Introduction 🕹️

Hi I am Sam Hedges :wave:,

I’m an aspiring Engine, Gameplay & Graphics Programmer currently a second year student studying Computer Games Programming (BSc) at Anglia Ruskin University in Cambridge, UK. I pride myself on my dedicated attitude to working hard, and my lived daily passion for discovery, which enables me to create games to the best of my abilities. The difficulty of computers, programming and games, excites me and motivates me to keep pushing my boundaries, to learn more and more. From Touch-Typing, to Neovim, to programming with C and learning the terminal; as well as Love2D leading to RayLib, to OpenGL and creating my own game engine. I’m deeply self-driven, and desire to work creatively with others to learn from those with more experience, and to create awesome games with people who have that same level of passion as me.

I’ve been making and studying games for over 8 years, and my major achievements include: a distinction in my college course, the opportunities I’ve had to connect and network with so many industry professionals, and I consider my perseverance in advancing my games development to be my greatest accomplishment. I’ve greatly improved since my start as a developer and feel confident that nothing is out of my reach as I continue to keep learning and advancing my capabilities. I’m currently aiming for a full-time position within a Game Studio, whether indie or AAA, to gain experience in the industry and expand my skills, knowledge & portfolio. Reach out to sam.hedges.sh@gmail.com or my socials below to connect!

Technical Skills

Programming Languages

 

Software Experience

 

Soft Skills

 

Education

Anglia Ruskin University Cambridge – Currently Studying

Cambridge Regional College – UAL Level 3 Extended Diploma

Duke of York Award

Cambridge Academy for Science and Technology (CAST) – (GCSE’s)

 

Work History

McDonalds, Ely, UK

Aug 2022 — present

I'm currently responsible for working all sections of the store including but not limited to; making drinks, overseeing the chips fryer, chicken fryer & beef grill, serving customers via drive-thru headset and front register, tracking register monetary values and cleaning / maintaining hygiene throughout the branch. Although not an official position I also help with training new hires on these different sections as well as training them on the till systems. I aspire to become an area leader/supervisor before I complete my university degree as this will give me more managerial experience before I enter the games development industry or another adjacent satellite industry.

Wilko Night Team, Ely, UK

Mar 2021 — July 2022

I received deliveries for the store, assisting the unloading of lorries as well as loaded the stores’ salvage. I organised cages of stock to be section compliant so that merchandising was simple for the rest of the team. I replenished stock, faced the shelves, and ensured appropriate stock rotation was in place. I’d completed the in-house food hygiene course which enabled me to manage the food stocks within the store. I organised the warehouse after deliveries and often built fixtures/shelves for new products. I updated scan labels and provided customer service to shoppers.

Industry Experience

Self-Employed, UK

Feb 2021 — June 2021

I received request to work on a clients project and submitted individual Action Plans, Design Documents and Invoice for the client to approve. I then completed projects to their brief, debugged/tested the work, and formatted it appropriately to be delivered. This was my largest commission, for an Indie Developer to create a mobile-friendly lit toon shader with RGBA & HSV colour space, gradient control applied over its lightmaps.

Temp . Quality Assurance Tester, Frontier Developments, Cambridge, UK

Oct 2019 — Oct 2019

I volunteered via my Cambridge Regional College course to test the, at the time upcoming game, Planet Zoo. Throughout my time spent at the studio I learnt the QA systems that Frontier studios used to test games and applied that knowledge in order to report issues with the game. Notably I discovered and highlighted a major issue with an x-ray style shader that was rendering models incorrectly through opaque surfaces.

Temp . Work Study, Ninja Theory, Cambridge, UK

Feb 2019 — Feb 2019

During this work experience, I shadowed each game development disciplines team, discussing what's involved, common practices and the relevant industry standards. This gave me a deep insight early into my development journey as to the production pipelines of games development, the suites of software/tools used within each discipline and the keys skills I need to master in order to enter the industry as a strong candidate for employment.

Temp . Work Study, ProQuest, Cambridge, UK

Nov 2018 — Nov 2018

During this work experience, I shadowed the front-end web development team, to gain a complete overview of the industry. I was partnered with one of the developers and tasked with creating a website using HTML and CSS. This gave me experience using new suites of languages and tools that I was unfamiliar with, and taught me to be comfortable with experimentation. This eventually led to me creating this very website to showcase my work.

Contact

Don’t hesitate to get in touch with me directly via:

 

To visit my socials please reference the hyperlinks below: