Meet Robert, our new Senior Software Developer
It was a long road but we are happy to announce that we finally found our brand new Senior Software Developer. We are delighted to introduce to you Robert Walter.
“Articy and I have a long history together. I first crossed paths with Carsten back in 2010 during my time with the Entertainment Computing Group at the University of Duisburg-Essen. Our initial connection was through the “Zebulon network,” where our shared interests in game authoring environments became apparent. Looking back, I like to think that some of our early discussions may have influenced features that articy:draft users enjoy today.
Despite a few near misses, our paths didn’t align for collaboration until now 🙂. That’s why I am thrilled to finally be part of the Articy family, bringing my expertise to enhance this exceptional product.”
Articy: Welcome Robert, can you tell us a bit about your background?
Robert: I’m a software engineer at heart with a heavy focus on design and usability. I was lucky enough to have worked directly with pioneers of different fields, like Maic Masuch, the first Professor for Game Development in Germany, Sven Efftinge, the inventor of Xtext and co-founder of Typefox and Gitpod.io, or Charles Simonyi, the mind behind Microsoft Word and Excel and a leader of metaprogramming; all of which significantly helped shape my view on design and engineering, which I am very thankful for.
I also worked at Unity for the last four years, where I was able to rekindle my love for designing and developing novel game authoring environments and where I lead the LLM (large language model) team behind Unity’s new Muse Chat application.
One of the most exciting things I was able to do during my research on game authoring tools was to interview many different game writers to ask them about their approaches to game writing, including Steve Ince (Broken Sword series, Beneath a Steel Sky, So Blonde), Richard Dansky (Vampire: The Dark Ages, Splinter Cell: Double Agent, Rainbow Six: Black Arrow, Far Cry), Ron Gilbert (Grim Fandango, Maniac Mansion, The Secret of Monkey Island), and Kevin Mentz (The Pillars of the Earth, The Dark Eye: Memoria, Deponia), to name a few. Suffice it to say, their answers were not what I expected back then and heavily informed my subsequent research and direction as a developer.
I also co-organized the “International Workshop on Game Development and Model-Driven Software Development” twice, in 2011 (Vancouver, Canada) and 2012 (Bremen, Germany) in conjunction with the International Conference on Entertainment Computing. At the second installment, our panel discussion featured Kai Rosenkranz from Nevigo.
Articy: What can you tell us about yourself that most people wouldn’t know about you?
Robert: I love following and playing chess, which I did competitively as a kid, but only returned to it a few years back (nowadays mostly online, but also the occasional over-the-board tournament).
Recently, I also picked up wildlife and landscape photography which I enjoy tremendously.
Articy: Would you like to share something from your gaming history?
Robert: I had an American godmother, whose kids owned a NES (Nintendo Entertainment System) back when I was 7. When I first saw them play Double Dragon and Contra I was hooked. I nagged my dad to buy me an NES for Christmas the same year so hard that he had no choice. I still vividly remember unpacking that present, it was the best.
Ever since then I was a console player (so don’t ask me about PC games ^^”), although I hardly ever play these days and instead enjoy spending time with my family.
We are extremely happy and dare we say lucky to have Robert in our team and will make sure he feels right at home here at Articy.
If you felt insipred to join our team, keep an eye on our website for new openings.
We’ll be happy to talk to you!
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