A portfolio is one of the most important things to perfect for those working in a creative industry. Trying to decide what to include can be daunting. How many pieces? How many different mediums, and in what format? With the Internet acting as a potential first impression for employers, should artists tweak their social medias accordingly? 

In this GDC 2017 session industry artists Greg Foertsch, Alison Kelly, Wyeth Johnson, Lisette Titre-Montgomery, Shawn Robertson and Gavin Goulden discuss what can make or break a creative portfolio. They offer advice on what artists should include in order to catch the attention of future employers, as well as how to present themselves online in-between posting their creations. 

The talk goes over crucial topics every artist should consider when putting together their portfolio. For example, Foertsch guides the conversation and asks artists to consider quality over quantity when picking out work. “Your portfolio is only as strong as the weakest piece in it,” adds Johnson. 

Artists interested in learning about what they can do to improve their portfolio can watch the talk completely free via the official GDC YouTube channel!

In addition to this presentation, the GDC Vault and its accompanying YouTube channel offers numerous other free videos, audio recordings, and slides from many of the recent Game Developers Conference events, and the service offers even more members-only content for GDC Vault subscribers.

Those who purchased All Access passes to recent events like GDC or VRDC already have full access to GDC Vault, and interested parties can apply for the individual subscription via a GDC Vault subscription page. Group subscriptions are also available: game-related schools and development studios who sign up for GDC Vault Studio Subscriptions can receive access for their entire office or company by contacting staff via the GDC Vault group subscription page. Finally, current subscribers with access issues can contact GDC Vault technical support.

Gamasutra and GDC are sibling organizations under parent UBM Americas

The Steam Winter Sale continues today, through January 4th!* Save big on thousands of games for Windows, Mac and Linux in the final day of the sale!

Thanks to all that voted in The Steam Awards!

The “Choices Matter” Award:
The Witcher® 3: Wild Hunt

The “Mom’s Spaghetti” Award:
PLAYERUNKNOWN’S BATTLEGROUNDS

The “Labor of Love” Award:
Warframe

The “Suspension of Disbelief” Award:
Rocket League®

The “The World Is Grim Enough Let’s Just All Get Along” Award:
Stardew Valley

The “No Apologies” Award:
The Witcher: Enhanced Edition Director’s Cut

The “Defies Description” Award:
Garry’s Mod

The “Cry Havoc And Let Slip The Dogs Of War” Award:
Just Cause™ 3

The “Haunts My Dreams” Award:
Counter-Strike: Global Offensive

The “Soul Of Vitruvius” Award:
Rise of the Tomb Raider™

The “Whoooaaaaaaa, Dude! 2.0” Award:
The Evil Within 2

The “Best Soundtrack” Award:
Cuphead

The “Even Better Than I Expected” Award:
Cuphead

Check out the winners in all their glory here!

*Discounts end January 4th at 10am Pacific, unless otherwise indicated.

The countdown to 2018 officially starts today with the biggest sale of 2017. Microsoft Store online and Xbox.com has more than 650 deals for fans including savings of up to 65 percent on select Xbox One and Xbox 360 digital games, discounts on select Xbox consoles and accessories, up to 50 percent off select movies and TV shows, savings on select apps for Xbox up to 50 percent off, and Xbox Live Gold and Xbox Game Pass each for $1 for the first month.

Save on Xbox Digital Games

Save up to 65 percent on 470 amazing games and add-ons including Call of Duty: WWII, Star Wars Battlefront II, Cuphead, Middle-earth: Shadow of War and more. There’s also plenty of deals on Xbox 360 fan favorites, playable on Xbox One via Backward Compatibility, like Call of Duty: Black Ops II, Red Dead Redemption, Skate 3, Fallout 3 and more. Don’t forget that Xbox Live Gold members save up to 10 percent more on most deals.

Save on Xbox Consoles and Accessories

Save on popular Apps, Movies & TV Shows

• Save up to 50 percent on select hit movies and TV Shows including “Star Wars: The Force Awakens,” “Kingsman: The Golden Circle,” “Spider-Man: Homecoming,” “Game of Thrones,” “The Shannara Chronicles,” and more.
• Save up to 50 percent on popular apps for Xbox including Nitrado, VUDU, Dolby Access, Karaoke One, and FandangoNOW.

