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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.

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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

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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)

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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.

A peek into my life

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