Personal info


Bartek Sokolowski
born: 3rd November 1975 in Opole Lubelskie, Poland

ICQ:  3345813 
bart.sokolowski@gmail.com
Warsaw, Poland

Education


09.90 - 06.95
5-year Technical School of Electronic Engineering  in Lubartow, Poland.
Graduated with distinction for the seminar paper
09.95 - 11.96
Technical University of Lublin
Technical Education in the Faculty of Management and Technical Basis
[discontinued]
03.02 - ??
Polish Open University
BBA Business Information Systems
[in progress]

Work experience


02.93 - 01.95

 Bakery - Lubartow (commission contract)
Local bakery administrative tool with a few upgrades.
Turbo Pascal

10.94 - 02.95

 Technical School of Electronic Engineering- Lubartow 
Multimedia CD Guide to Vocational Schools in Lubartow. "A" grade from the defence of the seminar paper.
Visual C++, Visual Basic

01.96 - 03.97

 Begin - Lublin (full-time employment)
Computer service technician and a programmer of a multimedia application "Cars of the World"
Visual C ++ , Delphi

04.97 - 04.98

 Longsoft Multimedia - Wroclaw (full-time employment).
Lead programmer of the "Puzzles of Leo the Lion" computer game. Work in the team of 10 people (2 programmers). Product published by Optimus Pascal.
Visual C++, DirectX
Game was awarded The Golden Disc '98 for "Best Logical Game" by the Computer Games' World magazine.

05.98 - 09.99

 Metropolis Software House - Warszawa (full-time employment)
Reflux/Robo Rumble translation tool programmer.
Visual C++ , MFC, Source Safe

Gorky17/Odium computer game programmer. Work in a team of 15 people (4 programmers). The product occured to be quite successful and was sold all over the world (Interplay, Topware).
Visual C++ , DirectX, Source Safe

10.99 - 02.00

 Rebelmind - Warszawa/ Internet (commission contract)
  The creation of the basis of the engine for multimedia programs. It was used in the production of Timothy published by IPS (present Cenega).
Cooperation via the Internet.
Visual C++, Lua, DirectX

07.00 - 08.02

 Mirage Interactive - Warszawa/ Internet (commission contract)
Lead programmer of RPG-production system used in the creation of Another War published all over the world by Cenega and Take2 Germany.

Support in the production of Weird War, based on the AW architecture. Development of the engine and the editor. Cooperation with a team of 10 people via the Internetu.
Visual C++, Lua, DirectX, MFC

11.99 - 06.02
(01.05-07.06)

 SPIN JSC (Prokom capital group) - Warszawa (full-time employment)

11.99-12.00  - Aplication programmer in the Health Service department .

My task was to research into and introduce new technologies, and to optimize and eliminate hardware-software conflicts of Solmed applications. I have designed network installation system, that exercised full control over automatic updates and stability of the program.
Using the native compiler ILE C/C++, I have created a few utility-statistical applications directly for IBM AS/400 mainframes. I have also written a DB2 database driver for Solmed applications, based on Active Objects/400 libraries.
Visual C++, ILE C/C++, SQLC, Lua, Visual Basic, VBScript

01.01-06.02 - Independent system engineer in Research and Development Department

I performed the analysis of .NET technology, that was being introduced into market, for the decision-making sector. After 6 years the document has no particular value, that is why I decided that I may publish it in the Internet
Not to mention the fact that when I have read it recently, I have realized that I misunderstood some of the slogans and ideas behind it. So I think I should write it  again from the very beginning. :)

"Analysis of the .NET technology with regard to creating 3-layer applications" (in Polish)
 You will need the free Adobe Acrobat Reader to view this document..

I was working at the solutions relying on Microsoft.Net technology for effective creation of modern business applications based on thin client.

Visual Studio.Net, C#, ASP.Net, WebServices, ADO.Net, SQL

01.05-07.05 -  Subadvisor (remote job) 

I have prepared the solution and the documentation for converting large documents circulation management applications (WDF) from Winforms.Net technology to ASP.NET. In order not to start from scratch I have used Janus Web Grid and Telerik bundle.
It was the overtime work in 2005, I took to remind myself of .NET and see how it evolved through all those years. Unfortunatelly I overestimated my skills and had to burn the candle at both ends to make up for it. After that, I promised myself that I would never ever do any overtime.
Visual Studio.Net, C#, ASP.Net, ADO.Net, SQL, Janus & Telerik Controls, Crystal Reports

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In June 2002, my friends that I worked with before decided to set up their own company. They gathered a team of extraordinary people, found the source of financial support and asked me to join them. It was a really hard decision to leave SPIN, for I truly enjoyed working there. Nevertheless I felt, that if I did not stake everything on one card, I would regret it till the end of my life.  The only think I could do was to say 'goodbye' to SPIN and return to the old gaming ground.

07.02 - ??.??

 People Can Fly - Warszawa (full-time employment)
  07.02 - 05.06 Lead programmer of all the parts of Painkiller

I was responsible for the logical side of the game (objects and world management, script and templates system, single player and hi-level multiplayer modes, weapons) as well as of some of the technical aspects of it (file system, network RPC, memory manager, data caching, stability safe-tests, and general optimization).
I have also created the editor, which was used to assemble the whole game.


