Jate Wittayabundit

Jate Wittayabundit was born in Bangkok, Thailand, in 1980. One thing that he always remembers about his childhood is that playing games was something very very special to him. He was allowed to play only during school breaks. The game that he played would be kept in a locked chest by his mom; it was Super Mario Bros, the first game he ever played. Something special in his childhood became something he dreamt to be as a boy in a country where nobody was familiar with computers at this time. So, he questioned how humans could create this thing. "Nothing is impossible", he believes! However, there was no game development course at all in any Thai college or university at the time he chose to pursue his career in that field. Going abroad to study was a huge challenge, which he wasn't ready for. He curtailed his dream, pursuing a Bachelor's degree in Interior Architecture at King Mongkut's University of Technology Thonburi to be able to improve his skills in arts, 3D visualization, and mathematics, which he thought were very important to support what he wanted to be. While he was studying Interior Architecture, he had a chance to use 3D Studio Max, FormZ, AutoCAD, Maya, Photoshop, After Effects, Premiere, and lots of 3D tools to create the architecture projects. Ever since, he has loved it and continues working with these tools. In 2003, after graduation, he started working as an interior architect and 3D visualizer for several companies in Thailand. He also applied for a part-time 3D game course in Thailand and made a couple of friends who, like himself, had a similar passion to create games. They formed a team, making a side-scrolling game using a panda as the main character named PAN PAN. The game was built using Game Maker. As a team member, Jate was responsible for creating the graphics and cover art for the games, because he didn't have any experience in programming at all. At that time, he sensed an upward trend in the game industry. In 2005, he decided to move to Ottawa, Canada, to study a brand new Game Development program. It was really tough for him at first, and he really wanted to quit because of the language barrier and the complexity of programming languages, as he had no basic knowledge at all. However, he had many good professors and friends to help him get through the course. He started to love programming, which he thought he would never understand, and in 2008, he graduated with honors in the Game Development program from Algonquin College. After graduating from the Game Development program, he started working at Launchfire Interactive Inc. (www.launchfire.com) as a Flash Actionscript Programmer. At Launchfire, he developed many games and interactive content (for clients such as Dell and Alaska Airline) as well as learned how to created Flash 3D in Papervision3D and Away3D. In 2009, he decided to move to Toronto—a big city—to get more experience of working in the game industry. He started working in a new position as a game developer and 3D artist at Splashworks.com Inc. (www.splashworks.com). At Splashworks, he had the chance to work with many different games and clients (such as Shockwave and Swiss Chalet). It also gave him a great chance to learn about Unity3D. He started using it from September 2009 and just loved its fast and friendly UI. He really liked how easily Unity imported 3D objects and animations. Currently, he is working as a senior game developer creating many mobile games for many clients, including Sunkist, Nickelodeon, and American Girl. He believes that being an architect is his strength and he is on the right track; it supports his concepts and ideas of how a real-world perception could apply in a virtual world. He loves to work on 3D software such as Zbrush or 3D Studio Max in his spare time and loves painting and drawing. He wants to try marrying his architectural and 3D skills with his game development skills to create the next innovation in gaming. You can check out his work on his website, www.jatewit.com. He has also created a Zbrush character, http://www.zbrushcentral.com/showthread.php?t=90665&highlight=tyris