My Timeline
- Snapshot of my Journey into Game Programming

[Childhood]
   |
   ├─ 🎮 Lifelong passion for video games
   ├─ 🎨 Interest in creative/artistic projects
   └─ 🛠️ Created Metin2 private server with brother (12 & 15 y.o.)

[Teen Years]
   |
   ├─ 🔧 Minecraft modding
   ├─ 🎯 Arma 3 modding (Altis Life)
   └─ 🕵️‍♂️ Explored game cheat development

[Searching My Path]
   |
   ├─ 📚 Traditional academic path (high school, engineering school, CS university)
   └─ ❓ Still unsure about career direction

[Epitech]
   |
   ├─ 💡 Found passion in programming
   ├─ 📂 Project-based learning, no lectures
   ├─ 🤝 Collaboration, self-learning, independence
   └─ 🚀 Gained rigor, teamwork, organization, professionalism

[Game Development Start]
   |
   ├─ ✈️ 4th year abroad (CSUSM, California) → Interrupted by COVID
   ├─ 💼 Epitech offers 6-month professional experience
   ├─ 💻 Registered as a freelancer
   ├─ 🏗️ First mission with Drom Games (Unity, Mobile, Sayve)
   |    └─ 💪 Initially rejected → Wrote a letter → Got the position
   └─ 🤝 Mentored by Guillaume Kehren (The Forest)

[Final Year at Epitech]
   |
   ├─ 🎓 5th year of studies begins
   ├─ 🔁 Continued working full-time with Drom Games
   └─ 🕒 Managed studies + freelance work simultaneously
        → Passion confirmed

[Today]
   |
   ├─ 🌟 Passion + Profession = Game Programmer
   └─ 🧩 Unreal Engine specialization

Let Me Introduce Myself

Hi, I am Matthis ,

I’ve been passionate about video games ever since I can remember. From a young age, I was not only fascinated by playing them, but also by the creative process behind them. That passion for creativity pushed me to explore beyond the screen ! 👨‍💻😊

When I was around 12 years old, my older brother and I launched a private server for Metin2 (thats so ooooold! It’s a chinese MMORPG we played a lot when we were teenager 😅).

Images Credits: https://www.jeuxmmorpg-gratuit.com/mmorpg/metin2/

That project was my first dive into the world of game development, and I was hooked. From there, I explored Minecraft modding in Java, playing with Arma 3 mods using Altis Life. Bohemia Interactive left a great place for modding with their scripting language SQF.

Here is a cool mod I did to handle interest points on your map

I ended opening an Altis Life Roleplay server with a group of friend I met on a server and with which I was roleplaying 🤩 I was doing all the development/programming and maintenance of the server (I remember we reached 100+ players at a time!).

I even got curious about cheat development, all driven by a desire to understand how games worked and how to go where we do not have the right to. 😈

(PS : I never used them in official games because I didn’t know anything about bypassing anti-cheat and I knew I would be flagged right away haha)

But my journey wasn’t a straight line. For a long time, I didn’t really know what I wanted to do with my life. I followed a traditional academic path through high school and higher education, trying out different programs like engineering school (INSA) and computer science at university, always searching for that thing that would finally click.

Epitech: Finding My Path

That moment came when I joined Epitech, a school where everything is project-based: no lectures, no professors giving you the answers. You’re expected to figure things out on your own, collaborate with your friends’ promotion, and become self-reliant.

My group and I, for our first profesionnal project in our third year, at Laval Virtual, 2018.

This environment suited me perfectly. I was already an autodidact with a strong sense of independence, but Epitech helped me sharpen essential skills like rigor, persistence, organization, teamwork, and professionalism.

It was also through Epitech’s many projects that I found my path: programming, especially when it came to games and anything graphical.

Breaking into Game Development

In my fourth year at Epitech, I had the opportunity to study abroad at CSUSM in San Marcos, California, but the COVID-19 pandemic hit in 2019. Like many others, I had to return home in early 2020 before completing the second semester.

CSUSM Campus - Credits: https://www.csusm.edu/

To make up for the lost time, Epitech offered us the chance to gain professional experience through internships, short-term contracts, or freelance work. That was the turning point, the opportunity to officially step into the video game industry.

I registered as a freelancer and went looking for my very first mission. That’s how I joined Drom Games, a fantastic indie studio working on Unity. At first, I didn’t have any experience with Unity or C#, and after a technical test, they initially chose not to move forward with me.

But I wasn’t ready to give up. I believed in the project and in the team. So, I wrote a heartfelt letter to the studio’s founder explaining how motivated I was, how fast I could learn, and how much I wanted to be part of their journey.

That determination paid off. They gave me a chance, and I made sure to make it count.

I worked on Sayve, a mobile city-building and management game set in a post-apocalyptic world. Players must rebuild civilization while considering the ecological consequences of their actions, a meaningful and engaging concept that I was proud to contribute to.

One of the team members I had the privilege to work with was Guillaume Kehren, former lead developer at Endnight Games, the studio behind The Forest. He taught me a lot, and we’ve kept in touch ever since.

Balancing Work and Studies

When my 6-month mission with Drom Games came to an end, the collaboration had gone so well that they asked if I wanted to continue. The only catch? My fifth and final year at Epitech was about to start 😟.

I chose to continue working with the studio full-time while managing my final year of studies on the side. It wasn’t always easy, but I was deeply fulfilled by the work and it also helped fund my education. I organized my schedule to attend school meetings when necessary, and I dedicated evenings and weekends to my academic projects.

It was a challenging year, but it confirmed something important: I had finally found the path that made me feel truly alive.

From now on, I have specialized myself in Unreal Engine.
I found in love with this engine and I'm always surprised in what it's capable of!
Hurrah Unreal 🙌

Cassandra's Fate

Check out my first mission on Unreal Engine in 2021

Vyder Missions

Check out my 2 Vyder missions on Unreal Engine

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