[Portfolio] Game Designer with a penchant for game art. (Critiques wanted!))

geopixel

Hello Everyone,

I have been a long time lurker here at poly count and finally decided to post.

Currently I am the lead game designer at Unknown.com a small independent company based out of Tampa, FL.

Art is a hobby for me but since our team is small I have had to take on the artist role as well.

I would like to receive feedback on my work and site which can be found at http://hectorgrobles.com

Feedback would be greatly appreciated.

Razgriz

Hey man, I'll try and give this a bit of a bump for you. I believe I've given you my two cents on your website before - I love the layout; Simple, clean, to-the-point, with no frills or unnecessary pages. It perfectly fits what you do, which surprises me that you still have your old UT3 and school work from way back when. Given that you're a designer (and at least have some serious experience there), I would completely replace the demo reel at the top and your flatbook pages from school with thumbnails for your released apps that bring up a page with screens, process, and explanations of your role and problem solving on the project. I'm guessing that you could get at least five or six solid pages of work that is tailored to your specialty. The work you have on there right now won't contribute in getting you either an art or a design job, honestly, and I know you have quite a collection of actual paid/industry work you can replace it with.

Hope this is constructive and gives you some decent ideas.

gsokol

Hi geopixel,

The first thing that came to mind viewing your reel was this: "what type of job are you aiming for"


You have a little bit of everything in here.

If you are pushing towards design, you need to figure out what kind of design you are interested in. Your reel makes me think you are into level design, with the floating platforms and whatnot.

If that is the case, I wasn't really all that impressed with what you featured here. Not as a knock on you or anything, but it just didn't look cool. If you are looking to get a job, you need to be unique, and do something that will catch peoples attention.

Maybe getting in on a MOD would be beneficial for you. Then you can hopefully have other people building assets and you can focus on the design aspect.

As far as your art goes, you have a ways to improve. You are mainly showing off character models, which is a little removed from the environment art/level design vibe I get from your reel. In short, if you don't want to be a character artist don't put up character art. You can expect to be judged by your weakest link...even if you are being considered for a level design job, the character art may be a serious turnoff. Only focus on your best stuff.

The first thing you really need to figure out is the direction you would like to go. While there are companies out there that need you to be a generalist (my employer does) you should mainly focus on doing one thing, and doing it well.

Sorry for the wall of text, :P. Keep at it man. Good luck!

geopixel

Thanks for the critiques, they are greatly appreciated!

You are both right on all the points you brought up. Personally I enjoy character art and environmental art. But my passion is in level design and game design.

I was blessed in the sense that the generalization of my current portfolio helped me land a lead position at a small company as a game designer/artist.

But professionally I really do need to get some design concepts and ideas on my site as a demonstration of my true abilities. I am being lazy with myself because of my job.

So what I get from your critiques is to bring my design abilities forward. I still would like to show some of my artwork, maybe switching to a blog as opposed to having it in everyone's face.

Thanks!