Andy Vella
VP of Engineering at Sunblink- Claim this Profile
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Bio
Ei-Nyung Choi
Andy joined Self Aware Games just as it was getting large enough that we needed to think about organization & process. Andy brought two rare strengths, each hard to find but nigh-impossible to find combined in one person: 1. Incredible speed & thoroughness as an engineer. If you can only hire one engineer, and you have the opportunity to bring Andy on board, it'll be the best decision you've ever made. He can execute like nobody you know, and can do things that seem initially impossible to do with code. 2. The inherent desire to fix things and make things better. This quality shines in him both as an engineer and as a leader. He can't leave inefficient processes alone. He can't leave bad code alone. He can't let obstacles lie where they may. He is on fire when he is taking the team and making things better for everyone. You present Andy with a problem and he will find a way to destroy it, in the best way. And the very best part of all this is that he is incredibly easy and fun to work with. He is even-tempered, patient, hardworking, and dogged in his determination to help the team succeed. The cherry on top is that he's fun to work with. He's a leader and engineer that is well loved no matter what department you talk to. The term gets thrown around a lot, but let me be clear, it is no exaggeration to say that Andy is a rockstar in the development world. He's even more of an unicorn in that he's a rockstar you'll LOVE working with.
Christa Fenus-Cates
Andy is amazing. Let me repeat - Andy is amazing. He can do it all - tools programming, content programming, tech programming, everything! And it will be done fast, with all the features you want and then some, and will be done right. At Factor 5, he was originally hired as a tools programmer, and did an awesome job - he took an old, outdated proprietary design tool, and made it stable and more functional by leaps and bounds. If we needed a new feature, he almost always got it to us quick. He then shifted over to content programming and continued to amaze. On my last project at F5, he was the first programmer assigned to us during pre-production, and there could not have been a better choice. During his time on that project, he gave us a new state machine script editor that was powerful tool for prototyping pretty much everything design could think of, created a city renderer that allowed us to build massive urban environments, and even got our PS3 game up and running on the Wii - keeping Wii builds a milestone behind our lead PS3 sku in terms of functionality. If any team ever has an opportunity to Hire Andy, they should jump at the chance and count themselves immeasurably fortunate.
Ei-Nyung Choi
Andy joined Self Aware Games just as it was getting large enough that we needed to think about organization & process. Andy brought two rare strengths, each hard to find but nigh-impossible to find combined in one person: 1. Incredible speed & thoroughness as an engineer. If you can only hire one engineer, and you have the opportunity to bring Andy on board, it'll be the best decision you've ever made. He can execute like nobody you know, and can do things that seem initially impossible to do with code. 2. The inherent desire to fix things and make things better. This quality shines in him both as an engineer and as a leader. He can't leave inefficient processes alone. He can't leave bad code alone. He can't let obstacles lie where they may. He is on fire when he is taking the team and making things better for everyone. You present Andy with a problem and he will find a way to destroy it, in the best way. And the very best part of all this is that he is incredibly easy and fun to work with. He is even-tempered, patient, hardworking, and dogged in his determination to help the team succeed. The cherry on top is that he's fun to work with. He's a leader and engineer that is well loved no matter what department you talk to. The term gets thrown around a lot, but let me be clear, it is no exaggeration to say that Andy is a rockstar in the development world. He's even more of an unicorn in that he's a rockstar you'll LOVE working with.
Christa Fenus-Cates
Andy is amazing. Let me repeat - Andy is amazing. He can do it all - tools programming, content programming, tech programming, everything! And it will be done fast, with all the features you want and then some, and will be done right. At Factor 5, he was originally hired as a tools programmer, and did an awesome job - he took an old, outdated proprietary design tool, and made it stable and more functional by leaps and bounds. If we needed a new feature, he almost always got it to us quick. He then shifted over to content programming and continued to amaze. On my last project at F5, he was the first programmer assigned to us during pre-production, and there could not have been a better choice. During his time on that project, he gave us a new state machine script editor that was powerful tool for prototyping pretty much everything design could think of, created a city renderer that allowed us to build massive urban environments, and even got our PS3 game up and running on the Wii - keeping Wii builds a milestone behind our lead PS3 sku in terms of functionality. If any team ever has an opportunity to Hire Andy, they should jump at the chance and count themselves immeasurably fortunate.
