gaming me

Gaming me

Hi! I’m Cesar Castro. I’ve been going by that name since 1980. I’m the head on the left. I’ve said it before but, in case you missed it, I’m a gamer. Any kind of game. That defines me in many ways: I am a game programmer, I like watching sports, I like game shows. I play video games, I like logic puzzles, I live to have fun.

Back to the matter at hand, I was born in São Paulo, Brazil, a city with 16 million people. To me summer was when temperatures were above 30 degrees and winter when they were below 15. Now I live in St. John’s, Canada, 150 thousand people. And I am learning summer is when temperatures are above 10 and winter is when they drop below 0. But I don’t mean that in a bad way, St. John’s is great and the winter is fun.

Living me

My other half is Mariana Muner Kroll Dantas de Castro. She likes big names so when we got married she kept as many as possible! But you can call her Mary. She’s beautiful, super intelligent and a lot of fun. She’s the love of my life. We do tons of things together and it is always fun.

Friendship has a lot of value in my book. To me friends are like family. I love going out for a beer at the local pubs or inviting people over for poker or whatever. The detail is that I like to talk. A lot. So I prefer quieter places where we can hear each other. I mean… unless I’m in the mood or the band is awesome, then loud is good.

Working me

I am very passionate about game programming but also about robotics. I started in robotics in 2001 and continued until 2007, when I earned an MSc for my work in Simultaneous Localization and Mapping. My robotics and gaming careers intersect, as I’ve been a game engineer since May 2005, when I started working at Overplay. From Overplay I went to Tectoy Digital in 2006. And in 2007 I started at Gameloft. Finally, in the very beginning of 2009, I made the boldest move of my career and came to work for Other Ocean Interactive.

I look back and I wouldn’t do anything different. I love OOI. It is fun, the people are great and the job is challenging. I could not ask for more.

I am probably biased, but working in the game industry is really cool. I’m always bumping into interesting problems that lead me to the development of crazy algorithms. On top of that, the whole game production pipeline is very interesting, very creative and multidisciplinary: art, design, production, programming and advertising play their role. But I won’t lie: it is a career for those who like what they do. Overtime is almost innevitable at some point and if you get tired of the constant production pressure, you’re doomed. But the companies are friendly, the environment is informal and the focus is on creativity. And on the work breaks you get to play games and ping-pong!

Thinking me

People tell me I think too much. And I agree. But most of the time it is not a bad thing. This is obviously a very long subject so I’ll just mention the fuel for my mostly useless thoughts: literature, movies and music. And video games. And sports.

My favorite authors are Neil Gaiman, José Saramago and Bernard Cornwell. My favorite directors are Scorsese, Coppola, Kubrick and the Coen Brothers. When it comes to music I like rock, electronic, blues and, most of all, jazz. I play the keyboards, the harmonica and the trumpet, although I can also scratch the guitar and the bass. I’ve been currently working on my trumpet skills and my greatest inspirations are Miles Davis and Lee Morgan.

Sporting me

I really like sports. Almost all of them. From hockey to poker, I watch everything on ESPN. Except for baseball, the only one I really don’t like watching.

But amongst all, my greatest passion is football (how many times do I have to say I won’t call it soccer?). I support São Paulo Futebol Clube, the best team in Brazil, even though I admit there are controversies. And I go through a lot to watch football games here in Canada. Not only games from Brazil but also from England, Italy and other countries. To me the Libertadores and the Champions League are the best competitions in the world so it is worth the effort.

I also like watching basketball, but I haven’t chosen a team yet. That happens with almost all other sports I follow, including hockey and american football. Interesting enough, this season I will definitely go for the New Orleans Saints. I just like the city, as some great music came out of there. I guess it is like Mary says: “You don’t pick your team. Your team picks you.”

Ah, and if you don’t know, the guy on the picture with me is Pelé, the greatest football player that ever lived. I’m sure I’ll write about it in the blog so I’ll spare you for now.