Game Development – Programming Portfolio

Purpose of the Portfolio

Applicants must submit an entrance portfolio of programming work that demonstrates their coding abilities and technical proficiencies. The portfolio enables us to assess an applicant’s readiness for an advanced–diploma curriculum that presumes prior, object-oriented programming experience.

Successful candidates demonstrate that they can:

• Plan, build, and complete self-directed code projects, preferably games;
• Explain their work, including the problem they set out to solve, the decisions taken, and the results achieved.

These skills correlate strongly with success in our fast-paced, production-oriented program.

Required Portfolio Contents

1. Three Programming Projects
   Independent or lead-programmer roles score highest. Game-jam or team school projects are acceptable if your personal contributions are unmistakably identified.
2. Project Explanations and Technical Commentary
   For each project, provide a concise write-up covering: goal, your role, key features, major technical challenges, and how you addressed them. Provide annotated code excerpts to strengthen your explanations.
3. Annotated Code Excerpts and Full Source
   Supply complete source code where feasible but highlight the annotated excerpts you most want us to review. Excerpts should illustrate varied concepts and clarify what each fragment does, why it was written that way, and how it reflects your current competence.
4. Public Version Control Repositories
   A visible commit history or pull-request record helps us gauge your familiarity with disciplined version-control workflows.
5. Resume and Cover Letter
   Outline education, employment, and coding experience. Highlight any game-related employment or internships, if applicable.
6. Relevant Special Achievements
   Verified awards, publications, open-source contributions, or similar items earn discretionary bonus marks.

Packaging and Submission

• Format: One or more PDFs or a small website with one or more pages.
• Navigation: Logical headings and clear links so reviewers locate evidence quickly.
• Clarity: Maintain consistent code style; write in a professional tone free of spelling or grammar errors.
• Links and media: Verify every hyperlink, repository permission, and video embed before submission. Broken or private links will be excluded from portfolio grading.
• Portal upload: You will receive portal instructions approximately one month before the annual deadline. Portfolios must be submitted by 11:59 PM, the last day of April. Portfolios will not be accepted after this deadline, so make sure to submit early.

Academic Integrity

All submitted work must be your own. For collaborative projects, clearly explain your personal contributions and credit team-mates and third-party assets appropriately. Misrepresentation may disqualify your application.

Further Guidance

Consult the Portfolio Rubric Guide below for detailed explanations of each assessment category and practical tips on meeting (and exceeding!) expectations.

Questions?

If you have any questions regarding the portfolio specifications, please contact Chris Brower at cbrower@rrc.ca.

We look forward to reviewing your portfolio.

Game Development – Programming Portfolio Rubric Guide

How to Read this Rubric Guide

Each section that follows mirrors a category from the rubric we use to score your portfolio. In every section you’ll find “What we want” (the concrete evidence to submit) and “Why this matters” (the reasoning behind our request). Use them as a roadmap: Gather the evidence, provide context, add explanations, and you’ll give us the clearest picture of where your skills stand today.

Breadth and Independence of Programming Projects

What we want: When assembling your portfolio, focus on describing how many distinct projects you’ve tackled, how self-directed those projects were, and what genres/engines/languages were involved. Providing three separate projects is ideal.

Why this matters: Independent and self-guided projects show you can start, scope, and finish code on your own. Game-focused side projects (especially game jams and independent hobby project) demonstrate genuine interest and passion for game creation.

Project Scope, Polish & Completeness

What we want: Ensure that it is clear how far each project progressed, from prototype to vertical slice to fully packaged build, emphasizing integrated systems, programmed mechanics, stability, and user-facing polish and completeness.

Why this matters: Finished, feature-complete work demonstrates you can carry a project across the “last 10 %,” integrate multiple disciplines (code, UI, audio/visual), and think about the end-user experience. These are all critical skills for succeeding in our deadline-driven, production-heavy game-dev curriculum.

Project Explanations and Technical Commentary

What we want: Accompany every project with a compact, well-structured write-up that states its goal, your role, key features, the main technical challenges you faced, and how you solved them. Annotated code excerpts that support your explanations are encouraged.

