I began my journey into hobbyist game development around 2018 by working on small projects to familiarize myself with 3D software. After making small projects for around 2 years, I decided to work on my first game demo, taking my hobbies to a more serious level. By the end of 2019, I had developed my first unreleased demo, "Work in Progress," completing my first foray into Unreal game development at the age of 16. 

It was around that time that I began my work with a tech startup called Brains4Drones. For around 8 months, I worked closely with their senior software engineer to train AI image recognition software and create pipelines for their manufacturing process. Before then, I had a rudimentary understanding of programming languages that was strongly limited to Java fundamentals (thanks to my participation in FIRST Robotics), but through my experience with them, I was pushed to improve my programming abilities in Python and POSIX-compliant Linux shell scripting.

After leaving due to relocation, I took my experiences and brought them to Unreal Engine to tackle larger and larger projects, all accumulating into an 8-month project called "The Andromeda Project." This was and still is the largest project I have ever tackled solo. Due to quarantine, I had found myself in a unique position to dedicate myself to my craft. Over the course of those 8 months, I touched on several skills, from environmental arts, self-management, and Kanban to light 3D animation and rigging. Some of the most important skills I learned were high-level mastery of Unreal Engine Blueprints (block code), dabbling in both C# and C++ during development, and low- to mid-level technical documentation.

That brings us to my years in college, where I'm learning game-related studies, analysis, design, writing, production, and directing. I've taken smaller projects where I refine skills in level design, 3D environmental art (my banner), and character concept art. I've recently taken a break from Unreal to practice specific skills in Godot, including developing games for Game Jams and tutoring game design concepts with fellow students. 

Right now, I'm a community officer for the UNT Game Development Club, hosting workshops and events and providing lessons for student members while studying and working on my latest soon-to-be published game, "LITMUS." I am beginning my first foray into 2D game development. Thanks for reading, and I hope we can talk games!