About
Hello! My name is Brian Cox, I'm a game developer from Belgium based in Shanghai (China) and I'm currently working on Cygnus Enterprises as a Programming Manager / Lead Programmer.
Career
After my internship at Triumph Studios as a UI & Gameplay Programmer working on Age of Wonders III I was offered a contract role as a programmer at Triumph Studios.
A few months later I was contacted by Rare to assist them in shipping Kinect Sports Rivals for Xbox One as a UI & Gameflow Engineer.
After 9 months I was offered a permanent position at Rare as a Microsoft Software Engineer / Gameplay Programmer.
2 years 3 months and 3 AAA projects later I moved on to work on one of the most popular videogame franchises ever named Halo.
Upon completion of Halo Wars 2 and Halo Wars 2: The Nightmare Awakens I was offered a job by several Ubisoft studios and other gaming companies including Amazon.
I decided to be adventurous and move to Shanghai to work on the Far Cry franchise.
After completing several Far Cry projects I was promoted to Senior UI Programmer and shortly after was offered a Lead Programmer position at NetEase Shanghai.
Supporting the Video game industry
I'm very involved in the video game industry attending a lot of game jams and game conferences.
I also teach C# at a University called Shanghai Vancouver Film School preparing students for their future careers.
Studies
I graduated with honors in my study of DAE gamedevelopment at Howest university.
Before my bachelor degree studies in "Digital Arts & Entertainment" (2010-2013) I earned my academic master degree in "Communication & Multimediadesign" (2006-2010).
For my thesis I researched the topic of "Alternative Human-Computer Interaction", more specific "Brain-Computer Interfaces".
After a lot of research and developing a working (amateur) BCI prototype using a NeuroSky MindSet and a Nintendo Wiimote, I became fascinated by gamedevelopment.
Ever since I have been creating 3D models / levels and I have been coding a variety of games in various engines such as Unity, UDK and XNA in C++ or C#.
My main focus is coding, but I really enjoy 3D modelling as well.
Teaching the DAE Introduction courses at Howest University
In the summer of 2011 I had been given the opportunity to become a college teacher for a summer program which would prepare students for the actual courses at DAE. In this course Hendrik Coppens and myself were teaching a class of 50 students C++, 3D and preproduction (art).
This turned out to be a great success and we were asked to continue these courses in the summer of 2012 for a class of 64 students.
International visits & experiences
In February 2012 our school (Howest - DAE) organized a school trip with all the 2nd and 3rd year DAE student to the US (Seattle and later on Vancouver - Canada). We were allowed to visit several top gamedevelopment companies such as: Microsoft Studios, EA Sports, Valve and ArenaNet as well as several impressive universities such as DigiPen university and Washington University.
During this trip we were asked to present our group project "Fragmentation" at the Microsoft HQ and at DigiPen university, where we received valuable feedback.
Visiting these top gamedevelopment companies was an inspiration to all of us and encouraged us to work even harder as before on improving our skills.
Extracurricular activities
During my studies I have attended many extracurricular activities such as competitions in gamedevelopment.
In 2012 we participated with our game "Quantum" in the Microsoft ImagineCup, ending in the top 100 worldwide.
The next year in 2013, we were assigned new teams and participated again in the Microsoft ImagineCup with our game "Solipsism". This year we ended top 3 in the local finals of Belgium.
After my internship I was selected along with 4 other students by my university to represent the school at the gamejam of Brains Eden 2013 in Cambridge. Here we managed to get the 2nd place out of 31 teams from universities all over Europe with our game "Storm Brothers" which we created in 48 hours.
Awards & results
For teaching 3D StudioMax during the DAE Introduction courses I received the title Autodesk Student Expert in 2012.
I received a score of 90% (90 out of 100) mark for my internship as a C++ gameplay programmer at Triumph Studios on Age of Wonders III, I really enjoy that my hard work and devotion during my work was appreciated.
Before graduation Howest university organised an award show honoring the best students of each study. I was chosen as DAE Top Ace, being the best overall DAE student, an award I am really proud of.