Christina Coffin

History outline

• First computer at age 9, VIC-20, in 1981 or 1982, and saw coding as a means to acquire more games as opposed to asking her parents to buy them. Typed in her first BASIC game and has been coding games ever since.
• Sees programming and game coding as a "creativity enabler", and can see past the assembly of code and math at the larger picture. "Creating worlds", both personally, and through building engine/code that enables others to do the same.
• Was 22, in college but not feeling it or her current life situation, was coding Amiga programs and demoscene stuff while attending college in San Diego. Saw a classified ad in a free San Diego magazine around 1994 for a game programmer job at Sculptured Software, and was stunned, thinking "You can actually get a job doing this stuff?"
• Went to the interview with her Amiga games and demos, and despite no professional experience, was hired. She felt once she was hired, people could see her passion despite lack of experience, and that she wasn't just there for the paycheck, but that she "lived and breathed video games."
• Sculptured was currently developing games for publisher Acclaim when Coffin came on as a junior programmer, and was transitioning from the 16-bit to 32-bit era. Was shocked seeing her first PS1 dev kit.
• Was happy but eventually sought out a company which she felt had more specific passion for coding and the technology behind these engines, and that's how she eventually migrated to DICE.
• Quote: "I want to make sure I’m doing what I love. And I want to be able to look back on my life and say "Wow! I made all these cool games and a lot of people enjoyed them." That’s what would make me feel like I’ve done something useful with my life."
• Currently: Platform Specialist Senior Engineer at DICE
• Won IGDA "Women in Gaming Award" (Engineering Category)
• Spoke at: GDC 2011 (others I believe.)

CartridgeCulture (talk) 00:47, 29 October 2021 (EDT)