skarsten
01-25-2006, 09:53 AM
Hi there,
I'm a game programmer. Published, with four titles under my belt. Two with major companies (JAMDAT and THQ), two with my own company... but let's not talk about those last two. They didn't do so good.
Anyway, I'm looking to keep doing what I do best. Currently located in Houston, willing to relocate for the right position. My industry experience is in mobile, but I know pretty much all of the technologies except for console-specific proprietaries.
This is my resume. If you think I'd be as good an addition to your team as I do, I'd love to hear from you.
Stephen Karstensen
8207 Terrace Brook Drive
Houston, TX 77040
USA
Home Phone (732) 216-5318
Email skarsten@optonline.net
SUMMARY
I am an accomplished game developer with four published mobile titles to my credit, including one high-profile, licensed work for a major publisher. I enjoy game development and want to continue my career in this challenging field.
I'm also a very visual and creative person, a proficient writer, decent amateur artist (both sketching and Photoshop) with some animation skills, am comfortable with voice acting, and am pretty much a perfect fit for any sort of multimedia-based technology development position.
You will also find that my skills extend outside the realm of gaming and game development - I was a web developer and instructor for several years and have a great deal of technical knowledge in these fields as well.
EDUCATION
Bachelor of Sciences - Computer Science, Kean University, 1996
Languages: C, C++, Direct X/OpenGL, JavaScript, SQL, HTML/DHTML, Perl, ASP, JSP, VBScript, Java/J2ME, PHP, BREW, ActionScript, XML
WORK HISTORY
June 2004 - Sep 2005 Mobile (J2ME) Programmer, 5th Cell Media
Developed Lemony Snicket's 'A Series of Unfortunate Events' under contract to JAMDAT Mobile and Darts Pro! in association with THQ Wireless. Of special note was the entity/scripting system and tile-based scrolling engine developed for Lemony, which provided a sophisticated handling of object interaction in the game world. Following Lemony, I developed Darts Pro!, a multiplayer darts title for THQ. On both projects I was the primary coder, responsible for pretty much everything other than artwork and QA.
Jan 2003-Jun 2004 President/Lead Programmer, Bridge and Tunnel Software
BnT was founded by myself in January of 2003 in order to capitalize on the growing wireless gaming market. Two titles were developed (Uncle Scratchy's Flea Racing and Button Men) and published under the BnT name via Cellmania (USA) and iiLCorp (Hong Kong/China) before the company folded in mid-2004. I did the design, artwork, and programming for both titles
2002-Jun 2004 Adjunct Faculty, Creative Arts & Technology Program, Bloomfield College
Originally hired to develop and teach “Video Games and Virtual Worlds”, a course focused on basic 2D game development in Java, I was also an advisor to (and had a hand in the development of) the college's academic program for game design and development.
Gaming-related interests
I've been working with the gaming industry's tools and "mod" utilities for years, and have a pretty good handle on related technologies. I'm an avid "City of Heroes" player, am currently making short films with Lionhead Studios' The Movies (my work is posted online at http://movies.lionhead.com/studio/skarsten - "Jailbreak!" is currently ranked at #23 in the Action genre charts, which is mighty impressive...), and have a number of community awards to my credit. One of my Half-Life maps was voted the #3 best community map for the "Science and Industry" mod a few years ago, and one of my Quake II mods was named "Mod of the Week" at PlanetQuake.com. I've used the Unreal Engine and UnrealScript, Bioware's Aurora toolset, the Quake, Quake II, and Half-Life mod SDKs, the Age of Empires scenario editors, QERadiant and QuArK (Quake 3-D mapping tools), and Worldcraft (Half-Life 3D mapping tool).
non-gaming related programming experience
Early 2003-Jan 2004 Systems Programming Consultant, Intergalactic Communications
Design and implementation of small-scale E-commerce web sites using PHP and MySQL. Sites make use of persistent storage via MySQL databases and facilitate on-line order placement for customers.
2001-2002 Instructor/Developer, Sysoft/Integratise,Inc.
Prototyping web-based applications for RFPs in ASP and JSP with database backends using Oracle, SQL Server, and Access. Development/writing/proofreading of course material, quizzes, exams, and textbooks on XML, ASP,JSP, SQL, Database, Javascript, and VBScript. Taught courses five days a week on eCommerce, networking basics, and programming languages (ASP/JSP/XML/JavaScript/SQL). Developed in-house tool for creating, taking, and grading students’ quizzes on-line.
1999-2001 Applications Consultant, Concurrent Technologies
Design, coding, and support for web-based application solutions. Among them: PULSE of the Workcenter (AT&T Intranet) and PULSE Y2K Crisis Monitoring Center, RDS Ordering System (AT&T Intranet/Interactive Advantage gateway), Customer Connect (Internal AT&T sales-tracking tool), 10-10-345 commercial website (www.1010345.com). I also worked as part of a task-resolution team that quickly solved time-critical problems for other projects as needed.
1997-1999 Technical Lead - Software Installation, Logic Works/Platinum Technology
Design, programming, and maintenance of Installshield scripts pertaining to product installation for company’s entire line, including ERwin, BPwin, and TestBYTES. I also did some Windows C++-based programming for an install launcher frontend (GUI application) for a multiapplication package.