Ei-Nyung Choi
Andy joined Self Aware Games just as it was getting large enough that we needed to think about organization & process. Andy brought two rare strengths, each hard to find but nigh-impossible to find combined in one person: 1. Incredible speed & thoroughness as an engineer. If you can only hire one engineer, and you have the opportunity to bring Andy on board, it'll be the best decision you've ever made. He can execute like nobody you know, and can do things that seem initially impossible to do with code. 2. The inherent desire to fix things and make things better. This quality shines in him both as an engineer and as a leader. He can't leave inefficient processes alone. He can't leave bad code alone. He can't let obstacles lie where they may. He is on fire when he is taking the team and making things better for everyone. You present Andy with a problem and he will find a way to destroy it, in the best way. And the very best part of all this is that he is incredibly easy and fun to work with. He is even-tempered, patient, hardworking, and dogged in his determination to help the team succeed. The cherry on top is that he's fun to work with. He's a leader and engineer that is well loved no matter what department you talk to. The term gets thrown around a lot, but let me be clear, it is no exaggeration to say that Andy is a rockstar in the development world. He's even more of an unicorn in that he's a rockstar you'll LOVE working with.
Christa Fenus-Cates
Andy is amazing. Let me repeat - Andy is amazing. He can do it all - tools programming, content programming, tech programming, everything! And it will be done fast, with all the features you want and then some, and will be done right. At Factor 5, he was originally hired as a tools programmer, and did an awesome job - he took an old, outdated proprietary design tool, and made it stable and more functional by leaps and bounds. If we needed a new feature, he almost always got it to us quick. He then shifted over to content programming and continued to amaze. On my last project at F5, he was the first programmer assigned to us during pre-production, and there could not have been a better choice. During his time on that project, he gave us a new state machine script editor that was powerful tool for prototyping pretty much everything design could think of, created a city renderer that allowed us to build massive urban environments, and even got our PS3 game up and running on the Wii - keeping Wii builds a milestone behind our lead PS3 sku in terms of functionality. If any team ever has an opportunity to Hire Andy, they should jump at the chance and count themselves immeasurably fortunate.
Ei-Nyung Choi
Andy joined Self Aware Games just as it was getting large enough that we needed to think about organization & process. Andy brought two rare strengths, each hard to find but nigh-impossible to find combined in one person: 1. Incredible speed & thoroughness as an engineer. If you can only hire one engineer, and you have the opportunity to bring Andy on board, it'll be the best decision you've ever made. He can execute like nobody you know, and can do things that seem initially impossible to do with code. 2. The inherent desire to fix things and make things better. This quality shines in him both as an engineer and as a leader. He can't leave inefficient processes alone. He can't leave bad code alone. He can't let obstacles lie where they may. He is on fire when he is taking the team and making things better for everyone. You present Andy with a problem and he will find a way to destroy it, in the best way. And the very best part of all this is that he is incredibly easy and fun to work with. He is even-tempered, patient, hardworking, and dogged in his determination to help the team succeed. The cherry on top is that he's fun to work with. He's a leader and engineer that is well loved no matter what department you talk to. The term gets thrown around a lot, but let me be clear, it is no exaggeration to say that Andy is a rockstar in the development world. He's even more of an unicorn in that he's a rockstar you'll LOVE working with.
Christa Fenus-Cates
Andy is amazing. Let me repeat - Andy is amazing. He can do it all - tools programming, content programming, tech programming, everything! And it will be done fast, with all the features you want and then some, and will be done right. At Factor 5, he was originally hired as a tools programmer, and did an awesome job - he took an old, outdated proprietary design tool, and made it stable and more functional by leaps and bounds. If we needed a new feature, he almost always got it to us quick. He then shifted over to content programming and continued to amaze. On my last project at F5, he was the first programmer assigned to us during pre-production, and there could not have been a better choice. During his time on that project, he gave us a new state machine script editor that was powerful tool for prototyping pretty much everything design could think of, created a city renderer that allowed us to build massive urban environments, and even got our PS3 game up and running on the Wii - keeping Wii builds a milestone behind our lead PS3 sku in terms of functionality. If any team ever has an opportunity to Hire Andy, they should jump at the chance and count themselves immeasurably fortunate.
Experience
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Sunblink
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United States
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Writing and Editing
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1 - 100 Employee
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VP of Engineering
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Aug 2021 - Present
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Punch List
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United States
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Software Development
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CTO and Co-founder
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Feb 2019 - May 2021
Punch List's mission is to bring financial services and technology to independent general contractors to help them run and grow their business, while providing a fair and transparent process to homeowners. Built out a full technology stack from the ground up. Deployed mobile apps on iOS and Android using React Native, leveraging a serverless back end in Firebase. Managed small engineering and design team, while spending 80% of my time coding. Researched financial technology services and led partnership with Unit to deliver a payments and banking solution to our contractors. Handled company operations including HR, finance, and IT. Show less
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Big Fish Games
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United States
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Computer Games
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300 - 400 Employee
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VP and General Manager of Self Aware Games
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Sep 2017 - Jan 2019
Studio head for all development and business operations for Self Aware Games, leading Big Fish's $250M+ yearly portfolio of social casino games. Responsible for a team of 100+.Managed P&L and prepared yearly financial plans and studio strategy to present to Aristocrat's executive team.Led development from concept through pre-production and beta launch on iOS and Android for Gambit, a unique real-time card battler.
