The Game Career Guide has posted an abridged version of The Elusive Demo Portfolio posts (parts 1 and 2) (edited by the editors of the the Game Career Guides website) – titled How To Make A Game Programming Demo Portfolio.
Hopefully it will reach another audience who will find it pretty useful and the original has already been linked to a couple of times on the forums and has gone down well already (usually thanks to Steven Yau).
Give it a read and let me know what you think.
Engineering Game Development 
I just read your article, and I’m curious as to how employers view games made by game making programs. I’m currently in grad school for computer science and I don’t really have the time to write games in C++ or other programming languages, but in my free time I have been using the program Game Maker to make a variety of different games. While I’m not making the engine and a lot of the functionality is built in, I’m still making the general game logic, level design, AI, and things like that. So will they look down upon demos made in programs like Game Maker? Thanks.
I’m sorry to say, but yes. Demo’s made in game making programs like that are not good enough for a programmers portfolio. I appreciate that you are mainly working on the logic etc. but you need to be writing your demos using tools that are used in the industry – specifically C++.
Games companies do not have the time to train you in the finer details of C++ and the portfolio is showing that you have that knowledge (or some of it) already. You can’t really show that using these engines.
Using something like Ogre, which can give you a massive boost, is maybe something you could look into? Or maybe the mod scene where you can still work in C++, but within a much smaller scope.
I would like to say that these Game Maker programs could be good in a designers portfolio though – allowing you to show good, concrete examples of game ideas and flow – but I’m no expert on that.
Hello, I translated your article into Russian and I’d like to ask your permission to public it on my blog http://blender-ru.blogspot.com/
Are you agree?
Hi Maksim
Yes that would be great. Feel free to translate it but could you send me a link to the translated article when you have finished?
Thanks
Hi, Lee
Thanks for your permission
Here is the link
http://blender-ru.blogspot.com/2008/12/blog-post_09.html
Lee, you are one amazing guy. I like the fact that you help people, and advise them etc.
Much respect.
Gavin