J. Kyle Pittman

Game Programmer Portfolio

	Home		Personal Projects		Team Projects		Résumé

My résumé is available for download in the following formats:

Microsoft Word format (.doc)

Adobe Acrobat format (.pdf)

Plain text format (.txt)

6820 Preston Rd Apt 317
Plano, TX 75024

http://students.guildhall.smu.edu/~jpittman/
jpittman at gmail dot com
(402) 304-0473

Game Experience

Unannounced Title, Gearbox Software	June 2006 – September 2006
Programmer Intern • Utilized Unreal Engine 3 technology • Gathered requirements from design team and implemented new systems in a data-driven fashion • Implemented designer-adjustable homing projectiles • Developed multiple HUD-related systems • Guidance system consisting of dynamic waypoints for quests, fixed markers, and a HUD compass • Directional damage indicators • Item feedback system for pickups, including markers around item bounds and textual information about the item when the player looks at it • Implemented new systems for playing customizable weapon impact effects, footstep sounds, and pain sounds • Tweaked and optimized existing auto-aim functionality based on designer requests
Chaos Core Engine, The Guildhall at SMU	July 2005 – March 2007
Sole Programmer • Original 3D game engine developed to be dual-API (Direct3D and OpenGL) • Implemented a patch-based LOD terrain system • Implemented skeletal character animation in an HLSL shader • Developed a grammar for a custom scripting language and implemented its compiler and virtual machine • Wrote Direct3D and OpenGL shader programs for lighting, skeletal animation, shadow maps, and cel shading • Authored resource managers for textures, sounds, and particles • Developed optimized math classes for performing vector, matrix, and quaternion math
Master’s Project: Designed Procedural Content Generation, The Guildhall at SMU	October 2006 – March 2007
Sole Programmer • Created a toolset to facilitate procedural content generation for rapid development of content assets without compromising designer control • Designed and implemented a graph-based user interface for ease of use • Integrated previously developed noise generator functions and added dialog boxes for controlling their parameters • Added new parameters to shape the output of noise generator functions to facilitate better designer control • Implemented an erosion algorithm for producing more natural and realistic terrain heightmaps
Directed Focus Study: Shadow Maps, The Guildhall at SMU	April 2006 – June 2006
Sole Programmer • Implemented standard shadow maps for spotlights • Implemented trapezoidal shadow maps for improved spatial accuracy • Implemented variance shadow maps to facilitate blurring to produce soft shadows • Created a demo scene to show off and compare the visual impact and performance of each type of shadow map
Toybox Heroes, Team Shirt, The Guildhall at SMU	October 2006 – March 2007
Programmer/Game Designer • Team size: 15 (5 programmers) • Built within the Source SDK • Designed and developed a third-person camera system that behaves synonymously on all players’ screens • Implemented camera-relative movement optimized for gamepads with analog sticks • Developed a system for spawning randomly chosen weapons that drop from a breakable physics objects • Authored new game entities to allow designers to specify hazard volumes and corresponding respawn points • Selected for Game Designer role by Guildhall faculty based on original game concept document written around given constraints • Wrote and maintained concept and game design documents
Knights, Chaos Core Games, The Guildhall at SMU	July 2005 – September 2005
Sole Programmer/Game Designer/Artist/Composer • 2D Artillery-style “hotseat” multiplayer game demo • Features procedurally generated dynamic terrain • Implemented Euler integration physics motion and collision detection and response for game entities • Integrated FMOD as middleware for audio
Element, Grawble Games, The Guildhall at SMU	January 2006 – March 2006
Lead Programmer • Team size: 12 (4 programmers) • Delegated tasks among programming team • Created new gameplay code in UnrealScript • Developed new actor classes for selectable player classes and new weapons and pickups • Added new gameplay rules based on the existing Onslaught game type • Helped design and implement a new HUD layout and an animated title screen
Gunslinger, Friendly Fire Games, The Guildhall at SMU	January 2006 – June 2006
Programmer/Artist/Game Designer • Team size: 4 programmers • 2D scrolling platformer game developed for cell phones with the J2ME Game API • Designed and implemented a compile-time random level generator for faster level development • Created sprites and tiles and designed one level by hand

Education

The Guildhall at SMU	March 2007
• Master of Interactive Technology in Digital Game Development • Specialization: Software development • Current cumulative GPA: 3.923
The University of Nebraska-Lincoln	May 2005
• Bachelor of Science in Computer Science • Graduated with Distinction • Minor in Mathematics • Cumulative GPA: 3.842

Skills

Languages, APIs, libraries, and engines

     • C++, C, Java, Visual Basic, HLSL, OpenGL assembly shader language, UnrealScript, HTML
     • DirectX 9, Direct3D 9, OpenGL, Win32, Win32 GDI, FMOD, Unreal Engine 2.5, Unreal Engine 3, Source SDK
     • Terrain stitching and LOD, terrain erosion, procedural content generation, Perlin noise, Worley noise, skeletal animation, shader authoring, networking in the Unreal and Source engines, A* pathfinding
     • Vector, matrix, and quaternion math; linear algebra; calculus; physics

Tools

     • Visual Studio .NET 2005 and 2003, GCC, UDE, UnrealEd 2.0 and 3.0
     • Perforce, Subversion, TortoiseSVN, CVS
     • Microsoft Office 2003 (Word, Excel, PowerPoint, FrontPage, Outlook, Project)
     • Adobe Photoshop CS2, 3D Studio MAX 7