STAFF PROFILE: JAMES, GAMES PROGRAMMER
What is your background?
Many years ago, 1991 to be exact, I became the proud owner of my first piece of hardware; a NES, and I loved it, and I still do (even if you have to hit it in just the right place to make the darn thing work) as that small grey box was the reason I set out on a career in computing; true, this at one point meant being a computer salesman at Toys R Us to fund my education, but it was computing nonetheless.
Technically I was somewhat of a late starter by programming standards as my first experience of coding was actually at college with Visual Basic, but I cemented this by accepting a place at the University of Southampton on their Computer Science course where they concentrated on Java and object orientated programming.
Before I had gone to university I also took Art & Design and had been torn between which to do, so when it came to deciding what to do after finishing my degree I had made my mind up to go into computer games where there was room for more creativity (and more enjoyment) than the typical alternative, i.e. databases for a city company.
How did you get to work at Rare?
I wouldn’t say I was a Rare 'fanboy' but my brother and I were big Rare enthusiasts with most of it put down to the love of Solar Jetman on the NES. With this said, when I started looking at where to apply this was my first choice; an application form was sent off, an interview was arranged and somehow I was let in. |
