About
Experienced AAA Systems/Engine Engineer
Here's a quick rundown on me.
Hi There! I'm John, I'm an Engine programmer with over 10 years programming experience and over 5 years experience working as an Engineer in the AAA gaming space at Playground Games. Since joining the industry as a student I've developed my skills and owned the design and production of bespoke tooling and engine features from conception to delivery across a large AAA codebase, whilst working with users every step of the way to ensure the tooling that is created is the tooling that best meets their needs.
When I'm not working I do what most game developers do: play games. At the moment most of my time is taken up playing Deeprock Galactic, Overwatch 2, Halo Infinite, or Forza Horizon 5. I'm also a big fan of Boardgames and have a small collection of my own, whilst playing with friends in-person or on Table Top Simulator.
Experience
I've been programming for over a decade and in that time have made things in or worked with a wide variety of languages and APIs, since joining Playground Games in 2019 I've worked on the Xbox Series X release of Forza Horizon 4, Forza Horizon 5, Forza Horizon 5: Hot Wheels, and Forza Horizon 5: Rally Adventure
Years AAA Games Experience
Years Programming Experience
Credited Games
Bugs Solved
Skills
With my time in industry there's wide variety I've worked on, but I've tried to keep the skills pretty concise.
- C++
- C#
- Unreal Engine
- Unity
- DirectX 11
- OpenGL
- WPF
- Perforce
- Github
- Test Driven Development
- Design Patterns
- PowerBi
- Optimisation
- Teamwork
- Independance
- Telemetry
Resume
Sumary
John Whiles
Experienced and driven tools engineer with knowledge of a variety of languages and approaching 6 years industry experience and 2 credited titles. Currently working on bespoke tooling and features at Playground Games in a propriatery engine.
Professional Experience
Senior Systems Engineer
2024 - Present
Playground Games
- Worked as part of the Tools and Systems team.
- Designed and Implemented pipelines, systems, and engine improvements for a bespoke AAA engine.
- Brought multidisciplinary teams together to work collaboratively on features for Horizon 5.
- Trained junior staff and mentored them in areas of our codebase.
Tools Engineer
2019 - 2024
Playground Games
- Worked as part of the Tools and Systems team.
- Designed and Implemented tools for a AAA development team to use from the ground up.
- Brought multidisciplinary teams together to work collaboratively on features for Horizon 5.
- Trained junior staff and mentored them in areas of our codebase.
Education
BSc - Computer Games Programming
2017 - 2022
Staffordshire University
Studied Computer Games Programming at Staffordshire University, learning a range of languages, techniques, and making a wide variety of projects including working in DirectX 11, OpenGL, SDL, Unity, Unreal Engine 4, and creating a networked game C#.
During my study I completed a year placement as an engineer at Playground Games which led to me becoming embedded in the team and becoming permanent employee whislt choosing to complete the rest of my degree part time whilst remaining at Playground Games.
Extended Diploma in Software Development
2015 - 2017
Birmingham Metropolitan College
I studied a diploma in Software Development, covering the basics of programming, OOP, and software development largely focused in C# and PHP.
