Karl Merten

Hello website reader! My name is Karl.

I'm a driven programmer and a gamer at heart.

I love taking on new challenges and learning new technologies. During my many years of developing I've used plenty of languages (C++, C#, PHP, Javascript/Typescript, Go, Python, Ruby) as well as tons of frameworks (React, NodeJS, Express.js, Ruby on Rails, Django, OpenGL). In the space of gaming I have experience with both Unity and Unreal Engine.

During college I started a game studio "Vinyl Game Studio" with some other students. We were able to raise capital through an angel investor and worked together for 3 years. At its peak the company employeed 10 full-time employees. During this time we released one game "Circuit Panic" for iOS and Android. We also worked on a lot of prototypes.

While working at Prodigy game I started as a Junior Game Developer and eventually became a Technical Lead. Prior to leaving I was tasked with being the lead on their ELA game, the first game project after their flagship math game. We were able to build and launch the initial game in 9 months. While working on this project we built out our internal tools which were a React/Electron app running a custom engine layer on top of PIXI.JS.

Between my career in games I've detoured and worked in a more corporate space. I worked as a mobile application and web developer at Future Access. I met with clients and developed websites and applications to meet their needs. This really helped me improve my a lot of my soft skill set. At Notch Financial I re-architected the back-end web services to move to a more scalable and easy to develop micro service architecture. I also built internal CLI tools to help with deploying and developing internal modules and APIs more quickly.

I took Computer Programmer and Game Development - Advanced Programming at Sheridan College in Oakville. I maintained a 4.0 GPA in both courses and also received a Medal of Excellence in the latter for graduating at the top of the class. For the capstone project for the Game Development course myself and two other programmers made a 3D multiplayer shooter in C++ using OpenGL. I was primarily the graphics and animation programmer on that project, but we all took on a variety of other tasks involved with making the game.

In my free time I'm either working on personal projects, playing sports, or playing video games. DotA 2 is my main vice when I'm gaming. I'm also a big fan of story drive RPGs. My favourites are God of War, The Witcher and The Last of Us. I also enjoy playing soccer, volleyball, and snooker.