Starting Your Own Studio, BioShock Infinite, Anti-Crunch Culture, Learning Patience, Rendering and Graphics, ChatGPT, and Shifting Business Models with Steve Anichini of Disbelief

I welcome Steve Anichini, the CTO and Co-founder of Disbelief to this episode. We start off discussing programming at a young age, taking a job after college, and then deciding to pursue a game development career with his first job at Jellyvision. Hear about working at Midway Games and Irrational Games and then starting Disbelief after layoffs. Learn advice about developing patience with yourself, others, project timelines, and not freaking out over deadlines.

Steve then shares ideas for getting a first job, including the importance of debugging skills and learning more languages and game engines. We then discuss advancing as a programmer, including the importance of communication skills.

Hear about some of his favorite projects, including Borderlands 3 and BioShock Infinite. We then dive into rendering and graphics technology, including real-time ray tracing and Unreal Five's Nanite. Hear about the threat and opportunity he sees in the industry, along with benefits and numerous concerns around AI. 

Steve then shares a funny story about a John Woo’s Stranglehold press event, some games he’s playing, the company's journey towards an anti-crunch culture, along with strategies for not getting into bad situations. At the end he shares advice about never being too late to strike out on your own, giving yourself enough runway, and getting in touch with him online. 

Bio:

Steve Anichini has worked on many titles throughout his 24 year career, including Borderlands 3's PS5/XSX ports, Gears 5, BioShock Infinite, and John Woo Presents Stranglehold. He worked on tools and systems used in Blitz: The League, Psi-ops: The Mindgate Conspiracy, and Mortal Kombat: Deadly Alliance. At Disbelief, Steve focuses on systems and graphics programming, training, recruiting, and company strategy

Connect With Links:

* Disbelief website

* Disbelief Career Page website

* info@disbelief.com email

* @solidangle@mastodon.gamedev.place Mastodon

* Solid Angle blog

Show Links:

* Debugging: The 9 Indispensable Rules for Finding Even the Most Elusive Software and Hardware Problems Goodreads

* Google Technical Writing Courses website

* Nanite Virtualized Geometry in Unreal website

* Lumen Global Illumination and Reflections in Unreal website

* Midway’s 2007 Game Event in Vegas website

* Pentiment Xbox

Game Dev Advice Links: 

* Game Dev Advice Patreon - please support this work if you find it useful

* Game Dev Advice Twitter

* Game Dev Advice email: info@gamedevadvice.com

* Game Dev Advice website

* Level Ex Careers - we’re hiring for lots of roles!

* Game Dev Advice hotline: (224) 484-7733

* Subscribe and go to the website for full show notes with links

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