Daniel Kennett

Need for Speed V: Porsche Unleashed

NBA Live 2002

Current project:
EAGL (EA Graphics Library). I am the Xbox run-time lead, responsible for the design of the Xbox version of EAGL as well as working with the other team leads to help determine the common runtime and pipeline APIs.

Academic Info

College: Simon Fraser University, Canada
Degree: Bachelor of Science

Were there any particular projects or areas of study that you pursued?
I was a graphics nut. I took practically every computer graphics course SFU had to offer. I additionally did a directed studies project on evolutionary procedural modeling and worked as a research assistant in the SFU Graphics Lab.

Did you do any internships?
Yes. I did two eight month terms.

Career Info

Tell us about your first job in the industry. How did you get the job? What was it like? What were your responsibilities?
I guess my first job in the industry was my second internship. I worked as a software engineer at Helikon, a small startup game company. During my time at Helikon I wrote sound and math libraries for the investor technology demo Helikon was producing. I also did some client/server work with one of the senior engineers. My positive experience at Helikon made up my mind that the gaming industry was where I wanted to work.

What jobs have you held in the games industry thus far? Briefly describe the career path you took to get where you are today.
I started in Electronic Arts Canada's Tools&Libraries group and was responsible for their low level hardware accelerated rendering API (using Direct3D, 3dfx Glide, etc). After a number of years of low level PC rendering work I moved on to become the Xbox runtime lead on the EAGL project, a higher-level cross platform rendering engine.

Advice

What fields of study, specific courses, or life experiences would you recommend to students interested in your field?
For graphics programming, a good math background, a touch of assembly and a good knowledge of C/C++ is a must. Also learn DirectX or OpenGL. If your university offers computer graphics or animation courses take as many as you can. I also recommend writing cool demos, a rendering engine, or a game or two. Make sure that you learn the fundamentals of graphics and try your hand at writing a software rasterizer or a raytracer. In this age of GPU's and hardware acceleration this knowledge will serve you well as hardware becomes more programmable. If your university offers work terms or internships I would recommend doing one or more terms. Even if the term is not in the games industry it is still good experience.

Is there anything you wish someone had told you before you got into the games industry? Is there anything you would have done differently?
I don't know if I would have done anything differently, I'm pretty happy with the decisions I've made so far. If anything I wish I'd taken a few more art/drawing courses while in university - I might be able to write cool pixel and vertex shaders and skin characters, but ask me to sketch something for an artist or a producer and get ready for the revenge of the poorly drawn stick people...

As games increase in complexity, what are the various kinds of jobs that you foresee development companies needing in the next five years?
I see a move towards more specialization. With three consoles and the PC we are seeing larger teams with people working on specific areas: AI, sound, graphics, networking, etc. Good jack-of-all trades programmers are still important, but every project needs its specialists if it is going to keep up with the changes in technology and the continual need to innovate. I also see a rise in the role of technology re-use, and of tools & technology groups within game companies.

Do you have any other advice or recommendations to share with students who are interested in doing what you do?
Write demos or rendering engines or games. Make sure you learn either DirectX or OpenGL. Graphics programmers are specialists, and when you apply to a game company you want to make sure that your resume stands out from all of the others. You want to show people that you eat, sleep and breathe graphics. You don't have to be an expert right off, but you do want to show that you are willing and able to learn.