Introducing Our Team: Gonçalo Resende

Say hello to Gonçalo Resende, Exaud’s newest Junior Software Engineer! His story starts with a love for video games that turned into a curiosity about how they’re made, and eventually into a Master’s degree in Electrical and Computer Engineering. From programming game mechanics in high school to building robotic arms at university (and even causing a “mysterious” blackout on his very first day at Exaud), Gonçalo’s journey is full of creativity, problem-solving, and a great sense of humor. Ready to get to know him better? Let’s dive in!

Tell us a bit about your academic background. What led you to study Electrical and Computer Engineering?

As you mentioned I have studied in Electrical and Computer Engineering at FEUP and is the subject that I took my master’s degree in. I studied mostly about electrical components and developed my programming skills. My interest in this field was mostly programming related and I also developed an interest in hardware development while I was studying. My interest with programming in general came before i went to university, around my high school years i had developed a big interest in video games and was very curious on how to make my own so I took a jab at it and was amazed on how much freedom I had developing and trying some of the ideas for game mechanics and how I could customize anything, from its physics to the behaviour of every single enemy or the playable character.

One of my favorite projects I worked on was a robotic arm that would write on a piece of paper. It was a big challenge especially since I still have not worked with kinematics or have studied it in any way, so the solution me and my colleague worked on was somewhat simple but only compatible with the arm we specifically worked on. The mapping on the letters was also very fun to develop since the solution we came up with was very simple to adjust and implement from code to a piece of paper. My dad also likes projects of this nature so it was also fun to share some photos and videos of this project.

Exaud is your very first professional experience. How does it feel to start your journey here? And how was your first day at Exaud? We’ve heard it was quite an unusual one!

I did indeed have an unusual first day at Exaud. It is quite funny actually. My first day was during a global blackout. To add to this it was my very first professional experience which I had to leave early due to the situation. Despite the whole situation I still got to know some of my colleagues that day and got to introduce myself. I got to know some of their sense of humour as they would jokingly accuse me of being so excited to be here that I caused the blackout itself. It is a day I won't forget easily, the blackout of April 28th.

Despite a very unusual and chaotic first day my first work experience was and is being rather great. The people here are nice and treat each other with respect and they all have a very good sense of humor. I felt very welcomed by the company and hope to be here a while longer. 

What do you enjoy most so far about working as a Junior Software Engineer? 

I specifically like that I get to program and constantly be problem solving. Every ticket is a puzzle that I need to solve and although I was never too much into doing puzzles I always have a feeling of accomplishment every time I can deal with a programming problem. Although if we are talking of the Junior role specifically, I can not really say all that well what it is like but I believe that I can look at it as a learning experience and a chance to improve upon myself. I think that this development will feel more significant as of now then later when I have more experience so the feeling of improvement will last for a long while.

Are there any specific areas of software engineering you are most excited to explore? You’ve mentioned an interest in game development. What attracts you to this specialization?

I have explored some specific areas in software development like web and app development and even solvers or cpu opponents for known games like tic tac toe, but game development was the area I always enjoyed most. I normally go back to a game development project from time to time, when I think of an interesting mechanic or a cool idea to try out and see it in practice. I have never been good with graphics design so I never tried my hands on a full game project. I normally use some free use assets to try out the new ideas while also have some aesthetically pleasing graphics to go with it and give me a better idea but I don’t think it would be something that I would use for a full game.

I think the biggest factor for this interest in game development is that I play games myself and I always wondered how it was made and how creative it can be by seeing some unique mechanics of each game. I always fought how it must have felt implementing the grappling hook in Zelda’s Ocarina of Time or all its puzzles within it way back then in the year 1998, a game older then me doing some cool and creative mechanics so long ago was and is very inspiring to see. Despite not being a game that I enjoyed playing, it was still impressive what developers could achieve way back then. 

I also had the same feeling with a more recent release of the same series in Breath Of The Wild, being able to interact with essentially all of the assets with various mechanics like how it would interact with the core powers of the game or simply how it would interact with the environment was very awing to see and gave the player a lot of freedom with experimentation, it still is one of my favourite games till today and I highly recommend it, especially if you are into game development.

Do you believe your passion for games helps you in your role as a software engineer? How? 

My passion for games was a key factor for my interest in game development and later on into software development. My fascination with games was always from the perspective of a player but always was curious from the perspective of the developer. I always found it curious how creative someone could get with ideas for game mechanics and how its implementation is a key factor to provide a good experience for the player.

Later on I tried said development and was even more impressed on how much of a puzzle putting your ideas implemented on code was. The problem solving of it all was very fun to do.

If you could work on any game project, without limitations, what kind of game would you create?

Despite my recent interest in the fighting game genre and how it would also be a fun problem solving experience, I find the hack and slash genre more creative than the fighting game genre. The fighting game genre problem solving is more focused on optimization and reutilizing the animations and states the most you can, becoming more of an optimization problem more than a creative one. Meanwhile the hack and slash genre functionally has some functionality inherited from fighting games and experimenting with new mechanics and abilities for a character is easier since you don't have to be so focused on how to balance it game wise because of the nature of being a single player game. So I believe that I would personally enjoy developing a hack and slash game despite not being a genre I am personally fond of as a player.

