Benn P. Herrera 225 Coleman Dr. San Rafael, CA 94901 415-847-2546 benn@bennherrera.com ________________________________________ OBJECTIVE To make a difference at a company that makes a difference. LANGUAGES & TOOLS C++, C, Lua, SWIG, XML, Visual Studio, Eclipse, P4, SVN, CVS APIS & SKILLS DirectX, OpenGL, OpenAL, Win32, Next-Gen Consoles, Unix, 2D & 3D Graphics, Engine Internals & Tools, Video, GUI, Project Lead, Object-Oriented Architecture, Network, Cross-Platform, 20 years experience. ________________________________________ Maxis Studios, Emeryville, CA Generalist Game Engineer March 2009 to August 2009 • Completed Spore Creature Keeper for PC (ship date determined, unnannounced) • Assimilated large body of proprietary technology in short order • Worked on game flow and GUI implementation • Client/Server communications • Coordinated with art team on asset integration & behaviors • Saved production team hours of manual editing with one-off utilities Totally Games, Novato, CA Senior Game Engineer January 2007 to November 2008 • Shipped Alien Syndrome for PSP and Wii • Did extensive work on internal version of Vicious Cycle engine. • Implemented internal build server with browser interface • Camera and combat system prototype work • Wrote Toga 2D game engine for Win32 • Project lead on learning game using Toga engine • Extensive work with Lua scripting, internals and integration. • Completed learning game and handed off to DRM 11/07/2008 Backbone Entertainment, Emeryville, CA Game Engineer January 2006 to January 2007 • Member of engineering team for 3D console title Death Jr. II • Designed and wrote artist tools with unique ease-of-use features. • Wrote code generating tool for easily exposing game engine features to designers via script. • Created fast, flexible networking system for PS3 downloadable emulated arcade title. • Wrote light, powerful task system that allowed for easily adding transient dynamic behavior to game objects. Mind Control Software, ICPU Software San Rafael, CA Game Engineer May 2005 to May 2006* • Rapidly acquired working knowledge of new 2D, 3D, game, input, and audio APIs. • Contributed 3D graphics, particle system and utility technologies to proprietary game engine • Worked on commercial console (Field Commander PSP) and PC (Zone Quest, Arrrrrr!) game titles. • Contributed to and lead development of other 2D and 3D games and prototypes. *Overlap with current employer was for ICPU on non-competing project Panscopic Corporation, Zero G Software, San Francisco, CA Senior Software Engineer February 2002 to May 2005 • Worked with Extreme Programming practices, including continuous cycle development, code reviews and test-driven development. • Seamlessly integrated with a team on an unreleased product. • Quickly assimilated new knowledge to contribute in an unfamiliar space using unfamiliar technology. • Wrote SQL query parser from scratch, replacing an insufficient 3rd party parser. • Worked extensively on client [Win32, C++, Java, JavaScript] and server [Java, JSP] technologies. • Created an automated, version-controlled build system with retro and hot-fix build capabilities. • Designed and implemented GUI integration of a charting package into a report layout tool. Delivered a clean, intuitive design despite late notice and a tight deadline. • Developed method of embedding images in self-contained HTML • Shipped 5 GA versions and an evaluation version. Resolution Sciences Corporation, Corte Madera, CA Senior Software Architect and Engineer November 1998 to February 2002 • Designed & implemented complete re-architecture of existing volumetric rendering technology and lead integration of the new architecture into the existing code base. • Developed real-time interactive time-varying volume rendering technology. • Implemented an automated processing service for preparing customer datasets. • Created tools to manipulate these volumetric datasets. The new system resulted in fewer failures, better tracking, and increased productivity with less engineer intervention. • Created volumetric algorithms such as a 3D seed fill and 3D object counter. • Shipped 3 major versions and 2 minor versions of the RESView application working with teams of 2 to 4 engineers. • Designed & implemented portability & utility library with centralized exception handling and error logging mechanism. • Designed & implemented cross-platform build system which allowed for compilation on Windows, Mac OS X, Solaris, Comaq True 64, IRIX, and Linux. • Created portable 2D and 3D image processing library. • Created portable volumetric file format library • Co-inventor on U.S. Patent 6,295,451 covering the simulated staining of digitized microscopic images. ________________________________________ Light Source, Inc., San Rafael, CA Senior Software Engineer February 1998 to November 1998 Developed and modified portions of Light Source's Colorshop 2.5 (Win32) product. This work was especially challenging due to the size (>250,000 lines) and legacy nature of the body of code. Gained valuable exposure to color science theory. Abekas Video Systems, Inc., Redwood City, CA Senior Software Engineer January 1995 to January 1998 Developed and modified software subsystems for the Texus live broadcast digital character generator. Designed and implemented a macro scripting language for the Texus. Implemented and managed a nightly build system for the team. Worked on a Win32 Texus emulator. The 3DO Company, Redwood City, CA Software and Developer Support Engineer June 1994 to December 1994 Authored utility software and example code for developers on the 3DO platform. Answered technical questions for developers and provided creative solutions for their problems. Helped form and manage a multi- department group for the revision, quality control, and management of a large body of example code. Xaos Tools, San Francisco, CA Graphics & Image Processing Software Developer May 1993 to June 1994 Developed device drivers for several types of video hardware and file filters for a variety of image formats. Wrote a high-quality, high- performance resampling library. Developed a licensing encryption library. Designed and implemented a license-permitted add-on package installation tool in Motif. Debugged and modified a large variety of modules in a sophisticated, high-end post-production system built on a variety of proprietary technology libraries. Computer Arts & Developments, Madrid, Spain Graphics & Language Developer May 1992 to May 1993 Wrote a custom LISP interpreter that was used for image processing and application prototyping. Designed and implemented a low level image processing scripting language that executed single frame output image effects. Designed and implemented a high level video segment processing language that compiled to the low-level frame language. Did the majority of the development for a non-linear editing and post-production system. Silicon Graphics, Inc., Mountain View, CA Software Engineer November 1990 to April 1992 Designed and implemented GUI-based productivity tools for managing a developer support porting lab. Wrote a color date book for the then- new Iris Indigo. Worked extensively on a prototype of Irix Voicemail. Administered a lab of machines ranging from entry level systems to project supercomputers. ________________________________________ EDUCATION University Of California, Berkeley Recruited as Regent's Scholar