If you’re struggling to get to the interview stage for a game design role, you’re not alone.
Many aspiring game designers pour hours into perfecting their resumes, cover letters, and LinkedIn profiles – only to realize none of it matters if their portfolio fails to stand out.
Here’s the truth: your portfolio is the gateway to landing interviews.
Simply put:
And no amount of degree and certificates will change that.
So, how can you outshine the competition?
The instructors at Game Design Skills have collectively reviewed over 1,500 game design portfolios across various sub-disciplines and identified two major issues:
- Poor project quality
- Poor portfolio presentation
Here’s how you can address both.
Solving the Project Quality Problem
The biggest issue with most design portfolios is that their projects are essentially glorified engine tutorials with polished art assets.
Impressive to non-designers but not to the people who matter: hiring managers.
For example, most level design portfolios are packed with prototypes prioritizing aesthetics over functionality, showcasing environment art rather than well-designed, functional spaces.
(And yes, this is a common problem even among students and graduates of game design and development programs.)
Here are 2 main ways you can create substantial projects that can impress the right people:
- Join an Indie project where you can work on an actual game that’s under the supervision of a more experienced designer.
- Find discipline-specific designers with a proven track record and experience in the type of game design role you want to mentor you on a project.
Don’t make building your skills and projects a solo quest.
The value of feedback and guidance on your project lies in the opportunity to learn directly from someone else’s first-hand experience and make meaningful iterations of your work over time.
Remember: quality beats quantity.
A single high-quality project is far more valuable than several mediocre ones.
Presenting Your Projects Effectively
An amazing project isn’t enough if you can’t present it in a way that proves you’re the best fit for the role. This isn’t just a beginner problem – it’s one many professional designers face as well.
Your portfolio needs to achieve two key goals:
Goal 1: Retain the Attention of Recruiters and Hiring Managers
Your portfolio is only as good as its ability to grab and hold attention. Even the best project is useless if no one takes the time to engage with it.
If your portfolio doesn’t grab their attention in that brief window, you risk being overlooked entirely.
Here are a few tactics you can apply right away:
- Apply copywriting techniques to make your portfolio compelling.
- Use a combination of text, formatting, and visuals to communicate effectively.
- Use simple language and prioritize clarity first.
If done well, navigating your portfolio should feel seamless and effortless, directing people to the core parts the hiring managers look for.
Goal 2: Prove You Can Design Engaging, Player-Focused Experiences
Unlike concept art or animation – where “what you see is what you get” – game design requires you to show your process and thinking.
Your portfolio should demonstrate your ability to:
- Use an intentional, systematic design approach that delivers consistently fun gameplay.
- Validate and refine designs through prototyping, iteration, and testing, aligning with how studios operate.
- Collaborate effectively in team settings, including handling disagreements productively, getting buy-in for your ideas, and clearly articulating your design decisions.
By addressing these two core issues – project quality and portfolio presentation – you’ll significantly increase your chances of standing out, landing interviews, and ultimately, securing your dream game design role.
(Abdul does a great job of this in his Fort Azami portfolio piece breakdown)
The more your portfolio indicates that you can already do the job in the studio’s context, the more likely you’ll stand out vs the rest of the competition.
How to Get Guidance on Your Portfolio?
The Game Design Skills team has created these four bootcamps to address these challenges focusing on practical application, hands-on experience, and live mentorship.
They specifically designed these bootcamps to help those who are stuck in the job application process develop
- Discipline-specific skills
- Create industry-quality projects – with common real studio situations (like last-minute feature requests by the team lead)
- Turn those projects into competitive portfolio pieces
Here are the details of each bootcamp type:
For level design, you can take these two live 12-week bootcamps, where you’ll learn to build an industry quality level blockout through 16 iterations and 6 live playtests, then turn it into a competitive portfolio piece:
- The FPS-focused bootcamp is led by Mike Madden, who has 20 years of experience and has shipped levels for 7 Call of Duty titles.
- The 3D Action Adventure focused bootcamp is led by Nathan Kellman, who has worked on levels for games like Diablo 4, Mafia Old Country, etc. Plus, he has personally reviewed over 1,000 level design portfolios in the past 3 years.
By the end of the bootcamp, you’ll have:
- A complete 3D Action-Adventure or FPS blockout showcasing you have job-ready skills.
- A repeatable framework for creating and iterating new levels.
- A portfolio that gives you the edge to land more interviews in today’s market.
2. Game Writing & Narrative Design Bootcamp
For those interested in game writing and narrative design, you can take the 13-Week Game Writing Bootcamp.
In the first 9 weeks, you’ll be closely guided by two lead narrative designers and game writers, Kelly Bender, and Ruty Rutenberg, through the knowledge, processes, and steps to design and write a narrative-focused project with 8 essential deliverables and go through 16 iterations and feedback sessions.
In the last 4 weeks, you’ll turn it into a portfolio.
By the end of the bootcamp, you’ll have:
- An industry-quality game narrative project, with 8 feedback sessions.
- Improved interactive narrative design, character design, and writing processes, all within a real-world studio production.
- The tools, processes, skills, confidence, and knowledge to create portfolio-worthy projects.
3. Mastering Game Mechanics Bootcamp Depth at Scale
For those interested in gameplay, mechanics, systems, and content design, you can take the 12-Week Mastering Game Mechanics Bootcamp to learn proven frameworks, tools, and techniques to design deep (replayable) gameplay mechanics at scale and clearly communicate them in professional team settings and job interviews.
By the end of the bootcamp, you’ll have:
- A game pitch deck detailing core features, including enemy designs, player abilities, and mechanics tailored for PvP, PvE, and Co-op modes.
- A repeatable process for designing engaging and scalable mechanics.
- The ability to clearly communicate your ideas and confidently iterate, transforming feedback into polished, professional designs.
Breaking into game design isn’t easy, but with the right projects, presentation, and mentorship, it’s entirely achievable.
For reference, most aspiring designers have project problems, and you’ll be surprised how many established designers who worked on great projects have poor portfolios.
But that’s good news for you: By these gaps, you can rise above the competing applicants and get more interviews, which ultimately leads to job offers.
If you’ve struggled to find design mentorship or aren’t sure how to build a portfolio that gets you hired, these bootcamps are an opportunity to get the support and guidance you need.
- All bootcamps are set to start on January 25th.
- The deadline to enroll is January 24th or when we hit capacity.
You can learn more about all the upcoming Game Design Skills bootcamps here.
