Ryan Thorlakson
ryan.thorlakson .. at .. gmail.com
SUMMARY OF QUALIFICATIONS
* Six years of professional industry experience with PC and console game programming.
* Helped ship Valve’s popular PC/console game Left 4 Dead 2 and heavily contributed to its major upcoming PC game, Dota 2.
* Consistently receive overwhelmingly positive feedback, raises, and bonuses.
* Created my own Xbox 360 game project from scratch, published on Xbox Live Indie Games.
* Lead a team of four programmers at Snowblind for eight months as Acting Gameplay Programming Lead of a large budget console title.
* Valedictorian of my DigiPen graduating class.
* Excellent mathematical ability. Earned a math minor and aced all math classes. Specialize in 3D math.
* Strong background in A.I. theory and implementation.
* Accepted into American Mensa, a high-IQ society for those scoring in the top 2% on a standardized IQ test.
* Avid obsessive gamer since childhood.
SKILLS
* Expert in C/C++ with advanced knowledge of C#.
* Many years experience with Visual Studio 2005/2008/2010.
* Production experience with Protobuf, SQL, Lua, XNA, HTML/CSS, ASP, VBScript, and MAXScript.
* Several years of production experience with Perforce and various bug-tracking software.
EMPLOYMENT HISTORY
Valve
Software,
Dota 2 (November 2009 – April 2012)
* Implemented highly efficient RTS pathfinding from scratch using a custom hierarchical A* search followed by short-range dynamic obstacle avoidance.
* Added the ability to author pathfinding grids to Valve’s Hammer map editing tool.
* Implemented collision detection and response and efficient cached local area queries for units.
* Implemented all of the unit behaviors in the game including computer-controlled and player-controlled units.
Implemented 3 heroes:
- Invoker, the most unique and complex hero in the game with 14 spells that can be used in various combinations.
- Nature’s Prophet, who can uniquely create destructible pathfinding obstructions.
- Night Stalker.
* Worked extensively with many core gameplay systems including player unit order validation and execution, unit abilities and effects, items, fog of war, and displayed errors.
* Worked closely with IceFrog to perfect gameplay systems most important to the most sensitive professional gamers, such as creep blocking, tower/creep/player aggro rules, and experience/gold rewards.
* Wrote the mouseover detection and selection code allowing you to easily select the desired unit(s) among many overlapping units. Coordinated closely with artists and designers to define clickable regions.
* Implemented persistent clans/teams using SQL and Protobuf. Carefully handled job concurrency using locks.
* Monitored gameplay-related checkins and fixed many bugs with checkins that others had overlooked.
* Monitored the community forums to gather, distribute, and respond to community feedback.
* Received two raises totaling 24% and received three bonuses totaling 53% of my salary.
Left 4 Dead 2 (July 2009 –
November 2009)
* Started toward the end of the shipping cycle and helped finish and ship the product.
* Fixed a variety of bugs, mainly dealing with pathfinding, locomotion, and AI behaviors.
* Received a generous bonus for my work on Left 4 Dead 2.
Indie
Project Sept 2008 – June 2009
Light’s End
* Created a unique story-driven game for Xbox 360 from scratch using C# and XNA.
* Sole programmer, designer, writer, musician, and marketer.
* Contracted an artist, the only other developer on the project.
* Published through Xbox Live Indie Games.
* The game received a “hot pie” positive rating from the IGN website’s Indie Games feature and averages around 8/10 in user reviews.
* More information at www.lightsendgame.com.
Snowblind
Studios,
Acting Lead Gameplay Programmer (Dec 2007 – Sept 2008)
Action
RPG (Xbox 360, PS3)
* Lead of a gameplay programming team for a big-budget Xbox360/PS3 action RPG that eventually became War in the North.
* Voluntarily stepped up to replace previous lead when he left.
* Managed our team of four programmers and coordinated closely with many other programming, art, and design teams.
* Coordinated and assembled milestone deliverable packages for Vivendi, the publisher.
* Implemented or debugged the most difficult “hot-item” gameplay issues that arose.
