My name is Ali. I consider myself a passionate gamer and game developer who has not been jaded by the game industry. Even after a long day of compiling builds, treading through asserts, carving out terrain, placing foliage and shrub, aligning BSP brushes, and tweaking vehicle parameters, you will still find me in front of my favorite consoles after work playing my favorite games. Why?

Video games are my vice.  I have been fascinated with them for as long as I can remember. When my parents and I moved to the US from Vienna Austria in 1986, we settled down in Victor Ville, where I got my first console, the Nintendo. From then on, I was hooked! I can’t even begin to tell you how much my parents yelled at me for coming home and playing video games after school, or how much heat I got for doing marathons of Secret of Mana and Sword of Vermilion.

I got my hands on Duke Nukem 3D some years later, and was really inspired by Ken Silverman and his levels in Duke 3D. I was so determined to make levels no matter how difficult and tedious the task was.  Level design and world building have been a long time passion for me and it is where I see myself shining in the future.

Quality Assurance was my foot in the door to the gaming industry. I had the honor of working at THQ alongside many other passionate gamers.  After a few years of breaking games and logging high priority bugs, (it came naturally) I landed a QA position @ Pandemic Studios in LA, where I demonstrated my passion and talents and grew to become a developer on Mercenaries 2: World in Flames.

Not only was I solely responsible for the game’s 150+ vehicles, I was also given responsibility of  level editing and designing tasks, as well as full responsibility of capturing screen shots and video for all of the game’s marketing. My dream had come true! I was working in my favorite industry, as a game designer, doing what I love most. Even after all these years, I still love to fire up my favorite games and enjoy a virtual vacation!

As far as games go, I am a huge fan of 8-bit and 16-bit games who still to this day enjoys everything about older generation gaming. My favorite types of games are first-person shooters, racing, role-playing, and shoot-em ups. Some favorites include Diablo, Crusader: No Remorse, Mechwarrior 2, Ultima 8: Pagan, Call of Duty series, Little Big Planet, Road Rash, World of Warcraft, Battlefield 1942, Mass Effect, Left 4 Dead, and the list could go on and on.

I am always willing to take on new challenges and could see myself working on ANY type of game.

Posted under Portfolio