The game was published all over the world by Dreamcatcher Interactive.
Work in the team of 18 people (5 programmers)
Visual Studio.Net, C++, LUA, MFC, XTreme Toolkit, DirectX, Source Safe


Game editor

Painkiller
release date: 7th April 2004

Painkiller - Battle Out Of Hell
Expansion Pack - 29th November 2004

Painkiller - Black Edition / Gold Edition
Limited Edition (Base + Expansion Pack) - 15th February 2005

Painkiller - Hell Wars (XBOX)
X-BOX version - 1st June 2006

It was a hard nut to crack to convert a game, which occupied 350MB of RAM and had additional 64-128MB to use on video card into XBOX platform, which has only 64MB of overall memory (for system, code and graphics) and Pentium III 733Mhz CPU. It was also quite a challenge to adapt the game-style to the console standards, and to go through the complex Microsoft certification procedure (TCRs). Review on GameSpot.

Cyberathlete Professional League - World Tour
Intercontinental tournament

In 2005 Painkiller was selected as main game of CPL professional gamers league. There were 10 tournaments held all over the world with the total prize value of $1 mln (Turkey, Spain, Brasil, Sweden, USA, England, Singapore, Italy, China). The finals took place on Times Square, New York (Nokia Theater), and were broadcasted live by MTV channel. They were won by Fatal1ty, who raked in $231,000. The second place was taken by Vo0, who scooped the greatest overall prize in the whole event -  $232,000.It is a great feeling when you realize that 2 people get almost $500,000 playing the game, you spent a great deal of time on. 


Promo videoclip

The band Mech has recorded a video that promoted Painkiller in many music stations. 

Painkiller has achieved a worldwide success. It has been awarded as the game of the month and the year by many prestigious magazines and game portals. It even found itself in the first ten of best-selling games among the United States in April 2004.

Working on every part of the game was great experience. We have assembled a group of old gaming troupers. Everyone was doing his best, and the unforgettable atmosphere in the office contributed to the commercial success. After the project had been finished, many people decided to see the world. One of my best friends, a programmer Bartek Sekura, landed in Tokyo :)

05.06 - ??.?? Gameplay lead programmer  New Project (Untitled)

After the success of Painkiller came the time for a bigger and more ambitous project. The number of people in People Can Fly expanded from 18 to 50. The team of programmers has grown to 12 people and we have divided ourselves into 2 sections: technological and a gameplay one. XBOX 360 and PS3 have been chosen as the target platforms.

I have taken the command of the gameplay section and I have decided to cope with a subject that was completely new to me - Artificial Intelligence. I had surfed the Internet, read a few books on the subject, and I decided to choose the approach of Jeff Orkina presented in the publication 3 States & a Plan. His idea is based on simple actions, through which we can achieve goals. Each action has its execution cost, so with the help of algorithm A* it is possible to search through the tree of possible aims and choose the most appropriate reaction. This concept together with smartobjects and group behavior seemed most suitable for our project.I have implemented this approach in LUA script language, as its quite a high level of abstraction  allows for flexible prototyping.


09.06 - 11.06 Smart Progs - Warszawa (free-time research project)

In the summer 2006 I changed my old mobile to a smartphone SPV C600 with Windows Mobile5.0. Hardly had I turned it on, when it turned out how cumbersome it is as far as everyday functions such as calling, SMS, calendar, alarms and simple notes are concerned. Microsoft proved far from being good at ergonomics.
However, I could not accept it, so I decided to do something with it for my own conveniece. I began to write an overlay integrating with the system, which could make the phone handling easier. I have created a brand new module to operate SMS, alarms (alarm clock, stopwatch, important dates), notes, a configurable start menu (windows-alike), task manager to control  the running applications (Windows Mobile does not let you to close them), encoded portal to keep PINs and internet passwords, and a couple of other useful functions. Recently, I have frozen the features, and I am putting the finishing touches to functionality. The final version is to be published towards the end of March 2007.
Visual Studio 2005 C++, mapi, tapi, rapi, sapi, poom, blowfish, device emulator
01.07 - 12.07 People Can Fly / Epic Games- Warszawa (etat)


Po przejęciu PCFu przez ikonę świata game-devowego Epic Games pracowaliśmy całym zespołem nad portem świetnej gry Gears of War z konsoli XBOX 360 na komputery PC.
Oprócz poprawienia dziesiątek błedów, implemenotwania usługi LIVE for Windows, rozwoju edytora UnrealED zaprojektowałem też zaawansowany system do zarządzania oraz dystrybucji buildów testowych.

To było bardzo ciekawe doświadcznie pozwalające zapoznać się z amerykańskim modelem  produkcyjnym, zarządzaniem błędami oraz kolejnymi etapami prowadzącymi do ukończenia projektu.

Odszedłem z PCF'u w momencie rozpoczęcia prac nad grą Bulletstorm. Brałem jeszcze udział w przygotowaniu dem na podstawie, których podpisany został kontrakt z jedym z największych światowych wydawców - Electronic Arts.



