I’ve got a long list of both professional and amateur interests. I try to organize my hours so I can take care of the essentials and fit in hobbies wherever I can.
Game Developer
Professionally have spent most of my career making games. While this isn’t a comprehensive résumé (contact me if you want a copy!), here are some images from most of the games I’ve worked on:
I’ve also worked on other games that were cancelled or were prototypes for new ideas. They were fun projects but they don’t get big fancy cover art.
Non-Games Jobs
It isn’t all games. While I enjoy the field I have taken breaks from the game industry during my career. I’ve worked in a range of interesting fields. I’ve worked on meeting polling software, where meeting participants are given a keypad and vote for options, then graphs and charts can be shown with results all sliced-and-diced within the presentation. I’ve worked on traffic monitoring software that was also used for TV broadcasting and radio broadcasting, which was used to help create the daily news traffic reports. I’ve worked on server back-ends outside of games (as well as inside games) some sites handling several thousand web requests per second, other times working on continuous ETL jobs, moving data around on AWS and Google Cloud, building and programming in docker containers, and putting together more web pages and JavaScript than I prefer to admit.
All are important parts of what I’ve done, but they are less of a passion.
Author
I’ve published a book on Game Development with Unity. The book is a little dated since it covers Unity as it existed in 2014, but most of the topics are still relevant if you’re interested in getting started in the industry.
In addition to that book, I have helped contribute to and helped edit several books written by family members. You can check out my wife’s books on Amazon, Ocean Lost and Caverns Found, she writes young adult fiction.
Kite Flying
I have enjoyed kites since my childhood. In the 1980s there was a big field near my house that was originally going to be a shopping mall but was left undeveloped. Although it was muddy and covered with weeds, it was a moderately good place to fly kites. My parents offered small rewards for practicing piano every day, and about age 12 or so I had saved up enough practice time (about 4 months worth) to purchase a small stunt kite. I still have the kite and fly it occasionally, even though it is relatively small, about 30 years old with bad elastic, and has none of the modern features like standoffs.
At the same age I also saved up my practice money for a small parafoil kite which folds into a small bag and has accompanied me on most of my travels, including being in my vehicle with me for over 200,000 miles driven. Although the tail has a few rips from weeds in that old undeveloped field, it is in generally amazing shape. I toss it over to kids when they ask to fly kites with me, since parafoils are nearly indestructible as they have no rigid parts.
These days I frequently fly some of quad-line or dual-line kites. I own a bunch so I can fly in many different wind conditions, ranging from wind that blows your hat off to flying indoor with no air at all. If you’re interested in flying together or trying out what it’s like to fly one of the kites, let me know and we can arrange something.
I’ve also built some animated LED lights for my kites.
I’m currently flying regularly in Old Settler’s Park with the Central Texas Kite Fliers.
But wait, there’s more!
I play piano and organ, my parents started me when I was six and encouraged me through my teen years. Although I’m not the best at sight reading, give me some time and I can play most songs, from contemporary stuff to the classics, up through the sonata level. Any given week I’ll play for about 5-10 hours, often being joined by my family who prefer different instruments of guitar, flute, and violin, or performing for various groups I participate in.
I’m a moderator over at gamedev.net, a good fit for my career history.
I’m involved with some art groups and regularly participate in figure drawing sessions for a few hours per month. I enjoy watercolor painting, although I usually only have time for one or two small paintings per month.
I dabble in electronics ever since grade school. I occasionally make IoT (Internet of Things) devices, currently mostly using ESP32 microcontrollers that are WiFi and Bluetooth enabled, soldering on assorted sensors, displays, motors, lights, speakers, and whatever else is needed for the project. Much of that started when I was a kid, making a small robot in my early teens with my Dad. It wasn’t much, a small remote controller with four switches, connected to standard size office trash can flipped upside down filled with a battery box, motors for wheels and motors for arms built of pipe, but that project encouraged a love of building.
I participate in church groups and some volunteer organizations that usually consume a handful of hours every week, attend school activities for my kids, and more.
That’s more than enough personal background on me. Go read some of the other stuff I’ve written or write some comments.