Hello! I am a professional Game Programmer with experience in the largest companies. I can help you get into the games industry too! Available Mon-Thurs(evenings) and weekends.

Find out more about Nicholas

• 1) When and why did you develop an interest in your chosen field?

  I have been passionate about video games for almost my whole life! I started playing video games from when I was 2-3 years old on the Sinclair ZX Spectrum and Sega Master System consoles. Subsequently, from around the time I was 7-8 years old, I decided that I wanted to have a career in creating video games in some way. I always used to draw my own video game ideas too! Since in school I always had a strong grasp of Mathematics, I felt that a role in programming for video games would be a good fit for me. It would allow me to be a part of the entertainment medium that I cared so much about and help create games of the future! I therefore pursued that goal to University and beyond, from working in Mobile Games in England (my country of birth) to AAA games companies in Montreal, Canada.

• 2) What makes you passionate about your subject?

  Well, If I did make it clear enough before, I love video games! I play a lot of games and I love to understand how the mechanics were made. I appreciate rich storylines of a video game and I love to create video games myself, professionally. When I am not working professionally in video game development, I like to take part in game jams (24-48hrs to make a game) where I can enjoy the process of creating a cool idea in a short amount of time!

• 3) What do you like about tutoring? What makes you a "Superprof"?

  I love tutoring! So far as a "Superprof", I have had incredible students who want to learn and show great enthusiasm. I like to create a trust-based relationship with my students. I encourage them to be open with me about how we can get the most out of our time together! I have an adaptive approach to teaching depending on the needs of the student. I can give you a full course plan of my own to best develop your skills or I can help out to provide deeper understanding on existing education courses. My approach is to be very hands on with you and dive deep on topics so that we create strong recallable knowledge of subjects we cover by working directly and practically with code to show not just how, but also why we do things in programming. I also make sure to test you regularly during sessions to make sure you understand and explain what you are learning.

• 4) Do you have any role models; a teacher that inspired you? Please explain.

  I would say my greatest role model for education would be my Master's degree tutor, Alex Darby. He is a respected games programmer in the industry himself and I was truly fortunate to have him as a tutor during his brief time as an educator. I utilise many of the same methods of teaching in my own tutoring approach, since I know that was what got me to the positions in games companies that I have reached so far.

• 5) What are your keys to success?

  My keys to success are as follows :
  
  Understand the best way that you learn things. Try different ways of learning: listening, watching, reading, practicing and figure out the ways you enjoy and how your brain best takes in information. Once I understood the ways I was best able to learn I found I was able to get on a good path to success.
  Don't try to learn too quickly. Less is more. I don't recommend to try to learn something every day. The brain, like your muscles when you exercise, generally needs time to recover so having a day off from learning something before picking it up the next day generally leads to better retention and deeper understanding.
  Commit to the completion of the things you start. The hardest part of any task is to finish it fully. This works on every level. Don't start lots of projects even if you don't enjoy one anymore get it to a good place where you feel it is in some kind of finished state. This will give you a much better portfolio with deeper understanding of a topic then repeating the beginning of something several times with a shallow understanding. Most people want to see breadth of knowledge rather than singular focus (especially on the easy part).