Francois Laberge

Current

• Founder at Endergen

Past

• Web Programmer at Super U Holdings
• Senior Programmer at Backbone Entertainment
• Tools Programmer at Rockstar Games

• Lead Programmer at Backbone Entertainment
• Tools/UI Programmer at Relic Entertainment/THQ

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Education

• Digipen Institute of Technology

Connections

102 connections

Industry

Computer Software

Francois Laberge’s Summary

Game Developer turned Web Developer. I want to bring the best of game development to web development (and visa versa).

I'm also very interested in building and designing systems that help people to learn, work, and communicate more effectively.

Francois Laberge’s Experience

• Founder

  Endergen

  (Computer Software industry)

  January 2008 — Present (2 years )

  Endergen is a project I've been working on exploring the potential of the web as both a Development and Communication platform for building Rich Visualization related projects.
  
  Think of:
  -Web Based Video Games
  -Replacing Adobe Flash
  -Procedurally Generated Web Graphics
  -Rich Online Educational Simulations
  -Large Data Visualization Projects
  -etc.
  
  All Designed and Programmed from within a Web App that runs on as many browsers as possible.

• Web Programmer

  Super U Holdings

  (Privately Held; Online Media industry)

  April 2008 — November 2009 (1 year 8 months)

  Overview:
  -Frontend work using HTML/CSS/Javascript/jQuery.
  -Backend work using MYSQL/PHP/Codeigniter-Framework.
  -Datacenter was a large cluster of machines running CentOS with a large SAN.
  
  Details:
  -Managed and extended existing code from third-party contractor.
  -Implemented Design Spec.
  -Built and ran a Browser Test suite using VMWare Fusion for virtualization.
  -Customized Flowplayer Video Player (Adding custom overlays and Video Advertising Platform Integration).
  -Implemented and researched many Usability/SEO/Traffic analytic tools.
  -Documented Datacenter/Codebase architecture using a mix of Wikis/Google Docs.

• Senior Programmer

  Backbone Entertainment

  (Privately Held; Computer Games industry)

  October 2005 — May 2006 (8 months)

  Overview:
  -Project Manager (medium sized team of programmers).
  -Coordinated vision and technical requirements with Art Team/Design Team.
  -The Game was Sonic Rivals for Sony's PSP.
  
  Details:
  -Revamped 3D engine built by our remote US team. (Much reverse engineering was required due to limited documentation and access to original engine developers)
  -Managed Scheduling and Technical Documentation
  -Customized 3DStudios Exporter, Collision Systems, Camera, and Level Editors.
  -General Programming tasks.
  -Tutoring/Assisting junior developers.

• Tools Programmer

  Rockstar Games

  (Public Company; TTWO; Computer Games industry)

  2004 — 2005 (1 year )

  Overview:
  -The Game was Bully for Sony's Playstation2
  
  Details
  -Worked on the Animation Editing and World Editing Tools
  -Developed Static-World and Character-to-World Lighting System
  -Helped Build 3DStudio related Exporter Plugins.

• Lead Programmer

  Backbone Entertainment

  (Privately Held; Computer Games industry)

  September 2002 — October 2004 (2 years 2 months)

  Overview:
  -Worked on 3 Projects, see below:
  
  Lead Programmer for Nicktoons Basketball for PC:
  -Developed 2D Game Engine (Rendering, Physics, Animation System)
  -Built Animation Tools (Keyframe marking, Effect attachments, Animation Sequencing/Transitions)
  -Implemented Art Pipeline to Automate taking 3DStudio Art assets and converting them to usable 2D Animation Sprites
  
  Graphics Programmer for Cat In The Hat for PC:
  -Ported Game Engine to PC from a PS2 Engine
  -Worked mostly on Graphics/Collision/Animation Systems
  -All using the middle-ware: Intrinsic Alchemy.
  
  Prototype for 'Battle Start Galactica' game:
  -Developed a Software 3D Rendering Engine for Game Boy Advance
  -This was challenging but fun given that GBA was not designed for 3D graphics.

• Tools/UI Programmer

  Relic Entertainment/THQ

  (Public Company; Computer Games industry)

  November 1999 — August 2002 (2 years 10 months)

  Overview:
  -The Game was Impossible Creatures for PC.
  
  Details:
  -Built a 3D UI with 3DMax Exporter for design templates.
  -Built a 2D UI with a sophisticated UI Layout/Editing Tool.
  -Implemented the Front End which had very elaborate menus/widgets.
  -Worked on in-game HUD and Player/Camera control-schemes.

Francois Laberge’s Education

• Digipen Institute of Technology

  Diploma (with Honors) , Computer Programming , 1997 — 1999

  Overview:
  -Learned Game Programming and Design Techniques.
  -Built a major project at the end of each year.
  
  Learned:
  -C/C++ very well.
  -Many development tools for debugging/editing code.
  -How to build 3D Game Engines. (Collision, Software/Hardware Rendering techniques, Culling, Cameras, Animation, Physics, etc).
  
  First Year Project:
  -Developed a 2D top-down version of Goldeneye.
  -Built the 4 player split screen rendering system.
  -Built the level editor (Tile editing, vector based collision, Entity Placement, etc.)
  
  Second Year Project:
  -Developed a First-person/Third-person hybrid 3D shooter game.
  -Was responsible for the Collision, Rendering, and Animation -Systems.
  -All Game Assets were designed and exported into our engine from a custom 3DStudios plug-in.