Save on Xbox Live Gold and Xbox Game Pass

• Join Xbox Live Gold for $1: This holiday season, you can get your first month of Xbox Live Gold for $1. Go Gold for exclusive savings and join the best community of gamers on the most advanced multiplayer network.
• Get Xbox Game Pass, Play 100+ Games for $1: Get your first month of Xbox Game Pass for $1 and spend your holiday with unlimited access to over 100 Xbox One and Xbox 360 games on Xbox One. With new games added every month, there is always a new adventure waiting for you.

For every Xbox Game Pass or Xbox Live Gold membership you buy or gift, Xbox will donate $10 of Game Pass to hospitals around the world with our partners at GameChanger. Learn more about the Season of Giving with Xbox.

All of these deals are available on console and online at Microsoft Store and Xbox.com starting today, so take advantage of the great deals before they end on January 4, 2018 (or as otherwise noted above). Availability and pricing vary by location. May not be combinable with other offers. Other limitations may apply. Not valid on prior orders or purchases. See webpage for each offer’s specific details.

We’ve just got word from the Big N that the Nintendo Switch has become the fastest-selling home video game system of all time in the U.S. While this is obviously amazing news, this line in the press release about upcoming third party support really stood out to us:

This year, Nintendo Switch owners can look forward to Nintendo-published games like Kirby Star Allies, Bayonetta, Bayonetta 2 and a new game starring Yoshi. Fans can also expect continued support from major publishers such as EA, Activision, Ubisoft, Capcom, SEGA, Take 2 and Bethesda, plus a growing catalog of quality content from indie developers.

Which games those third parties could realistically consider porting to the Switch is another matter, but older games like Red Dead Redemption seem like likely candidates. Here are some of the key franchises from each of those publishers for your consideration:

• EA – FIFA, Madden, Star Wars, Battlefield
• Activision – Call of Duty, Overwatch, Destiny
• Ubisoft – Assassin’s Creed, Tom Clancy, Rayman, The Crew, Watch Dogs
• Capcom – Resident Evil, Monster Hunter, Street Fighter
• SEGA – Sonic, Persona, Yakuza
• Take 2 – NBA, WWE, Mafia, BioShock, GTA (Rockstar), Red Dead (Rockstar)
• Bethesda – Fallout, Elder Scrolls, Dishonored, Evil Within

Let us know what you think of this continued third party support for Switch with a comment below.

The Steam Winter Sale continues today, through January 4th!* Save big on thousands of games for Windows, Mac and Linux!

Be sure to vote in The Steam Awards! Come back every day through January 2nd to vote for each award, and find out the winners on January 3rd.

Voting continues today with The “Mom’s Spaghetti” Award. Here are the finalists:

Alien: Isolation

Outlast 2

PLAYERUNKNOWN’S BATTLEGROUNDS

RESIDENT EVIL 7

The Evil Within 2

Remember to check back every day to see the new category and cast your vote!

*Discounts end January 4th at 10pm Pacific, unless otherwise indicated.

The following blog post, unless otherwise noted, was written by a member of Gamasutra’s community.
The thoughts and opinions expressed are those of the writer and not Gamasutra or its parent company.

[Video Game Deep Cuts is a weekly newsletter from curator/video game industry veteran Simon Carless, rounding up the best longread & standout articles & videos about games, every weekend.

This week’s highlights include innumerable ‘best of the year’ countdowns – from VR games to mobile titles to, uh, Eric Wolpaw’s vegan juice cuts, and loads more besides.

Well, we made it to the end, folks. The end of the year, that is. I’m reliably informed there’s another one starting soon, though – and may have even got here by the time you read this, depending on how good you’re being about staying away from email.

Anyhow, this was my first full year of Video Game Deep Cuts, and I wanted to thank all of you for opening, reading, and recommending. The newsletter is a great clarifying of the week’s ‘cool things about video games’ for me, and hopefully it does a similar groovy number on your textual-visual cortex, like. Om….

Happy New Year!
– Simon, curator.]

——————

Yoko Taro’s Top 10 Games of 2017 (Yoko Taro / GiantBomb – ARTICLE)
“NieR:Automata’s creator has a few thoughts about the games he loved most in 2017. [SIMON’S NOTE: This is part of a GIGANTIC set of Top 10s from the GiantBomb crew & guests that I highly recommend you check out – I may feature one or two others below.]”

