Experience

Lead Programmer

I joined the games industry in March 2020 when I accepted a position as Senior Gameplay Programmer at Ubisoft Reflections. I quickly showed that as a programmer, the difference between the tech and games industries is easily bridgeable, making myself an invaluable member of the team. By July 2021, I had been offered the position of Lead Programmer at Silver Rain Games, where I was able to not only use my strong technical skills, but also my love of mentoring, and my love of planning spreadsheets. After a brief stint with Flaming Fowl Studios, I branched out on my own, starting my own company and beginning my first contract position with Perfect Garbage.

The following lists selected parts of my career that I think are worth highlighting. For the full details of everything I've done since graduating, visit my LinkedIn.

Awards

Game Dev Heroes 2022: Programming HeroGame Dev Heroes 2022I was excited and honoured to have been awarded "Programming Hero" in 2022's Game Dev Heroes awards.

Experience

Lead ProgrammerPerfect Garbage2023-PresentI am leading the programming team for this company's new project, from conception, through prototype stage and beyond!

Lead ProgrammerSilver Rain Games2021-2022I was brought on as Lead Programmer for Silver Rain's existing programming team of three developers, who had until then been operating without a Lead. My initial steps were to instate a formal code review process, review the coding standards, start a fortnightly knowledge share meeting, and add sprint retrospectives to our agile process. I also set to work planning a full project backlog for the programming team representing all currently known work yet to be completed for the team, and assigning that work to approximate milestones. I formalised the daily standups, ensuring the team was keeping task tracking up to date so I could assist with scheduling work and setting expectations with the rest of the studio about what we can realistically deliver. I have worked with my team to ensure that we operate internally and with other disciplines respectfully, and that we are always growing together to improve our coding skills. Code-wise, I have made expansive changes to our internal tools so they meet the needs of the rest of the studio, and contributed to gameplay and engine improvements.

Senior Gameplay ProgrammerUbisoft Reflections2020-2021At Ubisoft I was a Senior member of the AI Team owning the ambient dialogue system, all pre-combat AI behaviours, and was main point of contact for the navmesh and navigation tech. I mentored and supported more junior members of the team, helping them learn programming, AI, and Agile concepts. While at Ubisoft, I founded a cross-discipline C++ Discussion Group to ensure all programmers of all levels could help each other to learn and grow, as well as a networking group for women on the gameplay programming teams.

Software Engineer IVImmersive Technologies2016-2020I planned and lead multiple projects from end to end, including gathering requirements, creating and estimating the project backlog, planning sprints, and communicating and demong the project progress to internal and external stakeholders. As well as project planning I was responsible for a number of interesting technical solutions. These include the AI for our new simulation for Komatsu's Autonomous Haul Trucks, optimising our simulators' startup cycle from cold boot of the hardware through to beginning the training program, and implementation of the "Immersive Package Manager", software responsible for rolling our live updates of our products to the customers' simulators. Throughout my time at Immersive I gained a reputation for being able to debug and fix complex issues in any of our products quickly and effectively, regardless of whether I had worked in that code before.

Software EngineerVix Technologies2014-2015

Software EngineerMaptek2012-2014

Volunteering

MentorLimit Break2020-2022Limit Break is a six month mentoring relationship with a person from an underrepresented group working in the UK games industry. Each year I was paired with a person in their early career to help them navigate the work world and the games industry. We met together every 2-3 weeks for a video call, and I have continued these meetings beyond the initial six months in a lot of cases so I can continue to support where I can.

MentorThe Girls' Network2021, 2022Through the Girls Network program I am mentoring a high school aged girl. The program aims to provide work and life skills to mentees, for example confidence, communication, personal finance, wellbeing, and to connect them with opportunities to pursue their goals.

Education

Bachelor of Computer Science (Hons. First class)The University of Adelaide2007 - 2010I graduated in 2009 with a Bachelor of Computer Science (Software Engineering) with a minor in pure mathematics. In 2010 I graduated with First Class Honours, having completed a research thesis considering the application of unit tests and formal verification to video games.