Why this matters: Clear, concise technical communication shows you can articulate design intent, defend decisions, and transfer knowledge. Strong write-ups also help faculty gauge depth of understanding beyond what the code alone reveals.

Portfolio Presentation and Professionalism

What we want: Present your portfolio as a cohesive, easy-to-navigate package. Clearly labelled sections. Use consistent formatting and a professional tone throughout. Portfolio should be submitted as one or more PDF documents or a website with one or more pages.

Why this matters: A well-organized portfolio lets reviewers find evidence quickly and signals pride in workmanship. This mirrors the clear documentation, organized file/folder structure, and presentation polish expected in our assignments and team projects.

Written Communication — Clarity and Mechanics

What we want: When polishing your portfolio, ensure that your written descriptions flow well, are concise, and are free of spelling, grammar, and punctuation errors so reviewers can absorb your ideas without distraction.

Why this matters: Clear, well-edited writing builds credibility and speeds collaboration. These are skills you’ll rely on for documentation, peer code reviews, and communication with your peers and instructors in our game-development program.

Programming Concept Coverage and Associated Explanations

What we want: Ensure the code examples you provide clearly communicate your current skills. Pick examples from your code that cover different sorts of tasks, techniques, and abilities. For example, scripting logic, object-oriented structure, data structures, algorithms, file or network I/O, etc. For each, ensure it’s clear:

• what the code does, where it fits, and what problem it solves,
• which programming task, technique, or ability it showcases,
• why this code reflects your present level of confidence and ability (solid routine, stretching challenge, or proud breakthrough).

Your selected code examples should provide evidence of what you can already do, what you’re still exploring, and the thinking behind it.

Why this matters: We cover a lot of ground in our two-year program. Students who enter with coding experience have the foundation they need to succeed. Seeing the breadth and depth of your practice, plus your ability to explain it, tells us you’re ready to dive in, collaborate, and keep growing.

Code Formatting and Style Consistency

What we want: Clean, consistent code formatting lets reviewers scan and understand your code quickly. Keep indentation and code structure uniform. Use clear, descriptive names for your variables, functions/methods, classes, properties, etc. Provide evidence of following best practices with explanations, if applicable.

Why this matters: Well-formatted code with a consistent style speeds up peer reviews, debugging, and collaboration. This is exactly what you’ll need in our team-heavy game-dev projects.

Code Comments and Inline Documentation

What we want: Add a block comment summary at the start of each class or script, a short context-adding header for every method/function (purpose, important parameters, return data), and crisp inline notes where the intent isn’t obvious from the code itself.

Why this matters: Consistent, purpose-driven comments let teammates (and instructors) grasp the code’s intent quickly, easing code reviews, debugging, assessment, and future maintenance.

Version Control and Collaboration

What we want: Demonstrate not just that you have a GitHub/GitLab repo, but that you use Git as an everyday development and collaboration tool. Explain your git (or other source control tool) experience in detail (with linked evidence) so that portfolio reviewers aren’t required to dig through your repos.

Why this matters: Familiarity with disciplined Git (or other source control tools) workflows (incremental commits, branching, pull-request reviews) translates directly to our team projects, reducing integration pain and improving code quality from day one.

Resume and Cover Letter

What we want: Be sure to include both a resume and a cover letter. When preparing these documents present complete, well-structured information that speaks directly to game-development skills and experiences. Work experience, both game and non-game related, should be included if applicable. Maximum one page each unless you’ve got extensive experience to cover. Be sure to let your personality shine through by highlighting your hobbies and interests too.

Why this matters: A concise, well-organized resume and cover letter show that you can communicate professionally, an essential skill for pitching ideas, securing internships, and landing employment after graduation.

Relevant Special Achievements

What we want: Include clear proof (a link, certificate, press mention, or similar) of any game-dev–related special achievements (For example: STEM contest wins, published games, major open-source contributions, paid or internship work experience in game development or software development, etc). Each verified item earns one bonus mark, up to a maximum of four bonus marks.

Why this matters: Real-world milestones show how you turn skills into impact and collaborate beyond the classroom. They’re optional bonuses, not prerequisites, that help us better understand your experience.