The key to a good Portfolio

Many are wondering what to do about their portfolios. Well, I have heard a lot of good tips and tricks for this area, mostly from my very talented ex-coworkers at Lockpick Entertainment.

By the way, congratulations David to the marrige!

Anyway, I wish to share my knowledge about this area, and feel free to add more tips and tricks in the comment section of this post.

 

Make stuff on your spare time!

By making stuff on your free time, you are not only creating content for your portfolio, but you are also showing that you are a driven spirit that likes to do stuff for the fun and not for the money. Believe me, this will eventually get you money anyway, if that's what you want.

This is suggestions of stuff that you can do on your spare time:

• MODs
• Games
• Art
• Code
• Design
• Blog?
• anything!

 

Show your portfolio to the world!

What good is a portfolio  if you don't show it to anyone? Build a website and show what you can do and what you have done! It's important that the portfolio site is very clean och easy to understand. Show and tell only what is important to tell. My friend Claes has a very good portfolio site, which I looked a lot at when I created my own portfolio site.

Also, try to get a domain name for yourself. I suggest you go to www.domain.com and buy your own name as a domain. That's what i did with my www.joakimbergman.com, but you can also do what Claes did and have www.claeng.com, which actually is shorter and easier to write.

 

Well, that's all! Now, post your own tips and tricks if you wish!

Blog update: Poll results!

Well, my poll about what you guys and girls would like to read about on my blog is now over, and here is the results!

• 36% - Game Development 
• 50% - The Right to Privacy (spelled that wrong in the poll)
• 9% - Other
• 4% - I don't know

This shows that my concept of having two different subjects on one blog might actually work! Or so I would like to think, after checking my poll results. 

My next blog post will include some of the best tips for building a good portfolio. Stay tuned! I will try to get the post up by tomorrow!

Movie time with the Pirate Party!

I like this one, and it's very well made. Good job Morphanimal!

Getting a job in the games industry

Ah, time for my tips and tricks again - And my "WATCH OUT"s.

As I'm currently looking for a Community Managing, Marketing or Game Designing job right now, I'm doing the same thing and so far it's working out fine. I'm discussing jobs with multiple recruiters, hoping to get a positon somewhere. I've at least caught their attention, even though one of them has stopped writing to me, but I'll go more into details about that in the end of this post.

 

If you WANT a job, this is what you do

1. Check who your contacts are, write them down on a piece of paper and also write down what positions you might, at best, get from these.
   
   
2. Write down a % beside every position, below each contact. Just make an estimation, the numbers themselves doesn't really matter, just the margin between them.
   
   
3. Think about what you would like to work with, and then choose the contact that has the highest % of that particular position. 
   
   
4. Update your CV and write a cover letter for the position and mail your contact, or even better, call your contact right away! (remember to ask if or when he/she might be available)
   
   
5. Think this is messy or don't have any contacts? Take contact with an external recruiting company, they have contacts for you to use!

 

Always stay cool or you might blow it

Sometimes recruiters contact you, and you might even get a promising dialogue with this person. DON'T GET EXCITED, once he fills this position with another person he will problably not get back to you with any status updates on the position.

This is problably not because he/shes rude, it's just that it takes time to send emails explaining the situation for EVERYONE that might have applied. It's just not effective for some people.

The best thing to do is to stay cool and hope that this person contacts you later for a new position. Remember, you have already worked this person up before, so the next time it will be much easier to get the position if you play(ed) your cards right.

 

Thanks to my friend Fredrik for some of these tips

Michael Jackson would have wanted it...

What if MJ got some privacy?

Would he have been alive today? Yes, I think so. Think about what massive surveillance can do to a person.

Well, Michael Jackson is extreme, but it is still the same thing. He knew that he hardly could do anything without someone watching him and I'm positive that kind of drove him a little bit mad.

How will sensitive people react?

By now, you guys know how I'm reacting to this surveillance stuff, but I'm not a very sensitive person. How would a mentaly sensitive person react to being monitored 24/7? Maybe they will react like MJ and stay inside all their lives and in the end die of starvation and drug addiction? (now that's not 100% why MJ died, but you get the picture)

 

As I see it, we are already doomed. Too many people close their eyes and pretend it isn't happening, only to realise too late that it's actually real.

Well, at least "I" faught! What did you do?

Games goes up, Film and Music goes down...

