About
Summary
I am a Game Designer & Developer aspiring to tell gripping stories and create
engaging mechanics in the games I make.
I have a BSc in Game Design & Development and an MSc in Data Science.
I have commerical experience in software engineering and games development.
As far back as I can remember there were always video games in my life.
Bio
I have always had a deep love of video games for as long as I can remember literally, ever since I was old enough to hold a controller I was playing games. The first games I ever played were Legend of Zelda: A link to the Past and Illusion of Gaia. They started me on a life long love of games and in particular RPGs and games with strong puzzle elements. After many a year playing these games on the SNES I began playing PC games, starting with none other than Tomb Raider. Well I loved the Tomb Raider series and have played almost every single game so far Yes even that weird GBA game "Tomb Raider: The Prophecy".
Those of you who are fans of the Tomb Raider series, particularly on a PC, will probably know that Tomb Raider: Chronicles came with a second CD which contained a level editor... but, alas, the computer at time was not powerful enough to run the level editor so it went back into the box to sleep there for a few years. Until one day I had an urge to play Chronicles again and rediscovered it, just innocently sitting there saying "you're curious aren't you?" And I was, I had no idea what a level editor was but I wanted to find out and when it was installed, I found out... It. Was. Beautiful! I made several levels with that thing long lost now... I really wish I still had them. It was here I learned that I loved making games even more than I did playing them and so I began the search for a college with a game design course.
I applied for the Games Design and Development course in what was at the time Tipperary Institute but was later renamed to LIT: Tipperary while I was studying there and since again renamed to TUS: Thurles Not related to Tús (community work placement initiative)or: Technological University of the Shannon: Thurles Campus, quite the mouthful. I was accepted and I quickly came to love it. Besides all of the extracurricular activities I had in college I also really enjoyed many of the classes, especially the ones centring on algorithms, data structure, and graphics programming. Those classes really struck a chord with me since I have always loved maths. Years later I went back to college to get an MSc in Data Science since I have always been so fascinated by AI and data.
I have a done quite a few extracurricular projects over the years, even kept up some since graduating. Projects such as 48 hour Game Jams which are amazing endurance events where people attempt to make games in forty eight hours based on a theme they are only given as the event starts. I have many different roles in these jams, in one I was the sole writer on a very interesting idea: A game with no visuals that must be navigated exclusively through sound and dialogue. In others I was part of a team, I have lead teams, and for one I even acted alone, attempting to make an entire game on my own using only what I could make myself... except for music, I did decide to get some great tracks from the amazing Kevin McLeod for that one.
I have worked as a software engineer at three companies, becoming a technical lead at one of them, and a game developer at two studios where I worked on four games, one of which was Disney Melee Mania a casual 3v3 MOBA of Disney heroes and villains; Another game I worked on was a cross platform VR game called Sneaky Bears. I have worked on many different platforms, with many different technologies, and in many different languages and I have become incredibly comfortable working in any domain with any technologies and dealing with novel and difficult problems.
Thank you for reading about my life, I do appreciate it.
Tacitus