Ivan Palazzo

About me

I would describe myself as a rational person with a touch of creativity. I love problem solving in all its aspects. I love the initial phase of embracing the rules of the problem to understand what you can and cannot do. Then, I love the process of taking those rules and use them to discover patterns, oddities and properties. Finally, I love the fulfilment of finding a fully working solution. Since problem solving is at the heart of programming, it should not come as a surprise how passionate I am about this discipline.

Along with solving puzzles, I like to come up with new ones for other people to face. Since my teenage years, I have been involved multiple times in the organization of treasure hunts and game nights with my friends. More recently, I started to make video games and I am not going to stop! Developing video games is such a exciting activity for me. It comes with loads of those problem solving challenges that I love so much, and as a bonus, it results in a product which can entertain,  educate, teach and so much more.

Some of my favourite games: "Zelda breath of the wild", "Super Mario Odyssey", "The witness".

My career

I remember, in my early teenage years, when someone asked me what I wanted to be when I grew up, I would respond that I wanted to developed video games. Things did not go as planned straight away... I started as a Chemist. I studied chemistry for more than 10 years, and I was pretty good too! This was what kept me going for so long, I think. But, during my PhD, I had a revelation: I didn't like it. I wanted to pursue my teenage dream: make video games.

So here I am, on my second year of the Computer Games Development course at the University of Westminster. My short-term goal is to find a job as a programmer in a game studio.

My journey into Game Dev

My time as a game programmer/developer has been a roller-coaster I don't want to get off.

My first project qualifiable as a game is De-Bug, which came about four weeks into the Monogame module, and was developed for a game jam organized by the University (theme was metamorphosis). It is pretty basic, but it's something I definitely am proud of since I wrote the entire code for it.
You can download the game here: https://ivanpalazzo.itch.io/de-bug

By the end of the first year, some other students and I created a much more polished and extended game called 999 A.D., also developed in Monogame. The game is about stopping demons from causing the apocalypse. Again, I took on the role of lead programmer.
You can download the game here: https://ivanpalazzo.itch.io/999ad

One year after starting my Game Dev journey, my first project developed in Unity was born, a puzzle game called Eco-Bot. The idea for the game stemmed from the 2020 ILRNfuser game jam, with theme "Earth reborn", but I decided to take the development further to obtain a more enjoyable game.
You can download the game here: https://ivanpalazzo.itch.io/eco-bot

Final thoughts

I am happy of the turn my life has taken after leaving Chemistry to get into Video Game Programming and Development, and I finally feel like I am working towards something that fulfils me and makes me proud.

The best is yet to come.