Replay All: #105 At World’s End (Reply All / Gimlet Media – PODCAST)
“Well okay. So three months ago, I got an email from one of our listeners. And she was writing because she’d lost something on the internet and she really wanted help finding it…  And there’s this one Flash game that Kris remembers playing that she says was the best game that they played. It’s called, “Bunni: How We First Met.””

‘PUBG’ Creator Talks Game Launch, eSports, IP Protection (Steve T. Wright / Glixel – ARTICLE)
““It has absolutely nothing to do with PUBG or my work. I just feel that games don’t have the same IP protection as literature or music or movies, and I think that’s a shame. It makes it very difficult for developers to protect their intellectual property, and they have to act a certain way because of that.””

Open Production With Sunless Sea: Kickstarter, Early Access and After (Alexis Kennedy / GDC / YouTube – VIDEO)
“In this 2016 GDC session, Failbetter Studios’ Alexis Kennedy explains how the company used open publishing techniques to bootstrap from being a moribund studio months from bankruptcy to a successful, cash-flow positive company with their first Unity game.”

Nintendo’s Switch Brings Some Magic Back (Simon Parkin / New York Times – ARTICLE)
“Jake Kazdal, an American video game developer who lives in Kyoto, Japan, spent a night in early March refreshing the website of GameStop, the video game retail chain in the United States. He wanted to buy Nintendo’s just-released console, the Switch. But the device had already sold out in Japan, forcing him to look elsewhere.”

Virtual reality’s best experiences and biggest (teleportation) steps in 2017 (Sam Machkovech / Ars Technica – ARTICLE)
“In the end, the best VR content stands out for delivering experiences that are altogether impossible on flat screens, and that rule guides my picks for the best VR content in 2017. Games dominate this year’s list, if only because last year saw so many incredible applications that have yet to be topped. But this list contains a couple of exceptions. [SIMON’S NOTE: rare to see someone with multiplatform VR knowledge, so this article is very useful for ‘the state of the art’.]”

Akira Nishitani / Katsuhiro Harada Interview (Ikko / Denfaminicogamer / #JPFGC – ARTICLE)
“For Nishitani, who is returning to world of fighting games, what thought process gave birth to [Street Fighter 2], and how does he view the fighting games that came after? What kind of thoughts and ideas is he putting into the game he is currently developing? Along with Harada, who asserts that Nishitani is a “genius,” we decided to ask about the circumstances surrounding SF2 as well as his new game from Nishitani himself.”

Erik Wolpaw’s Top 10 Games of 2017 (Erik Wolpaw / GiantBomb – ARTICLE)
“Former Valve writer and current vegan juice salesman Erik Wolpaw would like you to know that he enjoyed these ten video games in 2017. [SIMON’S NOTE: please read this. No really, please do.]”

A life in game journalism (Dean Takahashi / VentureBeat – ARTICLE)
“Merry Christmas and happy holidays. I thought I would do something different for a holiday message this year. It’s based on a talk I gave to a game journalism class at Stanford University recently. It’s about my life in game journalism, and how I got to where I am today. I hope you enjoy it.”

TouchArcade Game of the Year 2017: ‘Death Road to Canada’ (Eli Hodapp / TouchArcade – ARTICLE)
“This has been a truly incredible year for iOS gaming. We started with a list of hundreds of fantastic titles, whittled that down to a Top 100 Best Games list, and then started the day off with a short list of eight games in consideration for TouchArcade Game of the Year…  [SIMON’S NOTE: TouchArcade picks up a LOT of mobile titles that others miss – also see: Jared’s 10 Best Games of 2017 – Some of the Biggest Releases of the Year and a Few Hidden Gems, Eli’s 10 Best Games of 2017 – These Games Need to Be Listed SOMEWHERE, Mikhail’s 10 Best Games of 2017 – Best iOS Gaming Year Ever, Shaun’s 10 Best Games of 2017 – A Year Full of Truly Unique Mobile Games, Rob’s 10 Best Games of 2017 – A Purrfect Year for Mobile Gaming, Tasos’ 10 Best Games of 2017 – ‘Arena of Valor’, ‘Gorogoa’, and More Made the List.]”

Made in Brazil: A Game Development Snapshot (Cloth Map / YouTube – VIDEO)
“Brazil’s 200 million people love video games, so why haven’t we heard more about games FROM Brazil? [SIMON’S NOTE: also see Pumped To Be Here: Brazil’s Game Fans from the same video series.]”

