Handmade Network»Forums
Maxwell Perlman
1 posts
Game designer that learned to program. Enjoys avant-garde art and discriminated unions.
Introduction Thread
Hey there people,

I'm Max (or Maxwell, whatever your preference), a long time lurker of the handmade community. I finally decided to join amidst the day long stream that Jon Blow did yesterday. I started watching Handmade Hero around a month or so after it began and have been watching erratically since then with varying degrees of intensity (from following Casey line at a time to simply listening in while working on my own stuff). Although I would say I spend over 60% of my time (professional and personal) designing rather than coding, I definitely believe in the attitude and coding style associated with the Handmade community (specifically I identify with Shawn McGrath's and Jon Blow's coding styles).

So, a little about myself:

I have been employed since October of 2015 by MIT's Lincoln Laboratory to work on "serious games", mostly focused on humanitarian assistance and disaster relief. While at Lincoln, I've acted as a game designer, gameplay system programmer, engine programmer, and UI designer on a bunch of different projects, many of which are unfortunately classified or would require me to get approval to show off.

I graduated from Worcester Polytechnic Institute (an engineering school in Massachusetts) in 2015 with a bachelor of science degree in Interactive Media and Game Development. My time there was approximately 60% computer science classes (with a great deal of focus on projects, usually game related) and the rest was game design. WPI was interesting in that goes off of a quarter system rather than semesters, so the students often take 3 courses over 7 weeks, leading most software projects being developed rapidly. Fortunately while there, I found that the majority of the programming courses were not heavily OOP focused (except the OOP course, which is the one CS class I did poorly in haha). A super lucky thing about studying at WPI was that I got to study under this guy, who taught many of my classes and oversaw most of my independent projects; we are now drinking buddies.

I've wanted to work as a game designer since the age of 5 and began coding because that is how things get done. I started out by ROM hacking Super Mario World, by editing block and sprite behaviours using very minor hex edits and assembly code, and then moved into an intro to programming class as a junior in high school.


ANYWAY, I've decided to join you lovely people in the fight for sane software development :D. I will see you on the forums and try to not go back to my usual lurking.

-Max
@MaxwellPerlman
Jeremiah Goerdt
208 posts / 1 project
Build a man a fire, and he'll be warm for a day. Set a man on fire, and he'll be warm for the rest of his life.
Introduction Thread
Good to meet you Max. Welcome
Jeroen van Rijn
248 posts
A big ball of Wibbly-Wobbly, Timey-Wimey _stuff_
Introduction Thread
Hi there, Maxwell.

Welcome to our humble abode. I might've done a bit of ROM hacking in my youth as well…
See you around.