Level Designer as a Profession

Please include this link in your report: https://sloperama.com/advice/m92.html​ Please feel free to include this quote: As a fellow teacher I'm telling you through your student: do better as a teacher.

That's not your fault, so on to your actual question.

I'm not entirely sure if you're talking about “a portfolio of various environments and assets of your own design” if you're talking about a job application portfolio, or just the collection of things you build.

If you're meaning the one you share with future employers, building a portfolio is going to be unique for you, it should follow what YOU personally have done. Every person will put together something unique for them. A level designer who built a bunch with Garry's Mod should put that. If you've explored a bunch of Mario Maker levels to showcase your skills, then Mario Maker examples it is.

If you're meaning the collection of all the things you've built for your own personal uses, that's going to naturally grow organically but you can encourage it. You absolutely should keep notes, records, documents, and assorted other scraps as you go along for ideas you have, and ideas you want to come back to later. Having your own copy of things in Google Drive or elsewhere might work for you individually, but when you get into the professional world you'll want to talk to the employer about what you can include in your work portfolio. That's usually best done after hitting certain milestones or published events to avoid the perception of being about to flee the company. If they say no or if you don't feel comfortable asking, use the published game and taking screen shots and videos and annotating them with your own notes.

I don't refer to my old stuff often, but recently someone asked me a question that recalled something to mind, so I went to the files and pulled out a sheet of paper I had from 1993 with some old programming notes on them. That was paper, not an electronic system where I could hit the Find button. Good filing systems are important, so build it up with whatever mental hooks you need so you can find it years or possibly even decades letter. Also, get rid of the junk. Deciding what should be kept and what should be trashed can be tricky, but once you've got it figured out, apply it ruthlessly.