Our Developer Profile series introduces you to the many faces of Zipper Interactive. From designers to artists to programmers to audio engineers to producers, you’ll meet the creative minds that make Zipper what it is (and maybe learn a few surprises along the way).

This week we meet up with Software Engineer Chris Oje. Forum-goers may know him as zpr_WhiteTiger, but everyone will have a chance to get to know him better on this week’s episode of Zipline as he’ll be one of our featured guests.

Job Title: Software Engineer (Gameplay)
Years at Zipper:2
Years in the Industry: 10
Favorite Zipper Game: MAG!
Favorite Non-Zipper Game: I don’t have a single all time favorite and it’s impossible to list everything, so here are some of my most memorable games: Legend of Zelda, Super Metroid, Quake 2, Asheron’s Call, GTA3 (+ sequels). Pretty much most RPGs, open world sandbox games, and some shooters are where I spend all my gaming time.
Motto: That’s what she said.

What is it that you do specifically, and can you walk us through your typical day?
I primarily work on gameplay features such as the weapons, animations, characters, skills, etc. I create the logic that tells the game what to do, solve problems that come up when things don’t work correctly, add data driven support so the artists and designers can easily iterate on their work, etc. I work very closely with the artists and designers to make the game come alive. When I’m tasked with implementing a feature, my first stop is to go talk to the designers to get on the same page and make sure I know exactly what they are looking for. Then I will go talk to the artists and make sure they know exactly what is needed and then agree on how it should be created. At this point, I will start coding, building, testing, and iterating. Some tasks can take ten minutes, some can take a day or two, and some features can even take over a month to complete.

My typical day begins with checking email, looking at any open bugs, attending a morning meeting, and just generally getting up to speed on the day. From there I’ll lock myself in my office, blast some music, and do work. Work consists primarily of writing code, but there can be a lot of downtime waiting for builds and other processes to finish. That’s when I like to browse the forums and look for any issues that I can respond to or bring up with the team, and if I have enough time, I’ll even jump in-game and make sure everything is going smoothly. Throughout the day I will have people come by and ask questions about something or I’ll go corner someone and ask them questions. Occasionally I’ll have a meeting to attend, a playtest to participate in, and sometimes QA will find a bug or a crash that I’ll go investigate. During lunch or after work, I try to squeeze in a few games of basketball or some kung fu training.

How did you get into the industry?
I grew up playing video games starting with the Atari 2600, the NES, an old monochrome Macintosh, and so on. I always enjoyed tinkering with computers and gadgets but had no real focus until high school when I took a programming class at a local community college. I enjoyed the class so much that I knew I was destined to be a programmer. The rest of my school and college career was spent working to achieve that goal. A few months before graduating college, my professor’s husband started hiring for a new game division at his company. She recommended me and I got the job. I started working on all kinds of random projects like a couple of Half-Life and Quake 3 mods and some software to run the GameCube development kits. It wasn’t long before I found out how brutal the games industry can be and was laid off, and the company went out of business shortly thereafter – the first of many layoffs and studio closures I’ve had to endure. From there I’ve worked at a number of other studios on all kinds of things like children’s games, adver-games, casual games, to finally landing at Zipper making PS3 games. It’s taken a lot of hard work, dedication, and sacrifice to make it in the industry, but I enjoy my job so much that it’s all been worth it.

What are some other games or projects that you’ve worked on in the past?
I started my video game career designing ridiculous Super Mario 3 levels on paper and later making terrible Duke Nukem 3D mods and levels. My first shipped game came packaged in boxes of Cocoa Puffs and I worked on a bunch of other children’s action/adventure games (which my kids love playing). I also worked on a few casual games that were typically done as a form of a corporate advertisement. After all of that, I finally broke into console games as the lead gameplay programmer on Destroy All Humans 3.

What’s your proudest moment?
My proudest moment is ongoing – watching my three boys grow up. They make me proud every day.

Is there anything you’d like to say to the fans?
You guys are the greatest gaming community I’ve been involved with. The passion and dedication you guys have inspire me to do all I can to make MAG the best game it can be. As a huge fan of the game myself, working the past nine months or so on MAG updates has been a blast!

Don’t forget to click this link and leave your questions to Chris for this week’s Zipline podcast!