Believe it or not, the Gaming Industry is almost the largest entertainment industry excisting today. The thing is, we are also the industry that is expanding the most right now.

Many new game developing companies are popping up all over the world and new tools are created to let even more and less financed companies release their games and make a living on them.

 

The Film and Music industry = FAIL

As the Film and Music industry keeps ignoring the fact that they need to evolve to survive, the Gaming Industry will remain the largest entertainment industry.

The Gaming Industry got tools like:

• Steam
• Xbox Community Games
• Sony Online
• ...

The film and music industry got like "Spotify", but they keep resisting to use it. Come on, cut the old and useless record companies and embrace tools like Spotify, that's the only way you will ever be able to keep up with the Gaming Industry.

FRA... IPRED... Stockholmprogramme... whats next?

When will it end? Can you, as I, see where this is going? Just watch this video, will you? =)

Henrik Alexandersson recently wrote about how the justice department and EU-parlament will go on with the Stockholm programme. It all looks like it's going to be behind closed curtains. It will be very hard to know what changes they make, what they might add or remove.

We citizens wont need to know this, we are only stupid and don't know the best for the country... right?

Oh god, I'm hooked!.. or choked?

Star Wars: The Old Republic: A game that I really look forward to, for two reasons:

1. Really fantastic universe, Star Wars is fantastic.
2. Bioware and Lucasarts are geniouses of Game Design, and are making a very different type of MMO-development. Not only will all characters (including PC-character) have voice-acting, they have also made promises about un-linear gameplay experiences.
    
   

I have fallen to the Dark Side

Due to my fall to the dark side, the hype, I have condemned myself to months of pain. I want to play this game so badly that it hurts. REALLY! I refresh their website every 15 minutes, hoping for new information about the game or maybe even a BETA *orgasmic*.

Hype will not only lead to endless longing for playing the game, it will also build up my expectations to the roof. I will no doubt be disappointed once I finally get to try the game out.

Right now it feels like it's the best game ever and you can do ANYTHING and all that stuff, but deep down my Game Designer self tells me that it can't possibly be that perfect.

If I hadn't fallen to the hype, I would instead been supprised by the game and all its features - By having no built up expectations, it's less likely to be disappointed.

 

How to avoid hype

STAY AWAY FROM THE GAME UNTIL NEAR RELEASE! Only visit the website or read news about the game until 2 months BEFORE release. That will save you from the pain of hype. God, why don't I ever listen to myself?

The Right to Privacy... IS SCREWED!

I recently read on Rick Falkvinges blog about the new and dare I say largest threat against our Right to Privacy: The Stockholm Programme (swe: stockholmsprogrammet).

 

Greetings the Stockholm Programme, Goodbye Privacy

I will translate the list that Henrik Alexandersson blogged about into English:

• An expanded co-operation between EU and USA "in the field of freedom, security and justice".
• National Anti-Terrorist center in all EU-states, which will report directly to Brussels.
• All EU-states will share their intelligence with all other EU-states.
• Increasing and more effective "data-mining" (FRA...).
• Real time access to information about, among other: citizens travels, bank errands, cell-phone positions, use of internet, finger print and portrait.
• Enhanced surveillance through an active gathering of individual citizens electronic footprints.
• EU-standardisation of surveillance.
• EU-harmonization to clear out legal obstacles for surveillance and bugging.
• EU-leveled analyzation of materials from the EU-states surveillance and bugging.
• An expanded EU-bureaucracy for surveillance, bugging and analyzis, called SitCen.

 
Demonstrate and spread the word!

There's huge demonstrations about this in Stockholm on Wednessday, unfortunately I'm out of cash so I cant go there, but if you can - you should!

Also, keep blogging about this and spread it to everyone  you know. People must know what's happening and should rise up to stop it! Our privacy is at stake! Stop closing your pathetic eyes, hoping that everything will be okay or that "it will never happen to you". It's happening, it will NOT be okay!

Back from Hungary

I'm back from the Land of Food and Bathing...

Expect the regular updates to resume!

Going to Hungary... + a snack!

Hi, I'm going to Hungary for a week or so. That means I wont be back until July 11th. But I wont leave you with nothing. Here's the trailer for the Neverwinter Nights 2 Module that me and a team of 5 people (originally 7) are working on: Fools War.

 

Fools War (scheduled release fall 2009)