Lead Programmer

Deano has been making games since how many levels of parallax scrolling you could have was a key skill. More recently, he was Lead Programmer at Ninja Theory on Heavenly Sword and has also been involved with Silent Hill 2 and Sudeki. Though he has a combination of design and programming roles on his CV, his party tricks involving two metal bars seem to attract the most attention.

Outside work, he plays lots of games and also makes his own little games currently using XNA. Also known to write the odd article for web sites, books and magazines, he spouts random lolcatz quotes on forums such as Beyond3D, YakYak and Neogaf.

The lure of the finest tapir sanctuary this side of Mars was a key factor in joining Splash Damage and its plot to overthrow the world via an army of ninja tapirs.. err, sorry, the party line is "We make games." Must remember that...

Things You Were Too Afraid To Ask...

Every once in a while, we interrogate one of our own and put their answers up for all the world to see. Read on to find out more about what Dean does, how he ended up at Splash Damage, and more.

What do you do at Splash Damage?

Hello, I'm Dean, more commonly known as Deano or by my usual forum nick of DeanoC and my job at Splash Damage is the dangerous job of Tapir Herding. As you probably know, Splash Damage is known for its world-famous man eating tapir herd and it's my job to get them A to B without loss of innocent life.

More seriously, my title is Lead Programmer, which, if you were to try and summarize it, involves making sure the game actually gets onto the shelf and runs well without bugs. Sometimes it's from the trenches writing PlayStation 3 SPU code, sometimes it's sitting in planning meetings, and at other times it's just double-checking that everything is sane. They say leading a programming team is similar to herding cats, so maybe my first job description is closer to the truth. Well, without the man-eating bit.

Why did you want to work in the games industry and how did you get started?

I've been in the games biz for over a decade now. It's all I ever wanted to do so I spent much of my free time at school happily programming Atari ST and Commodore Amiga in 68000. It was great experience, but my teachers weren't too happy that I never did any of my school work. On the PC and moving to C and C++, I wrote a small space game (sort of 3D asteroids) while doing a Computer Science degree. Unlike that game, I never finished the degree, as I was offered a job based on my demos and games and so broke into the computer games industry.

From there, I worked on quite a few titles - some that would be released and others that would never get past the prototype phase. The ones you're likely to have heard of are Heavenly Sword, Sudeki and Silent Hill 2.

What has been your proudest achievement working in video games?

Each project I was involved with has been interesting, but the one I'm most proud of is Heavenly Sword. While there are (and there always are) aspects which could be better, we delivered a gorgeous title with some real innovations and on a brand-new platform.

Why did you join Splash Damage?

I chose to come to Splash Damage because the studio has a reputation of making great games and also being a nice place to work at, which I'm glad to say has been confirmed twice over since I actually started.

What are the best and worst parts of your job?

The best part of my job is that I get to make games. To me, it's the most innovative and interesting form of entertainment, and when it's done well, it trumps all other forms of media. There has been a great set of games over the last 20 or so years, but we're just scratching the surface. The buzz when you see an advert or a copy of a game in a shop that you've poured blood, sweat and tears in is just amazing.

The worst bit for me personally is that at heart I'm a designer who just happens to know how to program, but because it seems to be a fairly rare skill, I usually end up working on lower level programming, rather than higher level game mechanics and design. I've always joked that if I was just a little worse at my job, I might get to do more game design. :D

But I do lots of thing in my spare time that usually manage to keep that itch at bay, most recently playing with XNA games and having a go at iPhone development.

What was your first gaming experience?

My very first gaming experience is also my very first memory: I was about 2 when I can remember seeing a Grandstand 'console' with some simple Pong-style games. Games I distinctly remember were a crude form of blackjack and a sort of graphics toy, where you controlled a kaleidoscope. From then I worked my way up through ZX81 (first thing I ever programmed on), through Oric Atmos, ZX Spectrum Atari ST, Commodore Amiga and finally the PC. The Speccy was where I first got hooked on games being something special. From simple arcade games like JetPac to RPGs like Lords of Midnight, it began to dawn on me that this could be more than just copying sports in a digital form. When the 16-bit titles appeared - especially the RPGs - I never looked back. Having a complete world, like Ultima or Bards Tale, on a disk seemed (and still does!) like magic.

What types of games do you like, and what's your favourite game of all time?

There so many favourite games that it’s hard to just list a few... from older, seminal titles like Elite or Cannon Fodder or Ultima (VII is my favourite out of the bunch) to more modern classics like Eternal Darkness, Condemned or Bioshock. In particular, I never felt let down by a Mario title (proper Mario, not those sports games) or the Civilization series - they have both been around a long time and still get played and loved by me today.

What do you enjoy doing when you're not at work?

Outside of games, a love of horror movies and a sizable music collection keeps me occupied. As I type this, Muse is playing on my iPod and some classic zombie movies await my return home. My favourite TV show at the moment is Regenesis and I like reading classic horror (Lovecraft is the best) and classic sci-fi (Arthur C Clark being my fave). I also hang out at a number of gaming/3D forums such as Beyond3D, YakYak and Neogaf and I've been known to write the odd article for books, magazines or the web.