Hi, I’m Tiago. Pleased to meet you.
Engineer and entrepreneur at heart, that throughout life had many roles, like Co-Founder, Managing Director, Head of Engineering, Technical Director and Principal Engineer.
I come from an Artificial Intelligence background, but have always been involved in other technical areas like Non-Procedural Programming, Distributed Systems or Augmented and Virtual Reality. I also have a few published papers on AI as well as from my work on VR for physical rehabilitation.
My first deep dive into the games industry was when I was a part of LabMAg, an AI R&D unit dedicated to agent modelling and behavior. I was doing research on agent adaption to complext 3D environments, kind of a mix of computer vision and agent cognition, and I chose the Quake II engine as the core engine upon which I would do my work. Guess that really defined my future engineering work and career.
Most of my career has been dedicated to videogame development, where I worked on a few industry acclaimed titles, ranging from PC and Console AAA ones like Call of Duty:MW2 and Scavengers or 8 Ball Pool and Stumble Guys for mobile.
I consider my most important achievements to be the well-being and growth of my teams, not only on a professional level but also on a personal empowerment one. As an engineer, I love to get my hands dirty and not just be a manager – I practice what I preach so always expect me to lead from the frontline. Beyond Engineering, I love to be involved in the creation aspects of game development, like Game Design or User Experience.
Bearing a varied skillset on my belt, I can speak the language of every team involved in the development process. From 3D to Data Science, Engineering to QA, and Illustration to Sound Design, just to quote a few examples. I also have an academic background in Behavioral Psychology, formal training in Agile Methodologies and plenty of experience in managing teams, from indies to multinational companies spread throughout different continents.
I am also a published musician, a martial artist and instructor, scuba diver, painter and am also trying to get some of my writings published at some point.
Some of my past experience has been as a Head of Engineering at Kokku, a co-development studio that operates mostly in AAA game developoment, Technical Director at Mr. Kite, Principal Engineer at Scopely, Technical Director at The Multiplayer Group (part of the Improbable group), Technical Director at Lockwood Publishing, creators of Avakin Life – and also Senior Engineer at Exit Games – creators of Photon, the world’s #1 Multiplayer Engine (you can check the whole story on my LinkedIn page). I was also the Co-President and Co-Founder of the Portuguese Chapter of the VR/AR Association.
I have also been a key figure in the Portuguese videogames development scene and always try to share my experience through career coaching talks or 1-1 mentoring sessions with young professionals.
Interested in knowing more? Get in touch. I also write every now and then. Mostly about my life and how I try to be better at it. Here are some samples.
Defining Realities 