Salty Piers Studios

Daniel Piers

I have always loved video games.  Halfway through my senior year in high school I realized that game development wasn't some unattainable dream job; I could actually do it for a living.  I had always been good with computers, so I decided I would become a game programmer.

Over the 13 day winter break I taught myself Calculus I; my Christmas presents that year were an Intro C++ book and C++ for Game Programmers.  I took AP Calculus II class in the spring while I was teaching myself C++, and I took Linear Algebra in my first semester at the University of North Texas.

The next summer I attended the Game Education Summit @ SMU and I started working on my first game.  Colour (XNA) was submitted for Dream-Build-Play 2008, and it rightfully received no awards, recognition, or critical acclaim.

Since then I have made a few other games; on Windows, iPhone, and the Xbox 360.  I started saving up for a GDC pass in '08, and I had the money/opportunity to go to GDC '10 with an All Access Pass.  I went to a bunch of amazing sessions, learned a ton of cool stuff, and met lots of cool people.

I have only been programming for a few years now, but I'm young (20) and I'm getting better.  I plan on graduating in December '10 with a BS Computer Science and a Game Programming Certificate from the University of North Texas.

Resume (.docx)

Resume (.pdf)

 

Special Thanks:

Ian Parberry - for running the LARC and allowing me to work on video games at school
 
Ricardo Quesada - for creating/maintaining Cocos2D for iPhone
 
The Guildhall @ SMU - the advice I got through their forums when I was in high school has helped shape the past few years of my life.
 
Last but not least - everyone else who has helped me along the way!  Thanks for not ignoring that wannabe game developer kid.