilities. Just as an animator may show his or her sketch book, so too can the game designer show his or her ability in low-tech or no-tech ways.

Here’s one – create a board game. Take a typical game play paradigm like territorial acquisition and adjust the mechanics so that three different levels of player can enjoy the game – a 6 year old, a 12 year old and a 30 year old. Create three separate games to illustrate this point. I recently did something similar to Risk so I could play the game with my 6-year-old kid.

In the digital realm, there are many products out there that let you create games for free from Multiverse (MMOs) to Adventure Game Studio. This is just the tip of the iceberg, really. Do your homework and have a look around, but don’t let your lack of technology hold you back. Fact is, if you’re reading this, whether printed or on the web, you have enough technology in your hands right now to make a game.

Consistency Counts

If you’re planning to look for a job as a designer, don’t start in January for your May job search. Start now for the job you want four, five or ten years from now. Seriously. Set up a blog and start writing about games intelligently and regularly. Offer observation instead of empty comments (“The innovative mechanic in the game…” vs. “It was so cool!”).

Travel to blogs of other devs and see what they have to say and how they say it. Read design books and post your thoughts on them. Learn about the different types of designers – level, lead, content, system, UI, narrative, technical, etc. – and be able to talk about designers intelligently. For instance, don’t declare your desire to be lead before you’ve shipped a project, and for the love of all you hold dear, if you really want to be a game designer, know who Dani Berry is. She did so much way before most of you interested in this article were born.

Whatever you do, do it regularly. Post at least weekly. Let people know that making games is something you do, whether or not you’re being paid to. Consistent, directed passion means a lot.

What to Put in Your Portfolio, Then?

In order of importance, here are a bunch of things that would impress me in a student’s design portfolio. Naturally, other designers might have other ideas to contribute to the list or disagree with me outright. Take it all with a grain of salt.

• Internships in the game industry

• A few, playable digital games (remember those free game development tools)

• A digital game or level produced by a team with clear evidence of your contribution

• A few, playable non-digital games of high quality

• An intelligent, insightful and obviously updated blog

There are two caveats I’ll reserve for everything in that list above: having just one item isn’t enough, and if it’s not good, don’t show it. Solicit feedback from people who are comfortable giving you honest feedback, and work your butt off.

Bonus Points

Aside from the points I’ve mentioned above, there are other things that would impress me and help to solidify my belief that you are, in fact, serious about this design gig:

• Evidence of having read the same books most every designer in the industry has like Koster’s Theory of Fun and McCloud’s Understanding Comics for starters.

• Evidence of having attended a game conference like GDC, AGDC or a local IGDA chapter meeting. While you’re there, network yourself crazy. Darius Kazemi has an excellent series on networking that’s a must-read.

• Evidence of programming and/or artistic ability, but programming particularly. For game designers, your life will be a whole lot easier if you actually understand how to code at least functionally.

Go Make a Game

You can get a job as a game designer straight out of college. I know people who are hiring them, and I have hired them myself. Truth be told, though, for everyone 100 of you reading this, maybe one of you will get the call.

For some, it will be a case of too little work, too late. You’ll do exactly what’s required in college and no more. That won’t get you a job in many other fields, and it definitely won’t get you into the game industry. Go to GDC sometime and see just how many talented people are wandering around. There are literally 10,000+ people in line ahead of you if they want the job. You really have to work for it.

For others, it will be a case of mistaken identity. They’ll send their resume to Blizzard under the mistaken assumption that they really can do everything required in the Senior Designer position even if they haven’t shipped numerous titles. Things like this happen all the time. It reminds me of the person who leaves home saying they’re going to be a movie star. Some do, I suppose, but the great majority don’t. So, target yourself appropriately. Get in where you can get in. Fight with the smaller dogs for now. A true anecdote – a programmer friend of mine graduated from a great university with a high GPA. He sent out 100 resumes to 100 developers. He received one bite from a geographically isolated, small company. Two years later, that company closed. So, he sent out 10 resumes and had 10 bites. Once he had experience, he had no problem getting a job at all. It’s an important lesson.

Among those looking for a job, there will also be those that have a case of what I’ve come to call “lame syndrome” – the belief that anything that’s not AAA and practically screaming polygons is “lame.” I’ve heard it before. Serious games are lame. Casual games, cell phone games, flash games, ARGs are lame. “Lame.” Give yourself a chance and them, too. If you really believe those games are lame, man, you haven’t looked close enough.

All this said, some of you will get that call. So go make a game. Now.