Hola! I’m Alex, I am a passionate Generalist Programmer, currently employed at Blind Squirrel Games. I was enrolled at California State University, Long Beach (CSULB) and completed my Bachelor’s Degree in Computer Science in Fall of 2019. I was the President of an on-campus organization called Video Game Development Association(VGDA). I was also the Outreach Officer of Student Game Developers Alliance (SGDA), a multi-campus student organized program, that hosts an annual event every year called the SGDA Summit.
Personal inspirations of mine: Satoru Iwata, Ben Brode, Arin Hanson, Masahiro Sakurai, Allen Turing, Stephen Hawking.
A few of my most beloved games: Hearthstone, Metal Gear Series, Pokémon Diamond, Super Mario World, Super Mario 64, Yu-Gi-Oh!
There are many more games close to my heart, but I can’t just keep talking about games (though I’d love too). Games hold a very close space in my heart. There is nothing better than hanging out with good friends/family, and just play anything that is fun, whether it is Super Smash Bros or going back in time and playing Super Mario World. Games bring people together and help build communities with people you’d never talk to otherwise. I love making games. It is so much fun taking on tasks to turn a game design into an actual game that is fun! So much goes into video game development and I make sure to learn all aspects that go into game development. I also love teaching people everything I know. Nothing makes me happier than seeing the smile on someone’s face when they learn how to make a player move and jump.
Computer Science is such an amazing area of study. When I first went into college, I went in as a Psychology major. My hope was to help people by becoming a psychologist. I quickly realized that the field is much more theoretical and abstract than I expected. I have always been good at mathematics and science, so I decided to become a pre-med student. While working to get into med school, I began volunteering for St. Joseph Hospital. There is where I realized that it is hard for me to keep a strong heart when seeing people not doing well. I began to realize that perhaps I am not meant to become a doctor. At this point, I felt so anxious about my future. What am I supposed to do for the next chapter in my life, and how will I find success? During this time, I discovered a game called Hearthstone that had just launched on iPad. I decided to download it because card games are my favorite genre of games. I got hooked with the game instantly. It is such a skill testing game with so much back and forth that I fell in love with everything about it. At this point, this is where the lead designer at the time, Ben Brode, talked about his team and asked people to apply. It is rather odd, I always played video games, but I never thought about making them. From here I looked into how people make games. This is how I discovered computer science. I decided to take a C++ class, and with that first “Hello World” programming assignment I was hooked. I still remember how cool it was making the computer ask for my name and have it return my name back to me. Ever since then there has been nothing but my strong passion and desire to learn more. In every class it is so much fun learning all these new concepts and programming techniques! I am always striving to learn more and to become a better engineer. Whether it is learning new architecture, or techniques to write programs in, I am always on a continuous hunt to find the best practices that will help grow my abilities in this ever-changing field.
Wow! If you read all that, thank you so much for checking out my page!
My resume is available upon request. Please Contact me for more information!