I want to start doing some scripting jobs for people in the near future. However, something that always confuses me is what to put it a portfolio? Because many people ask for ‘examples of previous work’. But there aren’t any good examples out there, it seems - I saw one guy just put some of his scripts on the internet, for people to look at. So what should I put in? Because so many of my nice scripts suffer from ‘programmer art’ and mostly comprise of textured cubes.
To have a game – or prototype – you have fully scripted is something to show off when asked about previous work, isn’t it? Also, useful tools you’ve made to effectivize your developement.
If someone is looking to hire you as a programmer, programmer art certainly should not bother them. I would put any interesting, completed concepts you have in there. It doesn’t have to be a full completed game even; for example, say you were working with a group of people on an MMORPG that never went anywhere, but you did program a full inventory system for it - the system alone is likely a worthy portfolio piece.
I’m definitely in agreement with Gisle on the tools aspect too. Any tools you’ve written to make your (or any artists/designers you’ve worked with) life easier are excellent portfolio pieces. They not only show some interesting programming work, but they also show your ability to identify a need in your projects workflow and fill that need.
^This. If someone won’t hire you as a scripter because your portfolio items don’t look ‘pretty enough’ then you probably aren’t missing out on anything important. If it’s something your overly concerned about, there’s lots of assets in the Unity demo projects, tutorials and on asset store that you can easily make use of.
As KyleStaves and GisleAune said, tools are an excellent place for scripters/programmers to show off something well made and useful, particularly when they relate to level design tasks and show an understanding of good usability.
thats my portfolio
Don’t worry about graphics or fancy shmancy scenes.
Instead illustrate your scripting prowess by using some programming intense physics or AI behaviours.
As others have said above, if people are looking for a programmer, it doesn’t matter what the game/scene/concept looks like, although its visuals shouldn’t take away from the programming concepts it endorses.