Kylotan said:
Why are you second-guessing what they are looking for?Or, to phrase this more personally - why are you, someone struggling to get into the industry, doubting my suggestion, as someone who hires in the industry?
I shouldn't try to second-guess what they are looking for, sure. It's just that I personally do not find a 2D platform, or similar, made in a game engine particularly impressive from a software engineering standpoint. My logic was then that neither would the people hiring. The projects I've actually been proud of have been done in companies behind closed doors and obviously they do not help me much when it comes to applying for jobs.
Kylotan said:
But that's just how it is. There's no weird trick that you just have to find that will unlock the doors, no magic wand you can wave.
I'm not sure why you keep repeating that I'm looking for some quick-fix or simple way to trick my way into gamedev. I already have most of the skills required for a software engineering position at a game company since I have a very broad experience as a software engineer outside of games. Those are, to me, the basic facts. What I was looking for originally was more to see if there was a particular type of project that would give a lot of credibility, and in what medium to post it so that a hiring manager would actually take a look at it. But I understand from what you and others are saying that it depends on each job what the requirements are. I expected nothing less.
My question from the start should rather have been: what broad skills (except from the ones I already have) should I develop so that I am a viable option for as many software engineering gamedev jobs as possible?