Hi, I’m Aurora (@Keromyru), I have been working as a Software Developer but also familiarizing myself with a variety of things outside of working hours.

I’m always looking to grow my skills in full stack web development. I’ve found that understanding how systems work across the entire tech stack leads to better, more thoughtful solutions than focusing solely on the front end or back end. My experience is pretty eclectic, more about that on my LinkedIn page, but a constant thread is my love of helping people and working in multifaceted roles. I like to dig into the why. Why should this feature be built a certain way? Why is a client asking for it? What problem are we, as a team and a company, really trying to solve? I thrive at the intersection of product, design, marketing, and engineering because that collaboration is where the real progress happens.

Aside from my work experience and preferences, I have been working on:

• Expanding my Rust knowledge; working at Connect Energy/WoodRiver Energy with Rust has been such an excellent experience. It is definitely a difficult learning curve (have you looked into how Rust Macro's work? Or derived? Insanely cool) but I am eager to learn more!
• Creating the foundation for a tactical RPG game; I have code named it LoveLetter as I want it to be a love letter to games like Shining Force 2 and Fire Emblem. In particular having a large group of characters to control (12 in SF2!), interesting decisions with promotions from one class to another, well crafted battle scenarios with fun twists (the Kraken fight anyone? Taros? Chess battle? Geshp with the prism flowers? Odd Eye? So many great examples) and I have vague ideas for a story but that is secondary to figuring out and implementing the features I really want to be in the game. I also wanted to create it on a hex grid instead of a normal chess grid, to change up the tactics for success. It is a lot but is an idea i've been thinking about. I am just excited to work more with the Unity Engine!
• Recently I got an idea stuck in my head while listening to pain points at my LGS (local game stores, Magic: The Gathering specifically). Talking to the owners and workers of LGS it seems there is a big problem; all MTG cards are entered in manually, and it is a pain to do. I mean, what set, what art, what special foiling, in what condition? There are endless things to classify to correctly input MTG cards. And it has to be done by a human typing into a third party solution trying to narrow down the correct card to add to their inventory. What. a. pain. There are options for individuals to scan their cards, or expensive machines that still require a human in some fashion, is there a solution in between? A more efficient process, cost effective process for small LGSs? That is what I have been exploring recently. Currently breaking down this idea into chunks, and seeing what I learn. If I come out with something usable, excellent, if not, well I did something cool with computer vision, machine learning, and got to learn more about MTG.

I have also worked on two game projects in University... The first was an overall excellent experience: Link: https://github.com/Keromyru/CMPT-306-Group-Game We worked so well together and learned a lot; we also easily divvied up the tasks we needed to complete with everyone being able to work on features they were really passionate about. I was the Team Lead for the group. I managed the team, help teach some of my peers how to use git in a collaborative setting, assisted in ensuring everyone had support and if they got stuck help them directly or lead them to @Oliver-Akins who was our technical lead. I was also passionate about the gameplay design and how to make it really fun; this was my major contribution to the code. I implemented stats, weapons and skill upgrades. I had a blast figuring out how to implement them all and ensuring the gameplay was enjoyable and fun!

The second was, if i am being frank, very rough. It was for CMPT 406 and our team struggled. I was really gun-ho about ensuring everyone understood git in a team setting (i've heard stories of duplicating, zipping, and sharing the whole file system of a Unity project to act as version control O_O and that sounded horrible) and I also knew that git can be confusing to use as a team, especially for first timers, so I wrote up a document with some basics like how to setup SSH keys, some useful commands and quality of life stuff, link to the project wiki with my git guide. I was pretty proud of it at the time and hopeful all my teammates could learn! I was also pushing myself out of my comfort zone and wanted to handle the role of Techincal Lead which was a good experience to have, even if it was filled with hard lessons and growth.

Anyhoo, if you ever wanna connect, reach out to me via email [email protected] or message me via LinkedIn

Have an excellent day!