Copyright 2019 Reflux Design
Adam Klein
agklein98@gmail.com - 3033962747 - Resume
I like solving complex problems. This drew me into a degree in Computer Science, and later into the field of large-scale Cloud Infrastructure.
But I also like thinking about the feelings and experiences of other people. The games I make are where these two passions find harmony.
But I also like thinking about the feelings and experiences of other people. The games I make are where these two passions find harmony.
Education
When I enrolled, I assumed Cal Poly's "Learn by Doing" motto was just another corportate buzzword. I quickly found out that I was doing far more actual coding and real-world projects that my friends at Yale, Harvard, and Berkely were when we compared. I created real-world applicable projects for each course listed below, please do ask me about them!
Degree Received in 2021
Coursework: Game Development, Programming Language Construction, Systems Programming, Graphics, Object Oriented Programming, Databases, Linear Algebra, Theory of Computation, Data Structures, Algorithm Classification
Work Experience
I've worked on software for satellites and NASA, and I've developed cloud infrastructure that handles tens of thousands of transactions per second. Recently I've been chasing my dream of working on indie games full time.
Cofounder - Go Face Games
A small team creating a team-based deckbuilding roguelike.March 2022 to Present
One of two founding members of a nine-person team. Drove initial ideation sessions, official equity division agreements, and roadmapping for each sub-team. Recruited, onboarded, and now managing three artists, two writers, and a musician. Implemented a map customization interface using XML, instantiating the map in Unity. Implemented a card customization UI with ScriptableObjects. Contributing software architecture guidance.
Software Software Engineer - Amazon
Data persistence, server-side rendering, and asset distribution for goodreads.com.April 2022 to Present
Was given a high visibility frontend redesign to implement in my first week - drove stakeholder communications and found technical workarounds to meet product’s original (very ambitious) release timeline. Designed and implemented a new Relational Database Service using AWS Aurora, migrating three ~5TB self-hosted MySQL Clusters and eliminating over 70% of annual site downtime.
Content ingestion for Kindle Direct Publishing (kdp.amazon.com) - Amazon’s self-publishing platform
Sept 2021 to April 2022
Created optimizations and hotfixes for a legacy system of 58 different content risk management, inspection, and analysis services connected by 8 different workflows. Researched, prototyped, and presented a method of modernizing two of the workflows using AWS ECS, SQS, Route53, and APIGateway. Proposal was accepted by VP- level management and is still in development.
Junior Software Development Engineer - Amazon
This program was something uniquely available to me at Cal Poly. You can read more about the program here:
Jr Dev Job DescriptionCustomer Relationship Management for KDP
Sept 2019 to June 2021
Designed and implemented a Data Subject Access Request (GDPR Compliance) automation system using AWS Cloud Development Kit, DynamoDB, Lambda, S3, and a React front-end. Wrote extensive documentation and launched the system to production.
Home page, Title Setup Workflow, and Bookshelf for KDP
Sept 2019 to June 2021
Delivered the “/terminated” endpoint, providing dynamic communication to thousands of customers per week. Provided an unreleased redesign of the kdp.amazon.com home page.
Software Lead - Cal Poly Cubesat Laboratory
Another opportunity uniquely available at Cal Poly, this lab has the highest mission success rate of any non-military collegiate satellite laboratory in the country, and it's among the only of those that employ undergraduates. I contributed to a lot of different projects during my two years at the lab, for brevity I've listed just the projects on which I was software team lead.
NASA Ames Research Center’s XCube Project
April 2019 to Sept 2019
An environment management system and communications interface NASA’s high-altitude aircraft use to carry third- party science payloads. Was responsible for the entirety of the project’s software. Designed, documented, and presented a 16 bit i2c communications standard for common use by the science payload, the aircraft , and the XCube carrier’s systems, vastly simplifying electrical design constraints . Led the lab’s team in implementing asynchronous i2c communications software in Python.
Purdue’s Aerodynamic Deorbit Experiment - Read more about the mission here
Sept 2018 to April 2019
A satellite mission to deploy an experimental drag sail that will reduce the time that unused satellites remain in orbit. Mentored a total of twelve Purdue students on our custom Linux kernel for experiment state control. Designed and implemented motor controls external to their state machines, responsible for the delivery of mission-critical code.
Game Development
I've been making games in Unity for eight years - a lot of my creations from earlier childhood are unfortunately lost to time. I've selected a couple recent projects here that I'm proud of.Cytocell
A top-down arcade game based on surviving as a microorganism in a tidepool.Dec 2020 and Dec 2021
Created core game mechanics, including detection and destruction of enemies based on player- created polygons. Implemented all visuals using Unity’s HLSL shading language using custom algorithms and area functions. Check out the game on itch.io here: Cytocell on itch.io
Trisource
A 3D action/puzzle game set in a Tron-inspired cityscape.Jan 2021 to June 2021
Modeled the cityscape and created fully rigged 3D models in Blender, integrating them with Unity. Implemented custom inverse kinematics animations on non-humanoid models. Wrote, performed, and edited three loop-able tracks of piano-based music. Provided general software architecture guidance for the team.
Bloody Ugly
A survival game centering on line-of-sight mechanics.Jan 2020
Implemented a generalizable swarm enemy control system using vector math and Boids concepts. Download the source here! and check out the repository here!
FIRST Robotics
Team founder, State ChampionDec 2012 to May 2017
Co-founded and captained my team, raising $27,000 for the design and fabrication of multiple 120 pound robots, and traveling to the global competition in our rookie year.
I'm incredibly grateful for the four years of pressure-cooker engineering I did with FIRST. The unrelenting drive to solve problems that pushes me in my day-to-day was born there - in long hours of Open Computer Vision programming, pneumatic control development, and hardware communications bus debugging. Learn more about the competition here:
About FIRST Robotics Competition
Air Force Association's CyberPatriot
Two-time National FinalistDec 2015 to June 2017
Ranked in the top twelve teams out of three thousand competitors, traveling to the national competition two years in a row. Scored a third of my team’s points as the sole networking specialist. Helped defend against live penetration attempts by red teams from Facebook and Twitter.
I took the amount of networking and Unix/Linux knowledge I'd gained from CyberPatriot for granted until I entered industry. I frequently use some more esoteric elements of the command line to increase my general productivity, and my familiarty with IP networking, subnetting, DNS, and HTTPS are huge assets to my work. Learn more about the competition here:
CyberPatriot Open Division - About