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VP of Engineering and Executive Producer
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Dec 2015 - Sep 2017
Led all studio operations, including engineering, project management, QA, art, and design. Successfully planned and launched Jackpot Magic Slots, a spin-off of Big Fish Casino, executing a strategy that pivoted a legacy codebase to support multiple applications and deploy resources efficiently across both titles.Grew engineering organization to 25+. Mentored directors and managers to scale operations with the business. Focused team around resiliency, process, and efficiency to identify areas for continuous improvement.Rolled out and iterated on Kanban method for individual teams and studio wide development to balance capacity against constraints and focus on shortening cycle times to deliver business results more quickly.Co-designed and led development for Burn3, a unique head-to-head three card poker game, launched in Big Fish Casino and as a stand alone app with ranked matchmaking and seasons. Show less
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Senior Director of Engineering
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Sep 2013 - Dec 2015
In addition to engineering, led the project management and QA teams to drive operational efficiency across the studio.Architected a huge technology update, bringing our legacy Casino platform onto a modern code base to evolve our slots content pipeline. We utilized a dual stack approach allowing us to gradually release the new technology and seamlessly transition our user experience to the new platform without impacting existing users. This initiative was built around the Cocos2d-html5 platform, allowing us to package new content and code server side supporting a rapid release cycle to deliver updates daily. Worked with Churchill Downs and Big Fish technology executives through due diligence to close $885M acquisition in 2014. Show less
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Senior Engineering Manager
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Aug 2012 - Sep 2013
Live Titles: Big Fish Casino (iOS, Android, Web), Big Fish Bingo (iOS)Manager of engineering for all projects at the Self Aware Games studio, coordinating engineering work across production, design, art, and QA.Responsible for overall architecture and technical planning for in house custom client and server components across multiple platforms.Ensured continued evolution of technical processes to support a weekly release cycle for content and feature updates for our synchronous social multiplayer games.Screened and hired engineers at all levels to grow the engineering team from 3 to 20+. Show less
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Lead Engineer
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Jan 2010 - Aug 2012
Self Aware Games Studio - acquired by Big Fish in 2012.Shipped Titles: Fleck (iOS, Web) (live MMO with weekly feature updates)Managed a team of engineers building and maintaining a real-time social MMO played on top of Google Maps.Built a custom horizontally scalable back-end game server architecture in Java that interfaced with a PHP API and MySQL data storage layer. Developed cross platform game technology to run in Flash on desktop browsers as well as in Objective-C / C++ on iPad and iPhone using a front-end written in HTML5 and JavaScript.Recruited and mentored new engineering talent to help grow company from 5 - 20+.Worked with Big Fish through due diligence process and led engineering efforts through the transition process of acquisition in 2012. Show less
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Telltale Games
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United States
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Computer Games
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1 - 100 Employee
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Core Engineer
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Jan 2009 - Jan 2010
Shipped Titles: Tales of Monkey Island (PC, WiiWare), Wallace and Gromit (PC, XBLA), CSI: Deadly Intent (PC, X360, Wii) Researched needs of artists and designers by conducting interviews and analyzing workflows to update in house production tools. Integrated Qt to replace a legacy MFC UI across multiple workflows in the application, creating a scalable foundation for future updates. Designed and built a new packaging system for specializing and deploying game assets to multiple platforms, allowing designers to choose between quality and asset size based on hardware requirements. Show less
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Factor 5
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Computer Games
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1 - 100 Employee
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Software Engineer
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May 2006 - Dec 2008
Shipped Titles: Lair (PS3) Wrote gameplay systems including controls and AI to prototype a new third person brawler. Designed and developed a flexible new state machine scripting framework for our proprietary game engine used by designers to implement player controls, cameras, AI, and animation. Architected a real time debugging and visualization system for state machines to reduce iteration time. Set up a graphics framework utilizing occlusion culling and instancing to efficiently render a city. Maintained build and release pipeline for Xbox 360 and Wii builds during primary development on PS3. Completely overhauled legacy level editor. Major features added included a vegetation painting system, a new heightmap authoring pipeline, 3D brush geometry creation and manipulation, and data streaming on demand for quicker loading. Show less
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Education
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2002 - 2006
DigiPen Institute of Technology
BS, Computer Science
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