Hello FableLabs, Meet Sam!

Hello,

I see your job post online for “Lead Flash Developer” . I have deep experience in this area – 12 years with the Flash Platform, among other technologies, and a big focus on gaming.

InRe: your unique job post I decided to create a unique response.  I made a post for you all in lieu of a traditional cover letter.  I address technology, impact, and innovation in the form of an interview, resume, updated portfolio, and more.

Please checkout what we have here and tell me more about the opportunity.

Thanks in advance!

-Samuel Asher Rivello

sam [at] RivelloMultimediaConsulting [dot] com

Interview

Describe how and why you became a developer.

I love videogames and technology. I bounced between the dream of creating art for videogames and the dream of designing code for videogames. I succeed at both, but development is my passion. I love the balance between the theory and its application. The ‘breaking down’ of the ideal to the influences of time and teamwork. I can be excited about a finished project by how it looks or how it plays or how it was made or how much my team and I learned. I love jumping hurdles shaping game API’s and mixing-into AS3 well-made language features like Singletons and Enums.

What is it that first attracted you to this field?

I fell in love with Legos and my TRS-80 at age 4. My mom – a teacher and fine artist. My dad – an entrepreneur and technologist. The balance between art and logic is a ongoing one. My degree in visual arts helps daily in my 12 year career as a hard-core game and app developer.

Legos to me are the perfect toy. Fun | imagination | development | construction | design | simplicity

What keeps you going?

The tremendous possibilities on day 1 of every project, the bittersweet postmortems, and most of what’s between. I’m curious about so many things, its easy to find something new to light the fire. Inspiration. Challenging myself to learn new things and great things before a client needs it or knows they want it.  I balance my independence in problem solving with looking for a sufficient existing solution within the vibrant community.

List up to 10 things that you are an expert in — these can be programming languages, technologies, operating systems, problem domains, or areas of interest.

Technology – I am an expert at the Flash Platform. There was a time when I new every method and property in the API (Flash 5?) but thankfully now there is a universe of interesting topics within and without my reach. Flash is a great tool, but its just that. A tool. I feel the standards, processes, skills, and creativity I am honing each day allows me to swap technologies and adapt. Still, within Flash there are so many areas of interest. Picking favorite subtopics of Flash gaming with entity-based frameworks, single-codebase AIR for iOS/Android mobile, Flex development with Robotlegs, Box2D, and Stage3D. I champion clear lines of communication, collaborating, and collaboration technologies (email + Skype + GIT = yay!).

I sit down with a new friend who has a very clear idea of what he or she wants in a user’s experience and I will plan all aspects of design, architecting, team-building, development, and delivery. Shaping ideas, prioritizing features, and getting something simple and bug-free launched early are core fundamentals of my processes. When my team hears me and the consensus is to take another direction, I’m on board to see the team’s solution succeed.

I would love to learn more native development for iOS and Android as well as HTML5 for games and apps. There is another dimension of greatness there too. I love to learn new things and consider myself a good learner and sharer of new things. I enjoyed the read of your manifesto and too place strong emphasis on learning – in all aspects of life.

I travel light and have fun while working – about 50 countries visited/lived. I’ve had the pleasure to work with – learn from – and teach to – some of the most talented people on earth, on-site and remotely. I speak pretty darn good English (Native), Spanish, Portuguese, Italian, and French.

Impact – A long career and happy clients is a small example of the impact of my efforts. I love what I do and pushing into new areas fuels me – lights the fire. Within Neopets I played an integral role in growing a company from a handful of people to 180 employees and a lucrative buy-out. Within RMC, I’ve been having a blast working with the best companies and stretching what I can learn and teach, what I can develop and design. I do pre and post surveys working with new clients and pride our commitment to exceeding client expectations and pleasing the end audience masterfully.

Full Resume

Updated Portfolio

And More

Here is some more info about me; I was a founding team member of Neopets (http://www.neopets.com), a grandfather in the online MMO industry. We grew the company through its sale to MTV Networks / Viacom in 2005. I built the game development team of 12 developers (US & Singapore); hiring, training, and supporting them with AS2/AS3 frameworks, tools, and more.

Innovation – I not only follow the latest innovations – I define them with deep community involvement and bleeding edge development. I champion best practices and respect how your standards differ from my own published standards. I own no active open source projects but have helped others with many – small and large – such as my help with PureMVC and my assistance on the project Robotlegs. Generally am ‘out there’ consuming the fantastic work of others and publishing demos of cool stuff to help myself and others. I’m flexible on how I engage with new partners like yourself, anything from helping out on high-level RIA architecture down & setting up best practices for team workflows to simply lending a hand in development of existing projects.

In recent leisure time, I have updated my complete set of Robotlegs templates on GIT, and recorded more for a whole HD Video series on ActionScript 3.0. I’m currently very excited about HTML5 games for cross-platform and AIR 3.2 for mobile including Starling Stage3D with vector assets.

I am flexible to the methods of my clients, but My preferred architectures include;

Recent Articles For Clients

Recent Articles For Community

I am excited for the opportunity to learn about your company and share some information about me.

Thanks for your time,

-Samuel Asher Rivello

sam [at] RivelloMultimediaConsulting [dot] com

Original Post

Lead Flash Developer

FableLabs is looking for a strong software engineer to continue the development of our flash game engine, expand our suite of game design and code generation tools, and develop new games from the planning stage to post-launch.

Why You Should Apply:

  • TECHNOLOGY: We embrace cutting edge technology if it saves us time in the long run. Ask us about how we wrote our own DSL that in turn generates code for serializing game data and defining API routes. Or perhaps watch our webinar with Membase about how we are able to support millions of users with NO sysadmin and a tiny team. Bigger doesn’t always mean better, if you know how to use the right tools.
  • INNOVATION: We have built a wide range of tools and processes that greatly reduce both low level work and endless cross-functional meetings. By making sure team members are unblocked and focused on high value activities, we’re able to spend more time on adding innovation to our games.
  • IMPACT: We’ve signed some long term deals with publishers that want to distribute our games on the web and mobile platforms. We are looking for folks that want to join on this initial traction and help take it to the next level. We will be asking for your opinion so be ready to have one.

What You’ll Need:

  • 5+ years software development experience
  • 3+ years hands-on experience developing ActionScript 3
  • You identify yourself as a game developer rather than a flash developer
  • You didn’t just pass your CS classes, but have actually implemented, say, a doubly linked list in AS3.
  • You know about A* and depth sorting as much as you do about DisplayObject and BitmapData. (and I hope it’s quite a bit!)
  • You have compiled swfs without using timeline or straight from the command line.
  • You apply the hotkey skills acquired from StarCraft in the daily use of your favorite IDE.
  • You can configure your own linux server or better yet, even know some vim commands.
  • You have MUST shipped a game, or released your own open source project.

How to Apply:

Please send your resume and cover letter to jobs@fablelabs.com. Be sure to include the job title in the subject.

Leave a Reply