Top 2017 Games That Waste Your Time Properly (Paolo Pedercini / Molleindustria – ARTICLE)
“This best-of-the-year list is devoted to the idealists who organize the players’ time according to their expressive goals, and not to the perceived market demand. If games are machines for wasting time, they may as well waste it in an artful way.”

Kansas Man Killed In ‘SWATting’ Attack (Brian Krebs / Krebs On Security – ARTICLE)
“A 28-year-old Kansas man was shot and killed by police officers on the evening of Dec. 28 after someone fraudulently reported a hostage situation ongoing at his home… This particular swatting reportedly originated over a $1.50 wagered match in the online game Call of Duty. Compounding the tragedy is that the man killed was an innocent party who had no part in the dispute. [SIMON’S NOTE: don’t generally link straight news, but this is notable.]”

Chasing Innovation Inside the Company Behind D&D, Magic and Avalon Hill (Brian Crecente / Glixel – ARTICLE)
“Dungeons & Dragons, Axis & Allies, Magic: The Gathering, Duel Masters and, soon, Transformers: Chances are that if you’ve played a board game, a card game, a tabletop game, you’ve played a Wizards of the Coast game. With a 27 year history of success under its belt and a back-library that spans nearly 50 years, Wizards of the Coast is in many ways the face of tabletop gaming.”

Game Over (Emily Short & voice cast / BBC – RADIO PLAY)
“Building a video game that works, where the player understands the goals and enjoys the experience is one thing, but Chelsea wants her new game to change the world. She’s calling it Glacier and it will tell the story of an Alaskan village eroded by global warming. [SIMON’S NOTE: Insider-ish in scarily accurate ways, kicks off with IGF-aping, mucho recommendo.]”

How Bomber Crew‘s devs found outsized success with a permadeath flight crew sim (Joel Couture / Gamasutra – ARTICLE)
“That unexpected success was something the developers wanted to capitalize on, both financially and to reward all of the players who had so kindly supported them. Still, what were they to do for all of these players who were enjoying their game, and how to do it?”

The most surprising games of 2017 (Tom Chick / Quarter To Three – ARTICLE)
“So if the most disappointing category is a list of games that should have been better, the most surprising category is the opposite. These are games that were better than they should have been. Just as disappointing is about falling short of expectations, these surprising games exceeded expectations and, in some cases, were among the best games of the year. [SIMON’S NOTE: always controversial but with lots of depth – Tom Chick plays a LOT of games – also see most overrated for special controversy, haha.]”

That Game on Your Phone May Be Tracking What You’re Watching on TV (Sapna Maheshwari / New York Times – ARTICLE)
“At first glance, the gaming apps — with names like “Pool 3D,” “Beer Pong: Trickshot” and “Real Bowling Strike 10 Pin” — seem innocuous. One called “Honey Quest” features Jumbo, an animated bear. Yet these apps, once downloaded onto a smartphone, have the ability to keep tabs on the viewing habits of their users — some of whom may be children — even when the games aren’t being played.”

How ScummVM is keeping adventure games alive, one old game at a time (Richard Cobbett / PC Gamer – ARTICLE)
“There are many revival projects out there, from DOSBox to single-game engines like Exult for Ultima VII. One of the biggest and oldest is ScummVM, launched in 2001 and named for the classic SCUMM engine—Script Creation Utility For Maniac Mansion—which gave us all of Lucasarts’ classic adventure games.”

The Best Video Games Of 2017 (Simon Parkin / The New Yorker – ARTICLE)
“These are tough times for the thoughtful fan of video games. Adult play, typically viewed with suspicion away from the golf course (where it’s justified by networking), the sports arena (where it’s justified by money), or the bedroom (where it’s justified by, uh, wine?) seems especially frivolous in our put-upon world.”

Brandon Sheffield’s all-time top 10 games hidden in other games (Brandon Sheffield / Gamasutra – ARTICLE)
“Hidden games are among my favorite things. I’m talking about games tucked away within published games. Specifically I’m interested in games that have little to nothing to do with the games they’re hidden in, and as a result cause the player to speculate. How did these games get in here?”

