I have been working within the gambling industry since 2007, producing many feature-rich traditional slot games.
Due to the nature of the industry, and/or the changes in technology used, some of these are no longer available online, or are only available in paid or download casinos, but here are some links to the most recent games that are still online, utilising PixiJS, TypeScript, Spine, GSAP, etc.
Whilst making new slots in HTML5, I have also been solely responsible for maintaining legacy fixes for the Ash Gaming back catalog of Flash slots and table games.
Some of the work involves working through the multitude of frameworks over the year, to fix live issues that only come to light many years after the original developers have left the company.
Other times, there may be new requirements for localisation when releasing games into new territories. And of course new regulations and compliance issues in new markets as and when they arise. Some of this work is very time intensive and requires extensive knowledge of how each game works, and how it fits together with the game flow.
I have also been responsible for porting various games on to various platforms over the years.
Before moving on to making slots, I spent a few years developing pub-style UK slots, also known as AWP’s (Amusement With Prize), or just fruit machines, for Microgaming. These typically have three reel bands, and extra reel, or in-reel features such as nudges, or holds.
Typically, there would be a bonus feature as part of the game, which was triggered from the reels game, with many different mechanics for winning.
Some were designed to look like land-based machines, and others had a more cartoon, fun theme, in keeping with the traditional pub-game style.
Over the years I have created many large-scale training and e-learning products. Some are geared towards fun and creative learning, and others were much more functional in style. There were many activity and game types across the different titles, and included activities such as
I have coded a multitude of different genres of games. Some have been for clients, and include a PacMan style game, a shoot-em up, a matching pairs game, and a duelling cannons game for BBC Blackadder. I also made a Space Invaders clone for Frutina for their old website. Others were created for the company I was working for, or just for fun.
I have also made many games designed for more educational purposes – such as Hangman, Jigsaws, or dynamically built Crosswords or Word Searches. Some of these have had multiple re-use over e-learning programmes, or the Horrible Sciences CDs that were packaged with Kelloggs breakfast cereals.
Marketing and Press Packs comprise of information, and assets that are sent out to promote a product or service. These were distributed to work across PC and Mac via CD-Rom as a little application. I have delivered comprehensive product catalogues on both web and CD-Rom, as well as Point of Sale touch-screen kiosks.
Sometimes when you’re developing a large-scale project, it’s beneficial to make some kind of development tool applications to aid the process, and work as a prototype.
Such as a dynamic crossword generator, which randomly generated a puzzle based on the number of clues, and the size of the square specified. It generated a random seed number, so you could always build the same crossword again for the finalised product.
Or a karaoke application, which allowed us to generate our own timings for the lyrics to be displayed on-screen in S-Club 7: On the Road. Initial development time can save a massive chunk of development (or asset generation) time further along the development process. This was then utilised again and enhanced to allow us to generate subtitles for e-learning language training videos within further applications.
I am a Senior Programmer with over 20 years of experience in varying technologies and languages.
I am a HTML5 games developer, with experience working in an Agile Scrum environment. My current work involves TypeScript, using Pixi for mobile and desktop web games, with a framework based on PureMVC.
I use Git and Bitbucket for source control, JIRA, Confluence for ticketing, status updates, and documentation. Prior to that, I was using JavaScript and Phaser.
I am responsible for re-usable, scalable and clean code across multiple different frameworks and libraries.
I also have experience of working in a freelance capacity, with direct consultations and communication with many clients and agencies alike.
I have experience in debugging and optimisation across various operating systems, browsers, plug-ins and devices.
I am a self-motivated, pro-active, co-operative, predominantly happy and positive problem-solver.
I have created:
HTML5/Mobile/Flash and PC/Mac desktop games and applications.
E-Learning and Language training software packages.
Animated and interactive banners and advertisements.
Marketing & Press Packs, and professional presentations for corporate companies.
Interactive touch-screen kiosks @ retail and installation pieces.
Outside of work, I love listening to music, of almost every type. I have a profile on Spotify (user: thingonaspring) where I’ve made some good, some bad, and some very ugly playlists of different genres. I love to see live music, as well as the odd trip to the theatre.
I also love gaming, be it modern, or retro. I will always have a soft spot for my Commodore Amiga, and before it, the C64. But basically a path right through from there into PS4.