Alright... well, here it is, at the risk of being utterly ripped into.

So I'm a recent graduate, and one day I'd like my future to contain a game industry job. So, looking down the list of stuff I need to accumulate... well, the dust cleared, and I realized I don't have a demo.

Crap.

So, here's the question, and I hope it can be answered. Among the people you would seriously consider hiring for a programming position, what are some examples of demos you've seen? In specific, as far as graphics programming and especially shader programming go, what skills should be demonstrated, and what are some good ways to present them?

It's not that I just want to do only enough to turn heads, it's just there's a time when, even though you can and will do more, you have a reasonable chance of landing that interview and should just apply. I'd like to have an idea of how long that will be for me, since that'll give me an idea of what my immediate and long-term future. Also, knowing what I should aim to do better than would be great too, in case you know... the image I might concoct of what a good demo should be like really isn't a good demo, or even if it might be way too ambitious.

[Edited by - caelk on September 10, 2010 4:00:35 AM]

Okay, well... thanks for the reply, by the response, it looks like it doesn't necessarily have to be a game, though I still feel like doing one. But well... an open-ended question gets an open-ended response, I guess. Probably an error on my part, I apologize.

So, I'm just going to spill what I've been brewing over in the last couple of days, which more or less amounts to me picking a bunch of topics I'm interested in, making sure I know them, then making something that hopefully ties them all together. In order of priority, I'm thinking the following.

Toon rendering - Top of the priority list, I really want to do this. Of course, this ties into silhouette edge rendering, which is no problem as it's something I want to do.

Bump mapping - Never actually did this, but still I'm curious. I think this should be relatively simple, but I've been wrong about things before. Maybe the first thing I should do, could be a warm-up.

Particle Systems - Oh yeah, right up there with toon shading. Never really experimented with these, really wanted to.

Shadows - As far as I can tell, there's two ways to do these: shadow volumes and shadow maps. I don't know which one's more prevalent (and someone please tell me if they know or have experience), but if I had to choose between one or the other, I'll go for shadow maps.

Fog - Don't find it interesting, but it's used in so many things, I don't think I should ignore it.

Other Effects - Other things like depth of field, bloom, lens flare, motion blur... interesting, but low priority. Maybe one of these each time I'm between things I think will take a while.

Parallax mapping - Hmm... this seems hard, but really interesting at the same time. Still might take a while to do. Save for later.

I think the real big question to ask is: is there anything that's not here that every shader or graphics programmer worth anything would know before he should ever attempt to do actual work?

Second question: other than a shower of sparkles, I'm having a bit of trouble thinking of something good to demonstrate a particle system with. Any suggestions?

Third question: is there anything here that I've glossed over that I really should move up in the priority list?

Fourth question: I'm not a level designer, modeler, animator, or composer. I'm assuming if I make a game, length and/or competent level design doesn't matter as long as I highlight the effects that I worked on. Borrowed models (however simple, even) with even choppy animation would be fine, and I shouldn't worry about music since I'm not a composer. If these can be good, then they won't hurt, but otherwise don't sweat it too much. If I borrow, be sure to credit. Are these reasonable assumptions to make?

Last question: Does this all seem rather ambitious? Alternatively, am I just barking up the wrong tree with this list of stuff, not really doing anything that'd help me land (then do) that job? I don't think that's the case, but you never know.

If you've read up to here, thanks. I'd be most grateful for any input anybody can give, even if it's advice not related to the questions above. In the end, I might not touch all of these, but it's still something to aim for, and I am actually interested to know how these work.

Quote: Original post by Tom Sloper
What?? If you want to apply for a game programming job, of course your portfolio has to include games. How you got anything to the contrary out of what I said, I don't know.

Sorry, read into your response a bit too deep. A game isn't exactly the first thing I think of when I think of a solution to a problem. (I don't consider games as problems, so they don't need to be solved! Well, okay, until they're made, then they make problems on their own.)

Any other thoughts? I might look in those other forums, too. Thanks.