Jacob Stegmeier | Multiplayer Level Designer

[Jake Stegmeier]

https://jakestegmeier.wixsite.com/portfolio

Hi, I'm a recent graduate from Arizona State University, in the process of applying for level designer jobs.

My portfolio is entirely of mod work for the Halo Franchise, and much of my work has seen success in online matchmaking.

Any feedback on format, content, organization, tech, etc.. is welcome. I'd like to make it as best as I can

 

Also I'm open to opportunities  if anyone has any leads

[JollyHolly]

Heya jake!

Best of luck with finding a job in the industry! I have some feedback, but do keep in mind that they come from a junior level designer and should therefore not be overvalued!

The first point is that your introduction page should not be the home page, rather, i would make your content the homepage, and instead creating an "about me" tab. This will make your content more accessible. And those who are curious about you then have a well presented option to find out more.

secondly, i would probably cut back on a lot of the text presented in the introduction. Personaly, saying that you've always wanted to make games is a bit "sterotypical" and to me rings a bit fale (even tho its not the case) I would also be careful to present Level design philosophy as there is a chance that it does not ring well with whoever is trying to hire you (their studio may create different type of games, with other philosofies etc) , or you may sound a bit "know it all". However, maybe you know where you are going, and therefore know that what you are saying will increase your likelyhood of getting a job, just know that it might be limiting you. 

If you do keep it, i would change "i believe" to i think, as that is a rational statement,  you wont come sound naive or arrogant. 

it is a bit irritating that the enter button is below the banner, as it is easy to misunderstand which picture belongs to which picture.

I like how you present the information on the actual page. Pictures are great and espescially those showing the layout, however i came a cross some which are a bit heavy on text. 

Also, to the pages which does not have picture etc of main feature, i would add. 

Finally, there is a lot of scrolling. Consider making your content page a bit more compact, altho this might be that i am on a laptop and being nitpicky. 

I also like that i can download your content. 

best of luck! 

 

 

[Puddy]

Heyo!

Some quick thoughts:

• Before you apply for jobs, be sure to pay for Wix - don't get filtered arbitrarily
• Your portfolio should be your home page, you can have an about page with text/CV
• Your email should be immediately visible on your portfolio 
• Your portfolio has a background image with contrasting brightness, make it a plain background and let your images pop
• The separation between your portfolio entries is a bit vague, does the text belong to the image below or above it? Bunch up your image and text more clearly and let the page have some space between each entry
• This is a bit subjective but I think your portfolio entries are a bit too "big" and zoomed in, lots of scrolling involved

Hope it helps

Puddy

[Jake Stegmeier]

@Puddy 

@JollyHolly

 

Thanks for the detailed feedback guys! I ended up giving the site a significant makeover based on a lot of your notes. It should be a lot easier to navigate now and find my contact information.

It now opens on the portfolio. The buttons and titles are attached to their entries clearer.

Email and my name have been included in the header to be seen on any page on the site at any time.

Killed the background in portfolio to make the pictures pop 

Cut down on a bit of text in the about page

And I even rearranged some things in each of the entries.

@Puddy Do companies actually filter out applicants if they haven't paid for their domain? Like if something says .wixsite.com. I hadn't heard of that before?

 

[Puddy]

12 hours ago, Jake Stegmeier said:

 

@Puddy Do companies actually filter out applicants if they haven't paid for their domain? Like if something says .wixsite.com. I hadn't heard of that before?

 

It would not be a company policy or anything (like a checklist) - but look at it this way, if a recruiter sees that and gets the sense that your portfolio is very junior, which it is since it doesn't contain any professional experience, they might quickly skim past your portfolio if other candidates are more senior. Don't give them a reason to overlook you unnecessarily. Let them at least soak in your portfolio a bit first before they make a decision.

[Radu]

1 hour ago, Puddy said:

 Let them at least soak in your portfolio a bit first before they make a decision.

Spoken like a true portfolio connoisseur

[blackdog]

Not sure if is cache, I haven’t opened your website before today, but I can see background images that make text less legible and not such clear separation between entities (although in the portfolio index is not a big deal, just can create a weird optical effect)

[Jake Stegmeier]

1 hour ago, blackdog said:

Not sure if is cache, I haven’t opened your website before today, but I can see background images that make text less legible and not such clear separation between entities (although in the portfolio index is not a big deal, just can create a weird optical effect)

 I was just doing some edits this morning so you may of caught me while I was making updates. Does the text still look like that out of the box on that page? Also what browser do you use on mobile? On my Google Pixel it shows up right

 

That blur effect gets caused my mobile getting screwy with backgrounds. I may just set it to switch to a plain background when someone uses mobile if I can't get the picture backgrounds to show up properly

[Jake Stegmeier]

@blackdog

 

I think I figured it out, seems to be an issue with safari. I believe I fixed that issue with the text on every page using container boxes. 

[blackdog]

20 hours ago, Jake Stegmeier said:

@blackdog

 

I think I figured it out, seems to be an issue with safari. I believe I fixed that issue with the text on every page using container boxes. 

Yeah I was browsing on iOS Safari. Not sure how common it is for HR in this sector to browse on mobile, maybe tablet is a better case but I have no insight.

Yeah the content page is fixed, the first screenshot I posted still has a background, now it’s less blurry but possibly more distracting? I would just not have it or tone down the opacity quite a lot.

[Jake Stegmeier]

6 hours ago, blackdog said:

Yeah I was browsing on iOS Safari. Not sure how common it is for HR in this sector to browse on mobile, maybe tablet is a better case but I have no insight.

Yeah the content page is fixed, the first screenshot I posted still has a background, now it’s less blurry but possibly more distracting? I would just not have it or tone down the opacity quite a lot.

Yeah that's tricky because it looks really good on PC but not as much on mobile. I'll have to mess with some code at some point here to get the background to change on mobile

[blackdog]

That should totally be possible. I only used Wix ages ago, and you could basically create a completely custom theme then. Should at least have some options for this kind of stuff, because most of the WYSIWYG editors I've fiddled with allow for mobile-specific behaviours.

[Jake Stegmeier]

4 hours ago, blackdog said:

That should totally be possible. I only used Wix ages ago, and you could basically create a completely custom theme then. Should at least have some options for this kind of stuff, because most of the WYSIWYG editors I've fiddled with allow for mobile-specific behaviours.

Yeah I was able to do a simple script to make the menu at the top change depending on your device. I just gotta read up on the API to do that with the background. Or I could be lazy and just make it a dark gray

[Soldat Du Christ]

It seems noisy now after your changes, but i get the reasoning behind it. Maybe it's better to communicate all that information as soon as possible when they might be trying to skim through. I like the changes to the background, never liked those over saturated pics distracting from the REAL MEAT

Edited July 10, 2020 by Soldat Du Christ