Wade Brainerd
http:/wadeb.com/contact

Summary

  I am a technology architect, team leader and firefighter with a track record 
  of high quality, commercially successful products.


Experience

- C++, Assembly (many architectures), Python, Perl, PHP, ActionScript.
- Windows, MacOS X, Linux.
- PlayStation 2/3, XBox 360, Wii, Dreamcast, PSP, PC.
- Software architecture, Computer graphics, User interface design, 
  Embedded systems, Parallel programming.

Activision - Santa Monica, CA - 1998-Present - Principal Technical Director

- NGL: Cross-platform graphics library, Lead Programmer, 2001-2007
  
  NGL is a graphics technology project within Activision.  NGL has a rich 
  history, cutting edge technology and has shipped many million-selling titles.

  In 2002 with Spider-Man: The Movie, NGL shipped the first game to 
  simultaneously launch for the three major consoles.

  In 2006 with Call of Duty 3, we successfully bridged generations developing 
  a PS3 launch title along with XBox360, XBox and PS2 SKUs, all from the same 
  codebase in one year. Each SKU received better than 80% average review scores
  (gamerankings.com).

- SpiderMan 3, shipped April 2007, Programmer

  Optimization and graphics quality work for XBox360 and PS3. Developed a 
  generic Cell / SMP parallel processing framework.  Ported game systems to 
  Cell SPE, including most of the rendering system.  Refactored and optimized 
  an existing occlusion culling system.

  Gave a project post-mortem talk at Sony's 2007 PlayStation 3 Developers 
  Conference describing practical Cell programming techniques, which was voted 
  'most useful' of the conference by attendees.

- Call of Duty 3, shipped November 2006, Programmer

  Assisted with design and implementation of rendering, scene management, 
  lighting, shadows, visual effects systems.  Developed an optimized CgFX 
  rendering system for Xbox 360 and PS3. Developed a PS3 GPU performance 
  analysis tool that is now used throughout Activision.

- Spider-Man 2, shipped June 2004, Programmer

  Provided technical assistance during design and development, writing shaders 
  and helping with performance optimization.  Implemented city rendering 
  pipeline on PS2 as well as aspects of the day / night transition and special 
  effects.

- Spider-Man: The Movie, shipped March 2002, Programmer

  Responsible for PS2 and platform-independent graphics programming.  
  Worked with artists and designers to design the look of the game.  Developed 
  a PS2 rendering engine from scratch which became the basis for NGL. 

  To date, Spider-Man: The Movie has sold over 4 million units.

- Tony Hawk.s Pro Skater, shipped June 2000, Programmer

  Dreamcast port of the popular skateboarding game.  Our work was the basis 
  for Tony Hawk 2 Dreamcast, Spider-Man Dreamcast, and Tony Hawk 2X for XBox.

- Draconus: Cult of the Wyrm, shipped March 2000, Programmer 

  Dreamcast Action/Adventure game.  Designed & built various systems and 
  hardware abstraction layers for Treyarch's ArchEngine. Ported the engine 
  to Dreamcast from PC.

  The ArchEngine has been used in many Treyarch games including Kelly Slater's 
  Pro Surfer, Minority Report, and all three Spider-Man games.  It is still 
  actively developed at the company today.

- Triple Play Baseball 2001: shipped March 2000, Programmer  

  Playstation/PC franchise title. Reworked the play-by-play announcer system, 
  helped out with bug fixes and speed optimization.

- Triple Play Baseball 2000: shipped March 1999, Programmer 

  N64 franchise title. Wrote portions of the front end, worked on Nintendo 
  guideline compliance, optimized the graphics engine and fixed bugs. 

JVC Digital Arts Studio - Torrance, CA - 1996-1998 - Lead Programmer

- Iron John Hawk: shipped June 1998, Lead Programmer

  Managed a 7 programmer team through the creation of this 2D isometric action 
  game for Windows 95.  Published by Capcom.


Credits

Iron John Hawk: The Shards of Power          Sega Sports NHL 2K3
Triple Play 2000 (N64)                       Spider-Man 2
Triple Play 2001                             Ultimate Spider-Man
Draconus: Cult of the Wyrm                   Tony Hawk.s Underground 2: Remix
Tony Hawk.s Pro Skater (Dreamcast)           Call of Duty 2: Big Red One
Spider-Man: The Movie                        Shrek SuperSlam
Minority Report                              Call of Duty 3
Kelly Slater.s Pro Surfer                    Spider-Man 3


Volunteer work

One Laptop Per Child - Game & Activity Development

  Won second prize in the OLPC 2007 Game Jam with a wireframe 3D Pong.
  Ported the homebrew Nintendo DS painting application Colors! to XO.

Design That Matters - Incubator Project

  Developed PIC microcode for a $200 infant isolation unit targeted at 
  developing nations. Assisted with the design of the user interface and 
  electronics.

STAR Education - Collaborative Game Design

  Developed a 3D underwater arcade game in collaboration with 4th and 5th 
  graders at a Los Angeles area elementary school.


Education

  Santa Monica College - Santa Monica, CA - Individual classes.

  Orono High School - Orono, ME - Graduated 1996.