Jednak po pięciu i pół roku pracy w jednej firmie poczułem, że dla higieny psychicznej potrzebuje jakiejś odmiany.

Visual Studio 2005 C++ / Live for Win/ C# / WCF/  Perforce / TestTrack



01.08 - 11.08 CD Projekt Red- Warszawa (etat)


Principal Programmer
Praca w zespole  przygotowującym autorską technologię do produkcji Wiedźmina 2.

Po sukcesie jakim był Wiedźmin I (przygotowany na zmodyfikowanej technologii firmy Bioware) zapadła decyzja, że firma powinna powinna posiadać własny silnik umożliwiającą tworzenie nowoczesnych gier. Został uformowany zespół specjalistów, w którego początkowym okresie miałem przyjemność pracować.



Widząc jednak korporacyjne zmiany jakie następują w produkcji gier powoli dojrzewałem do decyzji o porzucenia pracy w biurze na rzecz pracy zdalnej. Dlatego gdy nadarzyła się taka okazja - skorzystałem.

Visual Studio 2008 C++ /XBox360/Perforce/wxWidgets
12.08 - 08.10 One2Tribe - Warszawa ( praca zdalna )

Programista  /  Konsultant

Pracowałem nad iphonową wersja przeglądarkowej gry Witcher Versus, która została wydana przez Chillingo.



Programowałem także eksperymentalne prototypy różnych gier. Na podstawie jednego z nich udało się wygrać konkurs na  projekt gry społecznościowej zorganizowany przez fundusz Nexon, w którym brało udział 114 deweloperów z 25 różnych państw i pozyskać kapitał w wysokości 1mln dolarów.

Ale najciekawsze w tym wszystkim było to, że po 11 latach pracy za biurkiem zacząłem pracować zdalnie z domu. Po początkowych zachwytach nad niekontrolowanym czasem pracy szybko zorientowałem się jakie są wady tego podejścia ;) Dzień zamienił się z nocą, ja zamieniłem się w zombie, a czas pracy zamiast maleć zaczął dziwnie wypełniać cały dzień. Na dodatek w godzinach rannych musiałem komunikować się z resztą zespołu, która pracowała w biurze i od czasu do czasu pokazać się w firmie.  ;)

Po jakimś pół roku zombifikacji zacząłem powoli orientować się o co w tym wszystkim chodzi i powoli wracać do świata żywych.Odkryłem pojęcie samoorganizacji, zarządzania czasem i  harmonii ducha i ciała ;) Polecam każdemu takie doświadcznie.

Visual Studio 2008 C++/Obj-C/XCode/SVN/wxWidgets/Cocoa/BaseCamp
09.10 - ??? Nano Titans - Gdzieś na końcu świata  (wlasna działalność )


Programista  /  Designer

    Po 13 latach zawodowej pracy jako programista gier komputerowych dla najlepszych polskich firm. Zebrawszy wystarczająco dużo doświadczeń z designu, organizacji produkcji oraz programowania gier postanowiłem wziąć ster we własne ręce.
Wraz ze wspólnikiem, grafikiem Przemkiem Brylem pracujemy nad naszą pierwszą grą:  



Goby to krnąbrny goblinek, który na swojej drodze spotyka byłego kaskadera filmów akcji z lat 80-tych - tajemniczego Chiefu. Zafascynowany swoim nowym guru postanawia pójść w jego ślady. Po wielu namowach Chiefu zgadza się trenować młodego adepta. Pewne zdziwienie może budzić tylko fakt, że treningi mają rozpocząć się na cmentarzu...


Zapraszam do zapoznania sie z komiksem, który przedstawia początek tej przyjaźni.

W ciagu najbliższych dwóch lat konsekwentnie planujemy stworzyć całą serię różnych gier z tą dwójka bohaterów i wydać je na wszystkie możliwe platformy. Naszym marzeniem jest zbudowanie rozpoznawalnego IP w świecie mobilnej rozrywki.

Przez lata pracy przy grach stworzylem własną technologię i narzędzia do szybkiego prototypowania i składania gier, która teraz z powodzeniem wykorzystujemy.

Visual Studio 2008 C++/Obj-C/XCode/SVN/wxWidgets/Cocoa/5PM

Skills


Foreign languages


English at the intermediate level. I have no problems with comprehending the technical documentation, corespondence and communication at the average level. I took "English for Business" classes - 3 levels at Polish Open University and 6 levels of Callan-method classes in the Academy of Science.

Features of character and interests


Diligence. Good social skills and comunicativeness (I like teamwork). Willingness to broaden the knowledge and to gain new experience . Accomplishing the assigned objectives. I play tennis and basketball, I ride a bike, and swim. I like good books (especially biographies), music (live at Tygmont) and cinema. I don't smoke.

Plans for the future


Mobile, mobile, mobile... I have the impression that everything that I was occupied with has come full circle and it all starts once again from the very beginning, but this time it is connected with something remarkably smaller.  It is a great feeling to begin everything anew.
Graduating from the university would be a great thing too.... ;)