We often mention our team in terms of "Amplidudes and Amplidudettes", but we decided we should give you folks an idea of who we mean. You've guessed it, it's time for another installment of our (semi-)regular feature, Meet the Team! We continue this year's run through studio veterans with another one of the first to board ship. If you want to know more about us, or your nephew wants to learn more about the career path of a game developer, or if you're just curious, read on.
Meet the Lead 3D engineer who knows if you've been naughty or nice, Tim, aka timraulin!
Who are you and what do you do at Amplitude?
Hi guys! I'm Tim, I'm 40 years old (yeah, I can't believe it either!) with two kids, and Lead 3D engineer (on Endless Legend I was alone, but still the Lead). I take care of technical stuff with graphics, writing shaders to push Unity to the limit, and hunt aliasing wherever it hides.
What were you doing before you joined Amplitude?
Before Amplitude, I worked for 14 years at Eugen Systems, where I took part in the production of 7 games and expansions. I mostly worked on 3D engines and level editors, but I also did many various other things, such as tank and plane movement in the Wargame series. I was working on RUSE when I first met our beloved boss Mathieu.
When did you join the studio?
August 2013. My first task was creating terrain geometry for Legend. That's when I discovered Unity, and all things considered it's not so bad.
What feature have you worked on that you're super proud of?
Lots of things! I'll say I'm especially proud of the shaders that display fog of war in Legend. Back in the day we tried many things, we asked the artists to come up with concepts, but we felt a bit stuck. Out of the blue during a meeting I got this idea, which led to this discovery effect that I love. I'll be really proud when another studio copies it from us.
I really like the code that makes buildings rise in kind of a Game of Thrones way when the player builds, or when the game starts. The fun bit is that nobody asked me for this feature, but I could make it happen, so I did and I showed the finished result: "Surprise!" Fortunately everyone liked it so I was forgiven.
What are you currently working on?
I mostly work on battles in Endless Space 2. I've been told we need to really feel it's game #2. It's not done yet, but now you can really feel it, you'll see.
What's your favorite game of all time?
Not an easy question, I've been playing games for a pretty long time now. I think the game I spent the most time on is Civ 4. Recently I've been playing a lot of War Thunder.
Is there anywhere on the Internet where I can see more of your stuff?
Search for these keywords: “R.U.S.E”, “Wargame airland battle” and “Act of War” for my games in previous studios.
A mini lecture in French: http://fr.slideshare.net/bemyapp/systeme-dinstancing-dans-endless-legend-reskin
I am very shy and I always think what I do is of no interest to anyone, so I don't publish much.
What's your favorite faction or character in our games?
I really like Necrophages: that last x in 4x stands for eXterminate, right? I never thought diplomacy was a civ-like's strong point, so a race that cannot make peace is exactly my kind of stuff. On top of that I really like the characters' animations for this faction, not to mention the "diplomat" who tries to fool people into thinking he's only got two arms.
Is there a funny story that happened to you at Amplitude?
I am the official office Santa!
What's your favorite quote?
"Easy! Let’s encode everything in a texture, then decode it in the shader."
What story does your family always tell about you?
The first memory my wife has of me is "Tim? Oh yeah the guy with the funny eyebrows".
That's it for Tim! We hope you found this interesting. Comments or additional questions, feel free to ask!
If there's a question you would like us to ask the interviewees, let us know!