Which games have had the greatest influence on you, either as a player or an aspiring developer?

There are a lot of games that had an impact on me as a player and I went in and out of genres a lot due to certain games, so I believe that those were the games with the biggest impact for me as a player. 

The recurring series that I end up always falling back on is the Pokemon series. I always found it to be a concept I enjoyed, maybe due to my personal interest in turn based strategy games and RPG sense of progressing by leveling up. I mostly played the 2D based games, from Pokemon Red and Blue to Pokemon Black2 and White2. I haven't really enjoyed their latest games so when I do fall back on the series I end up either replaying one of the games of the mainline 2D series with a self imposing challenge or a fan made game since the fanbase is so large there will always be an enthusiast to make their own Pokemon game.

The Legend of Zelda series had the biggest impact on me as an aspiring developer. Despite not being a series I personally enjoyed as a player, it is the series that is the most creative with its gameplay and mechanics in my opinion. Even not being the biggest player of the Zelda’s series one of my favourite games of all time is Breath Of The Wild which also follows a formula which I normally do not enjoy in video games in the Open World (a formula for games that let you explore the whole map at will instead of the sequential progression of non Open World games) but Its use of the physics engine for puzzle solving and exploration was second to none. A great game that I recommend to anyone and it also has a sequel in Tears Of The Kingdom.

I also can’t talk about games without mentioning the genre that defined my hobby and got me into competing with other players, which is fighting games. The fighting game that really set me up was Guilty Gear Strive from the Guilty Gear series. It is a game that I still play to this day and competed in for a while, even winning a Portuguese tournament in it. It is the game that had me started on hosting online tournaments and set me  to my current hobby of hosting these tournaments locally.

You also organize fighting game tournaments. How did you get started with that, and what do you enjoy most about building and managing a gaming community?

My very first interaction with hosting a tournament was online. I always wanted to contribute to the competitive scene. So when a group of people online manifested their interest in hosting a tournament, I volunteered to organize it. This evolved into me helping up and coming tournaments with managing the bracket,making sure everything was working fine and everyone was following the rules set for the tournament.

I also wanted to host a tournament locally in my own region but felt like I needed some attendance and advertisement I did not have. At the start I used to do a fighting game session with two other friends of mine at one of their houses but after I met someone from my region that was also into fighting games and had some friends that were interested in experimenting with the genre. We made plans to find a place so we could join both our groups and make it an event publically available for anyone. And with this the organization of MinhoFGC was born. 

It is very rewarding seeing people attend the event I hosted and seeing that I am somewhat contributing to a niche game genre that I fell in love with. Being able to meet so many people and getting to talk to them about my favourite hobby is very fun and I see myself building and managing this organization for fighting games for a while.

In your opinion, what makes fighting games special compared to other genres? 

I can't say that fighting games have something better than all the genres but in the case of competitive games I feel that fighting games provide a journey of self improvement better than any other competitive game genre out there. In a fighting game it is player versus player instead of a team versus another. This means that there are less outside factors for when someone loses besides skills. No blaming your teammates, no blaming the game, just you and the game in front of you. If you want to improve you need to ask yourself the right questions and strategize and come up with gameplans to fix your flaws.

Having such control of the factor in a game is a definitive factor on asserting someone’s skill and there are no doubts on the better player in a tournament set.

Fighting games provide what, in my opinion, I consider to be the best experience for competitive games. Even if you are in an e-sports team you are also competing with your teammates but you also provide knowledge to one another to better your chances for a teammate to win. 

Lastly, if you had to recommend one fighting game to someone new to the genre, which one would it be and why?

It is a hard question to answer since I like many fighting games and would want to recommend my favourite, Guilty Gear Strive, unfortunately fighting games are a hard genre to get into since losing can be very demotivating when you don’t share losses like in a team game.

I believe that if you see some fighting game you find interesting you should pick it as your first, the feeling of loss won't feel as bad if you are having fun and there is a bigger motivation to improve.

But if there is no fighting game that catches your eye I believe that starting with a slower paced fighting game would be best and in this case my favourite is definitely not slow paced. I believe that Street Fighter 6 is currently the best fighting game to start right now since it is a slow paced fighter, and recently they added simpler inputs meant for beginner players to start with. One of the biggest setbacks for fighting games is also the execution barrier. Doing a motion input like a quarter circle to do moves is the first wall that new players face and it often sets them back. Street Fighter 6 removes this barrier with the modern inputs so you can do this moves with a press of a button.

I also would like to mention that an upcoming fighting game will also be a good fit for new comers despite being more fast paced but also removes the motion input barrier. 2XKO is a fighting game with League of Legends characters that will be free to play and you can partner up with a friend to play in the same team, also adding the team factor so the feeling of loss will be shared between two players. This game will also be free to play so you don’t even have to pay to try it out yourself.