Who I am

This section will focus heavily on me as an individual, from a private perspective rather than a technical one. For technical details, please refer to the Portfolio section. Also, it is truly difficult to look at yourself and describe yourself objectively, therefore please take everything with a grain of salt as what is written here is solely the person perhaps I am trying to be.

Due to my determination and ambition, I have a relentless drive to achieve my goals, no matter if those are in video games, sports or career. I am unwilling to give up in most scenarios, I hate to throw everything away just to start over, and most importantly, I understand that everything has a price and nothing comes free.

At a certain point in life, realization struck me that one cannot win without risking, and in case of a loss, there are consequences to be faced - but, with a logical and step-by-step approach, one can minimize the risk and increase the rewards at the cost of time to gather knowledge and preserve experience.

And probably the most valuable attribute of mine, I am capable of taking advantage of disadvantages - a lesson I have learned from competitive Moba game such as League of Legends or Dota. Most of the time, in life, and in games, you are facing unfair scenarios - you either lack the skill, knowledge, or resource to make your path easier. If I am to achieve my goals, I must be capable of determining in which scenarios I have the advantage and how to preserve it, and in which I am at a disadvantage and what can I do to minimize it.

Overall, I would like to strive to be a logical, rational and calculated person, but that would not be ideal in a world such as ours, therefore, I also strive to be calm, wise and communicative in order to minimize losses and increase rewards for everyone around me.

What made me pursue game development?

Being born in 1995 and having the opportunity to play video games on a PC at the young age of 3 is probably what set me on this path. Until I have actually matured around the age of 21, my life focused only on playing competitive hardcore video games, sports, board-games, some programming and the bare necessity of fulfilling my responsibilities. While my results in competitive games were in the top 0.1% in multiple titles (Diamond I in League of Legends, 3.5 KDR in Call of Duty, Top 100 Paladins in World of Warcraft, Top 100 Players of Gwent) I was well aware that I am not suited to entertain, coach and live a public career life. That is when I decided to put everything I have learned over the years of gaming (literally years, as I have over 500 days online activity in World of Warcraft for example) into something more practical, something that I can be extremely good at while maintaining a normal and private life, and that turns out to be Game Development!

The Beginnings

Started when I was 15 years old - with C/C++ in MinGW at at the elitist German speaking school "Samuel von Brukenthal" from Sibiu, Romania. In a couple of years, in the very limited environment of drawing pixels, lines and circles as most complex in C++ graphics.h, I developed a local multi-player pac-man game with its own map editor inside. It was pretty crazy for those times!

After I graduated, it was time to move to something more serious, University of Plymouth: Computing and Games Dev Course (Also known as the suicide course, as everything computer science had to learn, we had to apply in games...)! Sacrificing my social life, I managed to graduate with a first-class degree while working a part-time job at the University assisting the technical residential support team.

The Mid Journey (Not AI)

For the first job, I moved from the United Kingdom all the way to Germany! To develop a VR Truck simulator for infotainment systems for Daimler Trucks. And a few other smaller projects along the side. I have some unforgetful memories, met people whom now I call friends and after the pandemic it was time to return home to my family, friends, and origin.

Despite believing that Romania is a pit for all dreams and hopes, I have come to realize that dreams come true in any country, as long as you are willing to fight for them - so I did and I have been accepted into Toptal as an AR/VR/Game Developer in Unity!

The Presents

In the last three years, I have been developing all kinds of projects and ideas as a remote Freelancer. I now have gathered enough experience to be titled a Senior and enjoy the work-life balance I finally was able to obtain.

For everything I have worked on professionally in detail, please visit the Portfolio section, to discover me as a person, scroll further down.