This is an initial guide and will be expanded in the future!

Please note that I do not work in the game industry and this is not a guide on how to get a job. My background is in other areas and I do have experience making portfolios.

What your portfolio should be like will depend at least on these two things:

• What its purpose is
• What skills you are showcasing

Purpose

Think about what your portfolio is for, if you haven't already. Some reasons for making a portfolio might be:

• To get a job, linking to your portfolio in your applications
• To get clients, if you work freelance or have a company
• To find professional collaborators
• To find collaborators in jams
• To support applications to study, for example for an undergraduate degree or other course
• To support applications for funding
• To show friends and family
• For your own satisfaction

If you are aiming to attract clients, you probably want to show your most polished work. If you are looking for employment, this might not be the case. Unfinished projects can still be attractive, as can projects that focus on a specific skill (such as programming) and are lacking in other areas (e.g. using placeholder art, or uninteresting game mechanics). You will still want to focus on your best pieces, rather than everything you've ever made.

I can't cover every case, or how to get a job in every industry, so do your own research! My main point is if you haven't given any thought to what your portfolio should be like, please do!

Skills

Do think about how your projects show the skills you want to demonstrate. This sounds very obvious, but be aware there are ways to show specific skills without making a full game! If you're spending most of your time struggling with programming, but you're really only looking for jobs in game design, there may be more efficient ways to use your time!

There may be certain conventions for how portfolios are presented. For example, sound design reels are generally 1-3 minutes long (approximately - people give slightly different figures). Research this yourself!

As well as the main skills you are demonstrating (such as programming, game design, voice acting, etc.), your portfolio can also show:

• Passion for specific skills
• Passion for games in general
• Attention to detail
  
• Ability to work in a team
  
• Proactivity
• Commitment to learning
• Your personality and style
• Your politics and values

Think about what other skills are important to you, and how your portfolio reflects that. People might read your commit messages or comments on a pull request to look at your communication. You might have written beautiful code for your game, but it will look unprofessional if the description on your itch page is full of typos.

Presentation

It's a good idea to keep all your portfolio pieces in one place - or at least link to them from one place. If your pieces are all over the place, e.g. you did the soundtrack for a game on itch, music for a video on youtube, and have some tracks on SoundCloud, you could list and link to them on one web page. This is especially useful if you are aiming to present your best work to get a job rather than everything you've ever done, e.g. if you are looking for work or to find clients. It could still be useful to post your work elsewhere, if it didn't make the cut. You might add your best pieces to your portfolio, and post your other pieces on Instagram or LinkedIn.

For something more casual, such as finding collaborators for jams, this doesn't matter so much. Even having a single project you can link to or a few posts on a social media page is much better than having nothing at all.

Resources

I will be adding links to guides to help you with portfolios in specific areas. Feel free to link to other resources in the comments!

Here are a couple of videos for now, both from Tim Cain:

Games Industry (all roles)

Game Designer