Alice Maz on Minecraft (Alice Maz – ARTICLE)
“After sinking 10-20k hours into a single MMO and accomplishing a lot of unbelievable things within the confines of its gargantuan ruleset, it is generally pretty easy for me to pick up another game and figure out what makes it tick. I’ll tell the story about that whole experience sometime, but it’s a long tale to tell. This is about one of those other games: Minecraft. [SIMON’S NOTE: This is an excellent/weird story.]”

——————

[REMINDER: you can sign up to receive this newsletter every weekend at tinyletter.com/vgdeepcuts – we crosspost to Gamasutra later on Sunday, but get it first via newsletter! Story tips and comments can be emailed to vgdeepcuts@simoncarless.com. MINI-DISCLOSURE: Simon is one of the organizers of GDC and Gamasutra & an advisor to indie publisher No More Robots, so you may sometimes see links from those entities in his picks. Or not!]

We’re counting down the days to the new year and preparing to celebrate with a great collection of games coming to the Games with Gold program in January 2018.

On Xbox One, start your journey with the final chapter of the Van Helsing trilogy with The Incredible Adventures of Van Helsing III launching with Games with Gold on January 1, 2018. Then later in the month, get ready to fight for your survival on the streets of London during the zombie apocalypse in Zombi.

On Xbox 360, and Xbox One through Backward Compatibility, pair your new year with adventure thanks to Tomb Raider Underworld and then grab a buddy for some excellent co-op action in Army of Two.

All games will be available for a limited time as part of Games with Gold, so get Xbox Live Gold today to get in on the action.

• The Incredible Adventures of Van Helsing III ($14.99 ERP): Available January 1 to 31 on Xbox One
• Zombi ($19.99 ERP): Available January 16 to February 15 on Xbox One
• Tomb Raider Underworld ($19.99 ERP): Available January 1 to 15 on Xbox One and Xbox 360
• Army of Two ($14.99 ERP): Available January 16 to 31 on Xbox One and Xbox 360

The Incredible Adventures of Van Helsing III
Van Helsing III will make its debut on Xbox One and will be Xbox One X Enhanced upon release. In this final chapter of the trilogy, you’ll see Borgovia in its darkest state. The civil war may be over, but a strange cult is prophesizing the end of the world. Van Helsing will do battle against even more terrifying beasts with an expanded arsenal for six specialized character classes and a more detailed, diverse leveling system. He’s now prepared to face his archenemy in this world of squabbling factions and criminals, but he won’t be alone — Lady Katarina, his ghost companion, is still with him and her story is set to be revealed as well.

Zombi
How long do you think you can survive in the streets of London, surrounded by the infected among the roads and underground canals? If you happen to fall victim to these mindless enemies, you’ll lose all your possessions. Start again as a different survivor and you can fight your way back to recover your stash. Plan well and you may make it out alive.

Tomb Raider Underworld
Dive, climb, fight, and jump your way back into the world of Lara Croft as she travels around the world to uncover the mystery surrounding Thor’s Hammer. You’ll need all of your new combat options and gear to help prevent a forgotten power being unleashed that could destroy civilization.

Army of Two
Combat, camaraderie, and cash. Bring your best buddy (or play with the AI) in this innovative co-op third-person shooter centered around the world of private military enterprise. Earn and spend your money to improve your weapons and increase your lethality as your jobs will take you around the world, from Afghanistan to South Korea, where your team will confront a conspiracy that threatens the entire world.

Read more about our Games with Gold program here and stay tuned to Xbox Wire for all the latest news on Xbox. Also check out the 10 great new games added to Xbox Game Pass, in addition to 100 more great games, all included in the monthly membership that you can try free for 14 days.

While Mario + Rabbids Kingdom Battle proved an unexpected fusion hit here in the West in 2017, the mashup of iconic plumber and Ubisoft mascots has yet to make its debut in Japan and the rest of Asia. With a release date tentatively set for 2018, one eagle eyed site has noticed the game may be getting some extra DLC in the summer.

The tweet from Switch Indies, which you can see below, shows a listing on the Japanese Switch eShop, detailing what looks to be a June release date for the anticipated story expansion. While we’re still waiting to hear when the continuing adventures of the world’s most bizarre team will hit the West, it seems Japan already has a date marked on its calendar.

Of course, this could be a placeholder, but a release date later in the year certainly makes sense to align the DLC schedule with the game’s arrival in the Asian market. So what do you guys make of it? Do you want more Mario + Rabbids Kingdom Battle on Switch? We certainly do…