THE DEVELOPERS
HAVING FAMILIAR FACES , VOICES AND PLAYERS to root for is as key for esports as it is for soccer and football , but so too are the large support teams that make it possible — the trainers , camera crews and equipment manufacturers in the sports arena are mimicked in the computer scientists , animators , programmers , artists and engineers of the esports world .
Alex Ferbrache ’ 16 , a computer science alumnus , is one of these key players . He ’ s now a software developer for Xbox working on user authentication tools , and previously was an engineer at San Diego – based Pocketwatch Games , which developed Tooth and Tail , a strategy game featuring anthropomorphic rodents . Like He , Ferbrache got his start on campus as well , co-founding the Video Game Development Club in 2010 to try his hand at actually making a game . His first attempt ? Panda Go Seek — where a player tries to hide their panda from another one controlled by artificial intelligence . He further improved his game development skills during the Software System Design and Implementation course . “ That class was a really invaluable experience for me ,” Ferbrache says . “ It helped me grow because it was taking a project from beginning to end , and seeing that end-to-end workflow was useful for me as an engineer .” Aside from enjoying the technical challenge of creating a game , Ferbrache says he especially likes how games have the power to bring people together , both virtually and in real life . And he speaks from experience , having found a partner among lines of code . Enter Nicole Oliver ’ 12 . Oliver , who was studying art at UC San Diego and always enjoyed gaming , also thought it would be fun to develop a game . She joined the Video Game Development Club , and found her artistic skills were just as necessary to video game creation as those of coders . Those pandas don ’ t draw themselves , after all . “ My role was mostly heading up the art effort in the games people were creating — rounding up artists or doing some art myself ,” Oliver says . “ I ended up with a lot of knowledge about the many different pieces of being an artist on a game , especially
38 TRITON | WINTER 2019