* Actively investigated agile development methods such as scrum and frequently discussed workflow issues with managers and team, easing transition from small to mid-sized company.
* Implemented safeguards against programmer distractions, improving productivity.
* Created an automated scheduling tool in Excel, populated from our bug database, FogBugz. This tool considered many variables such as severity, frequency, estimated resolve time, preferred programmer, deadline, and dependencies.
* Received my second raise at Snowblind of 25% during performance reviews with no negative feedback.
A.I./Gameplay Programmer (April 2006 – Dec 2007)
Action
RPG (Xbox 360, PS3)
* This
big-budget Xbox360/PS3 project lasted for two years before being absorbed into War
in the North.
* Overtook
responsibilities of those who had programmed the A.I. system for the previous
game as sole designer and implementer of our “next-gen” A.I. system.
* Created
an A.I. behavior and character control system from the ground up in C++:
- Goal-based
A.I. achieves goals via agents analyzing and utilizing available actions.
- Modular,
extensible, robust, readable, efficient, and data-driven.
- Empowered
designers to produce compelling enemy behaviors on their own.
- Implemented common building block behaviors: Idle, MoveTo, Attack, Flee, Protect, StayBack, Surround, TakeCover, PickUp.
- Team-based logic allows factions of NPCs to fight each other or alongside the player.
- NPCs intelligently pick up and use nearby weapons or other important items.
- Commands allow agents to take direct instruction from designers for cut scenes and scripted sequences.
* Designed
a successful nav-mesh pathfinding scheme (implemented by another programmer).
* Designed
and implemented intricate and visually appealing character locomotion:
- Implemented
path following that respects turning constraints.
- Animation
based movement eliminates common foot sliding problems when turning.
- Movement
animations and capabilities of each agent are cleanly separated from A.I.
logic.
- Implemented
seamless flight to ground movement to “burrowed” movement transitions.
* Designed
and directed implementation of a group behavior system which we used, for
example, to make four grunts work together to load and fire a catapult.
* Implemented
limb severing A.I. logic and finishing move character links for dramatic kills.
* My
A.I. systems were successful in empowering designers and lived on to help
create War in the North.
* Implemented
many other various gameplay systems including a multiplayer camera that keeps
four players in view within one viewport.
* Received
a raise of 24% during performance reviews with no negative feedback.
Justice
League Heroes (PS2, Xbox)
* Justice League Heroes is a superhero action RPG for PS2 and Xbox that we shipped.
* Repaired and improved existing A.I. and pathfinding code when I arrived.
* Programmed most of the unique boss encounters in the game.
* Built the builds:
- Made all kinds of builds for external testers, external localization team, and the publisher.
- Built the gold versions of JLH on store shelves: Xbox, PS2 NTSC, and PS2 PAL.
- Directly worked with publisher Warner Bros. to develop an incremental delivery system, eliminating overnight upload times.
Indie Project June
2003 – June 2007
Teragaia
* Designed, programmed, and maintained an independent web game.
* Persistent world game boasted 60 players.
DigiPen Game Development
Distance Learning Programs Spring
2005
Curriculum
Developer
Teacher
DigiPen Institute of Technology,
* B.S. in Real Time Interactive Simulation (Computer Science) with Math Minor.
* GPA: 3.75 – Valedictorian.
* Achieved straight A’s in all math classes.
* Created 5 full-featured game projects on small teams.
* Sci-fi FPS senior game project featured highly efficient A.I. pathfinding, logic, and physics, allowing for thousands of enemies in play at once employing unique scent-trail, flanking, and squad behaviors.
* Valedictorian of DigiPen graduating class.
* Accepted into American Mensa, a high-IQ society for those scoring in the top 2% on a standardized IQ test.
* A winner of ThinkFun’s 36 cube contest. Among the first in the world to solve their challenging puzzle.
* Competitive gaming (especially Starcraft II) and achievement hunting.
* Music
theory/composition/performance. I play several instruments, mainly piano and
bass.
Visit www.ryanthorlakson.com for project images, demos, and code
samples.