Demo advice

[Anonymous]

Hi all,

I am hoping to get a job over in the UK in the next few months as a games programmer. I have a few issues with regards to my portfolio.

I’ve been working the past few months learning 3D graphics and math. I have a good grasp of the basics. I’m coding in C++ and using OpenGL, OpenAL, bullet for collision detection and glfw for input and windowing.

1) I treated myself to a directX11/opengl 4.0 card :) So im creating and using an OpenGL 4.0 context but im mainly using OpenGL 3.3 and GLSL 3.3 features really. Is it fair to assume that games companies will have a fairly recent GPU and be able to run my work, right?

I picked OpenGL over DirectX as it might give me an edge when applying to companies who work on iphone or downloadable games maybe?

2) My first 3D game (which im currently working on) is a pool simulation. It will have a main menu, credits, loading screens, etc. I chose Pool as my 3D modelling skills are pretty useless and i dont want to waste time on this! Also it is a good demonstration of all the basics. Its not the most exciting game so will this be seen negatively? Im hoping that a complete game will prove that I know the basics and that I finish what I start.

When this project is complete I plan to start submitting to companies. In the meantime I will be working on something more fun/complex if that fails to generate any interviews…

3) I will need the person looking at the demo to install OpenAL (and possibly lua) to run it. Is this acceptable? I could disable sound maybe?

Thoughts? Any advice will be greatly appreciated. Thanks.

[Anonymous]

1) If you’re applying to next gen console developers, you can probably expect high end graphics cards, although if you are looking to apply to iPhone / downloadable games, you might not be so lucky. You should try make your game run on something lower end just in case. It should really run on something below top-end to make it accessible to people.

2) If you can get it to completion and polished, that would be perfectly acceptable project. You might want to remember that you may want to tailor the demo to the type of job you would like to have, so if you were interested in rendering, spend some extra time on funky rendering techniques, physics, make the balls phyiscs super nice, etc… Having it polished an complete it a good sign of work ethic, a lot of demos are ‘finished’ but not ‘completed’.

3) If you could include DLLs or such to avoid the requirement of installing that would be much better. Some companies would refuse to install anything as they don’t know what’s on the disk. If installing something is a requirement, make sure you supply it and don’t require the employer to search for the program to install.

Hope that hopes :)

[Anonymous]

Don’t assume you’ll get more than 20 seconds of effort from whoever ends up first checking your stuff out. I recommend:

Make a video and add your source code. Create multiple builds with/without sound – skip any custom installer and make your demo portable – include openAL/LUA installers if you are needing them. Stick the video on youtube at high quality as well – helps avoid codec issues and asking someone to follow a link from an e-mail is fairly convenient.

[Anonymous]

Thanks for the replies!

@omen
Yeah i’m hoping for a PS3/360/Wii developer. Theres some great stuff being made on iphone/android too these days so thats why I was thinking about what machines developers would have. OpenGL 3.x would be considered below top end by now, wouldn’t it? If not, I could write 2.1 shaders for older cards. It might not be that much work, hopefully..

Also, good idea about tailoring it for rendering or physics. Problem is i’m not sure yet which part of game dev i prefer!

@Greenbean

Yeah, good idea on the youtube video. Great fallback in case it fails to run. I found out that all the openal installer does is copy 2 dlls into system32 so I can just package them in myself. Similar story for lua (LuaPlus dlls).

Is January a bad time of year for getting work? Maybe it doesn’t matter.

[Anonymous]

Sorry, I’m not up to spec with graphics cards and shaders, someone else should be able to answer that.

Also, good idea about tailoring it for rendering or physics. Problem is i’m not sure yet which part of game dev i prefer! [/quote:413361e8f9]
They were jsut suggestions of areas, others would be networking, AI, audio, gameplay, UI… If you don’t know what you like to concentrate on, then concentrate on gameplay, it will generally involve you somewhat in all other aspects. And most importantly, get it polished.

Is January a bad time of year for getting work? Maybe it doesn’t matter.[/quote:413361e8f9]Nah, I don’t think there is a particularly good or bad time, its just how the market is at a particular time.

[Anonymous]

Latest version of this demo I am working on:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LgDj2MjVgoA

[Anonymous]

Here is another video of the latest version. Almost finished now!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3gPpkircnBg

Any comments or advice on how i could improve it would be very appreciated. Thanks.

[Author]

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