STAFF PROFILE: SIMONA, STG PROGRAMMER
What is your background?
I am Italian, from the countryside in the North-East, very close to the beaches of the Adriatic Sea. I decided I wanted to work with computers when I first used a 286 in Primary school, I was fascinated! I went to a technical high school where we learned Accountancy and Programming (I know, a strange school), then I pursued a Computer Science Degree at the University of Bologna, focusing on 3D Math, AI, Physics and Graphics, not with a game programming career in mind, just because they were the most interesting. I spent about six months preparing my Thesis on Real-Time Visualization of Unstructured Data Grids at the CIPIC (UC Davis) in the USA.
After that I went back home and worked for one year in a small company doing web servers. Not exactly what I wanted to do, but it was good fun as a first job.
I then moved to Amsterdam where I worked for a year and a half on a medical system, writing a renderer and various modules for it. There I understood how important it is to speak the mother tongue of the country you live in. I didn't feel like learning Dutch, so I decided to move to the UK.
How did you get to work at Rare?
I like computer games, but I am not very good at playing them. What I really enjoy is the bundle of technologies that are the foundation of every game, and when I decided to move to the UK I realized that the set of skills and knowledge I had developed (studying and working) were perfect for the games industry. And moreover, games are fun!
I applied to Rare because I knew it was a well-established company but I thought they would never call me. Luckily they didn't require game industry experience, and here I am.
I loved the company from the moment I saw it. Everybody was so friendly, and the grounds were absolutely stunning and covered in snow when I came for the interview. I chose to join STG because this allows me to try out new technologies, study solutions and produce tools for the game teams to use. |
