Steve Gaynor (2K Marin) just posted an excellent article on how to get noticed/hired as a game designer. His advice is, in a nutshell, “Make cool shit, and show it off to anyone and everyone.” Which also completely applies to art and programming as well. It also jibes with the inimitable Tom Sloper’s advice about game schools, namely that it doesn’t matter where you built your amazing portfolio, it just matters that you did build your amazing portfolio.
Specifically, Steve’s advice on promoting yourself and your work is key. One thing he advises is that game designers should “apture video of playthroughs of your maps with something like Fraps, then upload them to a site like Youtube or Vimeo.” That’s great advice — I remember that a friend of mine was applying for a level design job at 2K Boston, and the demo levels that he brought with him weren’t running on their computers for some reason. He would have been out of luck, except he had a video reel of his levels on his Zune! He pulled out his little media player and showed them his work on that. They were impressed. And honestly, if I’d been interviewing him, I would have been just as impressed with his resourcefulness as I would have been with his level design.
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