Jonathan Cliff - Level Designer

[Z3LCIAH]

Hello Mapcore!,

I've been a lurker on the site for some time now, figured i may aswell sign up and get some helpful feedback on my portfolio and perhaps learn some new design techniques.

I've only got 2 projects on my portfolio at the minute but i'm currently working through the summer period bulking up the content, this is down to the Hotel Holmes project taking quite some time to complete.

Some feedback would be great, what to and not to include. I'm also curious as to how important Pre-Production materials are on your portfolio?

http://www.jonathan-cliff.co.uk/

Cheers!.

Edited May 24, 2013 by Z3LCIAH

[ElectroSheep]

Dunno if it's just me but your website is too heavy ! Can't load half of the stuff in there.

[Z3LCIAH]

Dunno if it's just me but your website is too heavy ! Can't load half of the stuff in there.

I looked into it but everything is compressed and should be running fine, could someone else verify this?

Edited May 25, 2013 by Z3LCIAH

[iwxanthi]

No problems here with your site, runs smooth.

Anyway I like your portfolio and especially the small descriptions are a big plus. You could show some pre-production stuff but keep it minimal. You can always provide more details in a interview.

[Z3LCIAH]

No problems here with your site, runs smooth.

Anyway I like your portfolio and especially the small descriptions are a big plus. You could show some pre-production stuff but keep it minimal. You can always provide more details in a interview.

Thanks, i was thinking more of just including early layouts.

As for the video i have on the Hotel Holmes page it's 7minutes long, i recently read a presentation by Naughtydog suggesting no more than 4 minutes for showreels, do you reckon this is something i should stick too?

[iwxanthi]

Early layouts is cool, always interesting to see how certain design choices were made.

About the video yes would keep it as short as possible and naughtydog is completely right about the length. Most videos I skip through are above 4 min.

[Z3LCIAH]

Working on editing down the files now, i figured a trailer would fit more appropriately.

[smok3y]

It won't load at all for me. I'm in the States.

[Z3LCIAH]

It won't load at all for me. I'm in the States.

 

My website was down during this period, pesky HostUltra!.

[Alf-Life]

Not sure if you're still looking for feedback after this time ...but... the video looks great! Far beyond what our teams managed at University!

 

I'd agree with the length, though... perhaps you could mask those glitchy screen artifacts by cherry-picking the best moments/moments that you did and cutting them together into a 2-3 minute vid?

 

I'd also like to see more specifics on what you did - maybe screens with layout sketches or some greybox geo, but as someone above mentioned you can also talk about that at your interview.

 

Finally, I know people say 'only show your best work' but that's your only piece in your portfolio - and it's a team project - so it'd be nice to see one more map or something.

 

Have to say it again, though, so impressed with that Hotel project! Looks really good!

[Z3LCIAH]

Thank you very much for the feedback!.

I've removed some work from my portfolio as i just didn't enjoy looking at them anymore. I'm currently in my final year of Univeristy working on a group project in Unity, as well as a solo project with UDK so that will be the bulk of my content. 

I do plan on going back and editing Hotel Holmes project some what after Uni, which is why i haven't edited the videos yet. I have stumbled across a better way to present it.

There is a blog that i will be updating weekly regarding my final year project which is why i kept the site up. Thanks again for the feedback, much appreciated.
 

[Z3LCIAH]

Not sure if you're still looking for feedback after this time ...but... the video looks great! Far beyond what our teams managed at University!

 

 

Thanks for your feedback, i just checked your CV and it appears we attended the same University, well i'm still there.

By any chance did you give a lecture this month at Teesside regarding Killzone Shadowfall?.

Edited February 12, 2014 by Z3LCIAH

[PaulH]

I also went to Teesside I checked your portfolio but only the top project (Hotel Holmes) seems to be loading...

 

The second year team project (with outsourcing) sounds interesting, when I was there we only did a 10 man project in the final year, it didn't do so much to prepare me for working in the industry though as we all worked quite separately and some members of my group did at little as possible to get involved. Sounds like they're trying to alleviate that somewhat which is good

[Z3LCIAH]

I also went to Teesside I checked your portfolio but only the top project (Hotel Holmes) seems to be loading...

 

The second year team project (with outsourcing) sounds interesting, when I was there we only did a 10 man project in the final year, it didn't do so much to prepare me for working in the industry though as we all worked quite separately and some members of my group did at little as possible to get involved. Sounds like they're trying to alleviate that somewhat which is good

 

I checked your portfolio and i think i remember seeing a screenshot of your Southfield Pub level somewhere, how did you find your time at Teesside?

 

There's two big group modules that go on now, the second year one is the biggest they call it Journeyman and it's amazingly fun. I got to present the game to Peter Molyneux who came down after the Uni won a lecture from the Godus Kickstarter. The second is 'Advanced Game Dev' where we actually get to work with programmers this time, that's the last project on my portfolio. Alot of us have also signed up for ExpoTees this year and are waiting confirmation wether we got accepted on the 17th, so fingers crossed!.

 

Hotel Holmes is currently the only portfolio piece on there at the minute, the other two projects are ongoing.. only 3 months left till i graduate though so i'll be adding those up then. 

Here's a short clip of my current final year project build focusing on creating gameplay through only visual scripting, still along way togo with adding AI and objectives, but the core is there.

Edited March 7, 2014 by Z3LCIAH

[PaulH]

Yeah the Journeyman bit sounds new, we did the advanced game dev project in the final year though. My time at Teesside was good, even if I spent a lot of the last 2 years locked away working on both uni work and portfolio pieces Good luck with Expotees, we did that too, was a good chance to speak to people from some of the local development studios...if you get to that stage it's worth taking e-mail addresses from various studios and forwarding on your portfolio for them to check out, so make sure it's all updated by that point (and mark anything on it as 'in progress' if it doesn't yet exist)

 

Your final project looks interesting, update it when you're further along, will be interesting to see how it turns out