UI Programmer
Malmö
Console all the way!
You’re welcome! From Moana (although with my singing abilities I don’t think many people will be saying “Thank you”)
Dartmoor from Hitman 3, because it’s in England!
Pigs in Blankets, we always had them at Christmas time.
I can recite the English alphabet backwards.
Both items are the jar of Marmite on my desk. It was a gift from a friend, but I don’t like Marmite (especially the smell), so rather than throwing it away or giving it to someone else, I emptied it and converted it into a pen holder. So, it’s my favorite because it reminds me of them, but least favorite because I can still sometimes smell the lingering Marmite from the jar.
I’d like to say everything, I’d just love to learn and know about everything: science, history, geography, etc. But if that’s a cheap answer, I’ll go with programming. Just so I can learn more and be better at what I do.
Three movies:
1. Percy Jackson and the Lightning Thief
2. Console Wars: Sega, Nintendo and the Battle That Defined a Generation
3. The Injustice comic books.
I’m a UI Programmer on the Glacier engine team. Which means I get to work with the different projects and teams, listening to what they need in terms of UI, helping them implement it, at the same time as pushing our UI technology forward. It’s a great mix of working with different disciplines and getting to help on the different games.
I’m originally from England, near Manchester. I’ve played games for most of my life, but it never crossed my mind that I could make them, until I attended a weekend “game development boot camp” at Liverpool Hope University. I originally wanted to be an IT teacher, but after that weekend, I fell in love with making games and knew that’s what I wanted to do!
Before joining IO Interactive, I spent a couple of years working at Ubisoft in Barcelona. Sweden is amazing, but this winter period I have really missed the Spanish winters, or as I call them, English summers! Outside of work, I enjoy technical theatre: working backstage, and helping with the lighting and sound. Its something I did a lot of back in England and is something I want to get back into after moving to Sweden. I also love reading comics, watching TV and movies.
For me, it’s our players. People spend $60/$70 dollars plus on videogames, so I want to make sure that if that someone chooses to spend their money on something I’ve made, that they get the best possible experience.
Firstly, I just love making games. Every day at IOI is different, and you get to work with really smart and creative people who blow you away with what they can do.
Secondly, I’ve seen and felt the amazing impact games can have on people’s lives. For me personally, I’m many many miles from home, but despite the distance, I’m still able to join a party and online game with my little brother. Games have meant that we’re still connected and close even though we live in different countries. So I’m passionate about what I do, because I want other people to be able to experience the amazing memorable moments that only videogames can offer!
At the moment, I’ve put my side projects on hold, as I recently became an Industry advocate for an organization back in the UK – Grads in Games, which aims to help graduates from University get in to the games industry. So that’s put my side stuff on pause, as I’ve been helping with judging projects and doing some presentations.
But before that, its just been building side projects where I can experiment and play around with how other engines handle UI elements, and then applying what I’ve learnt to some old projects.
I’d have to go with my “welcome Fika” from my first day at IO Interactive. It was just a great way to meet everyone in the studio, and made me feel very special. It made me feel like I was joining a family, and not a company. Thank you to the amazing HR team who put in the hard work and effort to make these memorable moments happen!
“Know what you know, and know what you don’t know.”
For me, this role at IO Interactive included a lot of tasks that have been out of my comfort zone and things that I don’t really know. But I was 100% honest with my lead/producer about these gaps, so that when given tasks I could let them know, that I’ll try to do it, but it’ll take me longer and I’ll likely have a lot of questions. It lets them know from day zero to not expect an quick result. But if I didn’t know this was a weak area, or I wasn’t honest about it, then if after two days of working on something and I’m only 10% done instead of 90%, then it could throw out deadlines, and have knock-on effects with other people.
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