March 9, 2022A Career In Game Development Slides of a talk I gave on behalf of BAFTA for the UK’s 2022 National Careers Week, in association with Into Film Northern Ireland. The talk was broadcast to schools in Northern Ireland, and gave schoolchildren there a glimpse into the range of careers available in game development. |
September 17, 2017A Junior Coder Survival Guide Slides of a talk I just gave at the inaugural Galway Games Gathering, a new two-day gamedev conference in Galway, Ireland. Aimed at hopeful students and nascent junior coders, this talk is a mix of advice on how to get a job, and a heads-up on some common issues faced by juniors as they find their way. |
April 6, 2017It's good to talk! Communication for coders Another talk I gave, at State of Play 2017, on communication for coders. Contains general advice for programmers on how to not be That Coder that nobody wants to deal with, with examples from personal experience on how more communication is a good thing, and why attention to workflow matters. |
March 3, 2017GPU Performance for Game Artists Performance is everybody's responsibility, no matter what your role. For artists, a little knowledge of what goes on under the hood can make a big impact on a game's framerate. If you're an artist and want to understand how the GPU works and why things like draw calls, LODs, and mipmaps are important for performance, read on! |
November 17, 2016Becoming a Programmer in the Games Industry A talk I gave at the University of Limerick Lero Research Center to postgrads and game development undergrads in November 2016. Covers some general advice on how to approach getting a job in the games industry as a programmer; how to apply, and what to expect. |
August 24, 2015Multithreading for Gamedev Students Here are the slides of another talk I gave in Trinity College Dublin. This one gives an introduction to the basics of programming for multicore processors, covering the aspects that most apply to developing game engines. The talk is aimed at gamedev students that don’t necessarily come from a strict computer science background, but is also applicable to CS students looking for a refresher. |
July 30, 2015How to Become a Game Programmer At least once a month I see the same question pop up on various programming forums I visit - "How do I get into the games industry?", or a variation such as "What language should I learn?", or "What should I do in college?". Sometimes I try and answer, but I invariably find myself writing the same bits of advice and yet never have the time to go into the detail that I want to. This is my attempt to make up for that. |
July 12, 2015Performance Programming for Gamedev Students These are the slides of a talk I gave to the M.Sc. IET course in Trinity College Dublin in July 2014. The aim was to give the students an overview of the most important topics when it comes to optimizing game engines for performance. |