FULL BIOGRAPHY
My name is Sri Bharadwaj Tolety. Born and raised in India, I fell in love with games at a very young age. Be it playing video games with my mom on our Nintendo 64 or outdoor games such as tag, hide and go-seek with my friends or cousins, games have helped me to relax, bond and create lasting memories with people close to me.
I believe games are an excellent interactive medium that teaches players how to overcome challenges, learn new things, and eventually master them. Games can create friendships and rivalries between players which leads to self-improvement and the formation of social groups. My goal is to create games with unique mechanics within a story that makes players feel they belong in a world beyond their own and importantly, fun games that can create wonderful and everlasting memories for players.
WHAT I AM PASSIONATE ABOUT
Developing gameplay mechanics and tools for games with players and designers in mind is my primary goal as a game developer. Creating tools that can ease the job of a designer and allow them to make their idea a reality and developing gameplay mechanics that players feel challenging, consequential, memorable, and fun are my two main focal points. My main tools to achieve these goals are my knowledge and experience in object-oriented programming, my understanding and knowledge of modern design methodologies, and experience in conducting user research. In the world of gameplay programming having this combination of skills makes me highly compatible with designers since I can efficiently communicate and deliver on the goals they have set.
Apart from gameplay programming, I also have knowledge of the working of the graphics pipeline. Present-day graphics in games have evolved rapidly in the past few years through the evolution of graphics technology. This has made games look more realistic as time goes by. This evolution motivated me to learn in detail about graphics and how they are used in real-time interactive media primarily in games.
MY FASCINATION WITH MMORPGs
Massive Multiplayer Role Playing Games such as WoW, League of Legends, Destiny and Division have quickly become my favorite genre of games since being introduced to Division and Destiny in 2016. Early in my game design journey, MMORPGs quickly became a subject I was keen to explore due to the feedback I heard regarding the games through friends and read on official game forums. Many players were unhappy with various aspects of the games and it made me curious to find a way to help designers efficiently design the game from the ground up to avoid the negative reception to their games. My Master's thesis. gave me the perfect opportunity to use my research skills to explore the solutions to this problem. Through extensive research of the player psychology and studying the design principles behind MMORPGs over a span of a year, I created a solid foundation for my study. At the end of my study, I found preliminary evidence that if designers used design features that strongly resonated with the type of a player while making the game for they could create a strong foundation for the game and satisfy a majority of their player base. My hope was that this would result in requiring less feedback collection and re-tuning of the game after its release.
Over the course of the research, I gained valuable knowledge regarding designing MMORPGs and one-day hope to help design a game that can satisfy the majority of the player base and help designers focus on making new things instead of always re-tuning past content.
THINGS I LOVE TO DO IN MY FREE TIME
During my free time, I play Destiny and Overwatch with long time friends I met through the games. We continue to play the games to improve our skills, bond and find creative ways to have fun playing the game.
I also add to my blog from time to time with my thoughts on topics that interest me. From developments in game development technology, evolution in design principles and my thoughts about the ever-changing landscape of the game industry.