Brian Lee

Game Developer

About Me

I'm Brian! I make games and game-adjacent things! I'm a programmer by trade, but I like to get my hands dirty with all aspects of game development.

After graduating from DigiPen Institute of Technology in 2011, I worked as a mobile game programmer in Seattle for over 7 years. I did a bit of everything: gameplay programming (client and server side), engine/graphics programming, UI, live ops, analytics, tools, and more.

I'm used to working on small multi-discipline teams, and love to take ownership of features and projects from start to finish.

Most of my recent experience has been in a custom Lua engine, with some C++ client work and server work in Java, and Flash/Scaleform UI. I've also worked in Objective C on iOS, and most of my tools work has been in ruby and python, as well as some javascript web tools. I have some experience with Unity projects, and would love to work with it more!

I'm passionate about improving workflows for the entire team whenever I can. I've made tools and scripts to assist programmers, designers, artists, localization, and QA. I think it's always worth taking a step back and examining workflow bottlenecks.

Outside of my professional work, I have put a lot of passion into art, design, writing, and music, and I'm eager to put those skills to use whenever possible.

Ever since high school, I've been involved with a number of creative communities online, making and sharing art, comics, and music. Here's a nice article my alma mater wrote about me and my various online endeavors: How DigiPen Grad Brian Lee’s Hobby Art Made Him an Accidental Memelord

I recently moved from Seattle back to Northern California, and I'm looking for new opportunities for work anywhere! (Though one of my current goals is to spend some time living in Japan.)

(日本でも働きたい。僕は日本語がまだ下手なんですけど、学ぶで頑張ります！)

Professional Work

Paradise Bay - Senior Programmer

2014-2018 - King - iOS/Android

Social Resource Management / Simulation

Lua / C++ / Java / Ruby / AS3

  • Monitored live game and assisted with server code deployments. Implemented and helped deploy quick hotfixes for time-sensitive issues.
  • Implemented experimental A/B tested features to help gather analytics data for other products.
  • Worked on small feature teams with artists and designers to implement major game features end-to-end (client, server, gameplay, visuals, UI, analytics, etc).
  • Implemented various tools and scripts to help improve workflow for artists, designers, QA, and live ops.

Rise of Tyrants - Programmer

2013-2014 - Z2/King - iOS/Android

Competitive Resource Management / Strategy

Lua / C++ / Java / Ruby / AS3

  • Worked with a designer on early prototypes for the game's battle system.
  • Implemented initial version of the battle system from the ground up.
  • Collaborated with artists and designers on implementing effects and animations in the battle system.
  • Implemented various features and UI in an early version of the resource management portion of the game.

Battle Nations - Programmer

2011-2013 - Z2 - iOS/Android/Mac/Windows

Competitive Resource Management / Strategy

Objective C++ / Java

  • Worked with design and a server engineer to implement a turn-based battle system from scratch.
  • Implemented/refactored several major engine features involving animation, effects, and audio.
  • Worked with designers on major refactors of the battle system twice during the product's lifespan.
  • Implemented a robust editor for authoring NPC battle encounters.
  • Lots of minor feature work and bug fixes.

Shadowslayer - Programmer

2012 - Z2 - iOS

Resource Management / Action RPG

Objective C++

  • Implemented several design tools to aid with the creation of level maps, quest dialogue, and randomly generated gear.
  • Implemented robust dynamic localization functionality that was later rolled into the system used studio-wide.
  • Memory optimization and leak fixes ahead of test market release.
Personal Work

GEAR

2008-2010 - Student Project at DigiPen - Windows

2D Puzzle Platformer

C++ / DirectX 9.0

Indie Game Challenge 2010 - Non-professional Grand Prize Winner

Independent Games Festival 2010 - Student Competition Honorable Mention

  • Created initial game concept and design for a puzzle platformer with a gear-based grappling system.
  • All graphics and audio programming. Created a custom engine based on DirectX 9.0 and fmod.
  • Created all art assets and music for the game, including hand-drawn frame-by-frame character animations in Flash.
  • ( Soundtrack on SoundCloud )

tane.us

2004-Present - Personal Website / Art Project - Web

Flash / HTML / Javascript

  • A collection of experimental interactive web pages, mostly created with Flash.
  • I did the programming, art, and design for most pages, and collaborated with KC Green and Toby Fox on some.

Hourly Animal Crossing Music Page

2012-Present - Personal Project - Web

HTML / Javascript

  • Implemented a web page that streams the appropriate hourly music from Animal Crossing according to the user's system clock.
  • Updated when new versions of Animal Crossing come out, and to maintain popular browser compatibility.

Custom Webcomic CMS / Site Design

2007-Present - Personal Project - Web

PHP / MySQL / HTML / Javascript

  • Implemented a custom CMS and frontend for my own webcomic.
  • Refined/customized framework for several of KC Green's webcomic projects: Gunshow, BACK, and He is a Good Boy.
Contact Me