Game Design Portfolio Instructions

Game Design Portfolio

Game Design applicants are strongly encouraged to submit examples of their own design work as part of their application.

• Game Design Portfolio Assignment

  At the heart of a good game is a set of mechanics — the rules by which the game is played. These rules and the player’s imagination define the majority of the experience. Nothing demonstrates this better than a good board game, and truly great board games have very simple rules and game pieces. Think of chess, backgammon, or some of your childhood favorites, like Chutes & Ladders or Candy Land. These games have stood the test of time because of their great mechanics and the emergent play that comes from those mechanics.

  To demonstrate your abilities as a game designer, your optional Portfolio Assignment is to design and document a simple board game. Please adhere to the requirements. No additional items are allowed. Design always comes with constraints. Your ability to be creative within those constraints will be highly valued.

  For the optional Portfolio Assignment, all games will use the theme “recover.” You may incorporate this theme and interpret this word as you see fit in your design, but the use of the theme must be evident and well explained.

  Please note that you will be submitting your documentation for evaluation, not sending us all the board materials.

  Requirements

  • Your game must have a game board. Your board can be any size or shape, but must fit within one 11″ x 17″ piece of paper. You may have only one board.
  • Your game must use pawns that are played on the board in some meaningful way. You can have up to 20 game pawns per player. Examples: chess pieces, miniatures, coins, tokens, etc.
  • While not required, you may choose up to two additional elements:
    • Dice — no more than two per player. You may use any type of dice, including custom-designed dice
    • Spinner
    • Popper
    • Cards — no more than 10 unique cards. You may use duplicates of cards in your gameplay to create a larger deck
    • Score sheet and pencil/pen
    • Markers or other drawing implements

  Documentation

  Please note that you will be submitting your documentation for evaluation, not sending us all the board materials.

  Document your work in a single, multipage file. We suggest you create your document in an application like Microsoft Word and save it as a PDF to ensure the formatting is maintained. Please do not separate the images from the text. We want to see your skills in documenting your process. Documentation must include:

  • Title of your game
  • Summary description/overview of your game
  • Description of how your game incorporates the theme
  • Definition of your target audience — describe who would like to play your game and why
  • A clear, visible picture of your physical board (or screenshot if the board was created in a digital application)
  • Description of your game board: How does the player move around the board? How does the board guide or influence the player’s actions? What are some of the features of the game board that are important to gameplay?
  • A clear, visible picture of your game pawns
  • Description of your game pawns: How does the player use them on the board? What do they represent within the context of the theme and play?
  • Clear, visible pictures of any other elements you decided to use in your gameplay, and descriptions.
  • Game set up, play, and rules: How many players can play? What must you do before gameplay begins? How do you start the game? What are the players’ goals that will lead to victory? How does the player win or lose?
  • Game sequence demo: Show three (3) to nine (9) images demonstrating states of gameplay. Add a caption for each image describing what you want the viewer to know about the image and the state of play.
  • Reflection statement: Have friends or family members play your game. This is called “play testing”. Based on your testing, tell us what you think works best about your game, what you think could work better, and what you learned about designing a game during this exercise.
• Submitting Your Portfolio

  When submitting your Game Design document, save it as a PDF file. This will ensure that we can open it and none of the formatting or images will be lost. Upload your files to Slideroom and finish the application by answering the questions about yourself in the online form.

  SUBMIT

• How the Portfolio Will Be Evaluated

  Our Game Design faculty will evaluate each submission for creativity and originality. Innovation will win you points over mimicking the latest hot, blockbuster game title or rehashing the old tried and true. Show us who you are and where your creative energies lie through your design. Your submission does not need to be a complete or fully polished game. We don’t expect technical perfection.

Submit Your Portfolio