Jake Martin - Level Designer

    Hey guys. I've been working as a level designer for almost 4 years, the last 3 at my current studio. Recently, I've been reaching out and trying to find a new company to work with. It's not working out well and I'm not quite sure why. I got my first 2 jobs with relative ease but now I'm having a tough time even getting an interview. I'd appreciate some feedback on my resume, my website and the work I have on display.

    http://www.jakemartin.net

    Here are my thoughts :

    -The website was crazy slow to load. Could be because I'm in europe, but maybe change hosts to something more speedy?

    -The screenshots are very small, and the "hover over preview to see slightly larger version" design was annoying.

    -Also, the project description text was also an image, which collided horribly with my OCD behaviour of selecting whatever I'm reading

    -Regarding your bad luck with getting interviews and such, maybe it's because you don't have much "traditional" level design examples up? I don't know where you've been applying, but maybe sit down in your sparetime and create some awesome multiplayer/singleplayer levels which show your level design skills better?

    Hope that helps! And best of luck with your continued job hunt

    Thanks for the feedback.

    I don't know much about the performance of the site I have but I'll look into it.

    I've been wanting to switch over to a more blog format anyway and ditch the presentation format.

    When I switch over to the new page all of those images will be full size. The css site automatically scales the images to fit within that space but they're really 1920x1080.

    I haven't been a "traditional" level designer since I got this current job. If the professional work isn't good enough then I have no choice but to add to my portfolio with personal work.

    Thanks again!

    man, your thumbnails are over 170kb each! that is too much. make separate thumbnail images in exactly the resolution you need and use an average compression. and besides a 450x326 image doesn't need 170kb! 50kb would totally do the job as well. even less would be ok.

    loading this url (http://www.jakemartin.net/mba.html) in my browser did result in 2.07MB data being transferred in around 20 different files. you could speed things up by reducing the number of images. for example you could use clever css and a single collection thumbnail to create your thumbnail buttons. but reducing the overall filesize for your images would be the first step.

    content wise i can't say much, because it looks ok, but it doesn't bounce me off my chair as well...

    The thumbnails and the main pictures are actually the same. Like I said in the previous post, I took 1920x1080 screenshots and the css scales them down and populates both the thumbnail area and the full image area. I feel like I'm just going to change the website anyway so that'll all be taken care of.

    I'm not sure what you mean by it not bouncing off your chair. Please just be straightforward. I'm here for the criticism, no matter how brutal.

    Thanks!

    Quote from JakeMartin

    The thumbnails and the main pictures are actually the same. Like I said in the previous post, I took 1920x1080 screenshots and the css scales them down and populates both the thumbnail area and the full image area. I feel like I'm just going to change the website anyway so that'll all be taken care of.I'm not sure what you mean by it not bouncing off your chair. Please just be straightforward. I'm here for the criticism, no matter how brutal.

    Thanks!

    i meant that your visual work is not that much exciting that it makes me jump through my apartment. it is ok and solid, but nothing too special.

    oh and btw: using css to scale things is not reducing bandwidth. it is just instructions to the browser on how to render the content which keeps the same (data) size. just as a side note for future websites.

    Quote from hessi

    i meant that your visual work is not that much exciting that it makes me jump through my apartment. it is ok and solid, but nothing too special.

    Exactly! That's why I'm looking for another job. Such is the way of "serious games". Not a lot of creativity involved in the projects as compared to mainstream games.

    I don't really like how your work is presented. It follows a very blog-like format and the current colour scheme/layout isn't very attractive to me. And there's a lot of small text and small thumbnails which don't grab my attention, it's just one big blob and I have to inspect closer and for a longer duration to see and understand the work. I think you should try and cut down on those big chunks of text you see and make the thumbnails bigger and more of a focus, maybe use up some more horizontal space too.

    Hey Aaron, he specifically states in post 2 that he wanted to go to more of a blog format.

    JAKE,

    I see what you are going for and from a different design point, you have to think of this as a website not a portfolio of your work. For the desired effect make sure the site pops first. Once that is accomplished then you can make sure that your work shines.

    My site is in early development and is going to change a lot in the next few months and I am certain I don't have all the answers, but most of my sites do well so have a look at my portfolio: http://www.mike-z.net

    I would be happy to give you some pointers. Just contact me via the contact page there!

    -Mike

    Not a direct portfolio comment but...your resume should not be 4 pages long. 2 pages maximum if you really feel you have to squeeze all that info in there. I'd say you can definitely fit it in 1.

    While I agree that the text and thumbnails were too small, the general layout is simple and that's what I wanted. I've fixed those two things but now, after seeing Mike's site, that mine is way too plain. Wordpress doesn't offer up too many options when editing a site or maybe I just don't know how yet.

    Blitz, the resume can be as long or as short as you want. There's no consistent format that employers want to see. You can put in as much detail as you want but the key is to keep it clean and easy to read. The resume I currently have on my site is the one I used to get an interview at naughty dog so I must be doing something right.

    Mikes site is WAAAAY too complicated. You really do not want a complicated site, a perspective employer doesn't give two shits how your site looks, they care what you work looks like, showing them your work as directly as possible is by far the best way to go about this.

    Did you get it because or despite that though.

    I agree with getting rid with the stuff that wasn't the most important stuff, you can still have that in the portfolio anyways.

    Quote from JakeMartin

    Evert, they specifically asked for that much detail.

    I know the guy that got the job i assume you went for, his CV was 2 pages.

    Quote from JakeMartin

    Blitz, the resume can be as long or as short as you want. There's no consistent format that employers want to see. You can put in as much detail as you want but the key is to keep it clean and easy to read. The resume I currently have on my site is the one I used to get an interview at naughty dog so I must be doing something right.

    Dude are you fucking kidding me? You come on here asking for advice and then reject what is the most basic common sense advice possible. Congrats on your Naughty Dog interview, you clearly don't need anyone's help here!

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