I'm a game programmer. Published, with four titles under my belt. Two with major companies (JAMDAT and THQ), two with my own company... but let's not talk about those last two. They didn't do so good.
Anyway, I'm looking to keep doing what I do best. Currently located in Houston, willing to relocate for the right position. My industry experience is in mobile, but I know pretty much all of the technologies except for console-specific proprietaries.
This is my resume. If you think I'd be as good an addition to your team as I do, I'd love to hear from you.
Stephen Karstensen
8207 Terrace Brook Drive
Houston, TX 77040
USA
Home Phone (732) 216-5318
Email skarsten@optonline.net
SUMMARY
I am an accomplished game developer with four published mobile titles to my credit, including one high-profile, licensed work for a major publisher. I enjoy game development and want to continue my career in this challenging field.
I'm also a very visual and creative person, a proficient writer, decent amateur artist (both sketching and Photoshop) with some animation skills, am comfortable with voice acting, and am pretty much a perfect fit for any sort of multimedia-based technology development position.
You will also find that my skills extend outside the realm of gaming and game development - I was a web developer and instructor for several years and have a great deal of technical knowledge in these fields as well.
EDUCATION
Bachelor of Sciences - Computer Science, Kean University, 1996
Languages: C, C++, Direct X/OpenGL, JavaScript, SQL, HTML/DHTML, Perl, ASP, JSP, VBScript, Java/J2ME, PHP, BREW, ActionScript, XML
WORK HISTORY
June 2004 - Sep 2005 Mobile (J2ME) Programmer, 5th Cell Media
Developed Lemony Snicket's 'A Series of Unfortunate Events' under contract to JAMDAT Mobile and Darts Pro! in association with THQ Wireless. Of special note was the entity/scripting system and tile-based scrolling engine developed for Lemony, which provided a sophisticated handling of object interaction in the game world. Following Lemony, I developed Darts Pro!, a multiplayer darts title for THQ. On both projects I was the primary coder, responsible for pretty much everything other than artwork and QA.
Jan 2003-Jun 2004 President/Lead Programmer, Bridge and Tunnel Software
BnT was founded by myself in January of 2003 in order to capitalize on the growing wireless gaming market. Two titles were developed (Uncle Scratchy's Flea Racing and Button Men) and published under the BnT name via Cellmania (USA) and iiLCorp (Hong Kong/China) before the company folded in mid-2004. I did the design, artwork, and programming for both titles
2002-Jun 2004 Adjunct Faculty, Creative Arts & Technology Program, Bloomfield College
Originally hired to develop and teach “Video Games and Virtual Worlds”, a course focused on basic 2D game development in Java, I was also an advisor to (and had a hand in the development of) the college's academic program for game design and development.
Gaming-related interests
I've been working with the gaming industry's tools and "mod" utilities for years, and have a pretty good handle on related technologies. I'm an avid "City of Heroes" player, am currently making short films with Lionhead Studios' The Movies (my work is posted online at http://movies.lionhead.com/studio/skarsten - "Jailbreak!" is currently ranked at #23 in the Action genre charts, which is mighty impressive...), and have a number of community awards to my credit. One of my Half-Life maps was voted the #3 best community map for the "Science and Industry" mod a few years ago, and one of my Quake II mods was named "Mod of the Week" at PlanetQuake.com. I've used the Unreal Engine and UnrealScript, Bioware's Aurora toolset, the Quake, Quake II, and Half-Life mod SDKs, the Age of Empires scenario editors, QERadiant and QuArK (Quake 3-D mapping tools), and Worldcraft (Half-Life 3D mapping tool).
non-gaming related programming experience
Early 2003-Jan 2004 Systems Programming Consultant, Intergalactic Communications
Design and implementation of small-scale E-commerce web sites using PHP and MySQL. Sites make use of persistent storage via MySQL databases and facilitate on-line order placement for customers.
2001-2002 Instructor/Developer, Sysoft/Integratise,Inc.
Prototyping web-based applications for RFPs in ASP and JSP with database backends using Oracle, SQL Server, and Access. Development/writing/proofreading of course material, quizzes, exams, and textbooks on XML, ASP,JSP, SQL, Database, Javascript, and VBScript. Taught courses five days a week on eCommerce, networking basics, and programming languages (ASP/JSP/XML/JavaScript/SQL). Developed in-house tool for creating, taking, and grading students’ quizzes on-line.
1999-2001 Applications Consultant, Concurrent Technologies
Design, coding, and support for web-based application solutions. Among them: PULSE of the Workcenter (AT&T Intranet) and PULSE Y2K Crisis Monitoring Center, RDS Ordering System (AT&T Intranet/Interactive Advantage gateway), Customer Connect (Internal AT&T sales-tracking tool), 10-10-345 commercial website (www.1010345.com). I also worked as part of a task-resolution team that quickly solved time-critical problems for other projects as needed.
1997-1999 Technical Lead - Software Installation, Logic Works/Platinum Technology
Design, programming, and maintenance of Installshield scripts pertaining to product installation for company’s entire line, including ERwin, BPwin, and TestBYTES. I also did some Windows C++-based programming for an install launcher frontend (GUI application) for a multiapplication package.