Tim Romero

Game programming generalist working with indie and AAA teams since 2012. Demonstrated flexibility to work in a variety of large codebases. Proven capability of understanding complex game systems.

Senior Gameplay Programmer at Santa Monica Studio Aug 2019 - Present

• God of War Ragnarök: Valhalla
• Embedded with the UI team to finish out the unique UI challenges of Valhalla, as well as the update's "New Game+" interactions.
• Provided minor feature support and fixes related to the Blade of Olympus weapon.
• God of War Ragnarök
• Partnered closely with combat designers to provide scripting support, features, tools, and fixes.
• Built replay-debug tools for character animation state machine transitions and expressions.
• Primary programmer supporting the Draupnir Spear weapon's unique features such as embedding and cloning on throw and on stun-grab, the spear detonation sequence, the spear rain runic move, the Spear's animation state-machine, and the elemental siphon mechanic.
• Weapon system improvements for Axe and Spear throw and embed behavior.
• "Dynamic expression" scripting system features and maintenance.
• Owner and point of contact for PS5 haptics technical implementation, while maintaining the PS4 vibration systems.
• Added motion sensor aiming functionality.

Animation Tools Programmer at 343 Industries Jan 2018 - Jul 2019

Vendor contract via Neal Analytics

• Halo Infinite
• Maintained and updated tools and workflows for animators, integrating fixes to the editor UI and the underlying C++ game engine.
• Integrated animation curve editing tools for animating cinematic elements such as lighting
• Worked directly with content creators to understand and fix workflow issues in cinematic tools
• Refactored cinematic systems to enable support for unlocked framerate playback
• Implemented editor previewing for a new character animation system
• Built a tool for browsing and updating lua documentation

Programming Assistance at Gears For Breakfast Jun 2017 - Dec 2017

• A Hat in Time
• Optimized by converting UnrealScript to C++ and adding simple rendering features and editor tools to Unreal Engine 3
• General bug fixes, gameplay and UI programming

Game Programmer at Nicalis Jun 2012 - May 2017

• The Binding of Isaac: Rebirth, Afterbirth, Afterbirth+:
• Created AI behavior for most of the final bosses
• Crafted hundreds of game elements such as enemies, items, pickups, and synergies
• Designed and developed player controls, camera motion, multiplayer mechanics, menus, HUD, Easter eggs, and visual effects
• Developed and optimized versions for macOS, Xbox One, New Nintendo 3DS, iOS
• 1001 Spikes:
• Implemented player controls and unique mechanics for 19 playable characters
• Added multiplayer modes and mechanics
• Created visual effects, menus, HUD, cutscene animations, robust physics, camera motion, and key-binding options
• Developed macOS version
• Unreleased non-gaming app for Nintendo Switch: Developed touch UI systems with automatic layout, low-latency touch input, and rendering features
• Cave Story+: Upgraded game elements to improve replayability of Nintendo Switch version
• NightSky: Developed iOS version, including design of mobile touch and tilt controls
• Prototyped various 2D and 3D games

3D Artist at Peak Game Studios Feb 2009 - Nov 2009

• Designed 3D models and animation for several educational games and their interactive front-end

• C++
• C#
• Objective C
• Python
• Lua
• HLSL, Cg, GLSL
• Unity Shaderlab

• 3D vector math
• Linear algebra
• Calculus
• Physics
• Design sense
• Technical writing
• Video production

• Unity 3D
• Unreal Engine 3
• JIRA, Azure DevOps
• SVN, Perforce, Git
• Blender
• Photoshop
• After Effects, Premiere