Head Count: Trent Cornwell

Trent Cornwell is one of our cinematic programmers. At 22, he’s the youngest team member at the studio. Although he initially set out to be a lawyer, he quickly realized that his passion was in game development. He began developing flash games on his own before studying game development at Bradley University where he picked up Unity and Unreal Engine. He enjoys the unique creative freedoms that the gaming industry offers, expressing his ideas through the game mods he creates in his free time. His favorite thing about Human Head is the wide variety of extracurricular clubs that he can join here. Whether he’s playing Magic the Gathering over lunch or jamming out at guitar club, you’ll find Trent connecting with his teammates over shared interests.

Advice for Aspiring Programmers

“Learn the skills your dream job requires, and stay relevant.

I have seen it happen a number of times where people will go to apply to their dream job, but not meet all of the requirements. For example, if you want to work here as an animator you would need to know motion editing, rig building, and UE4 integration.

Now that you know the skills, what’s next? More learning of course! The tech in this industry (and many other industries) is constantly changing. You need to be able to stay current with the latest versions of programs you use, and learn new skills relevant to what you will be doing.

For instance, a programmer that normally does client side programming should try learning server side since networking features are very common in games.”

Three Games that Everyone Should Play

“I personally love tabletop games. The face-to-face interactivity you have with other people just can’t be beat. While there are tons of games that I could recommend, these three are a great place to start:

1. Dominion

This game is the granddaddy of the deck-building game genre. Dominion isn’t as complex as NetRunner, but is still a ton of fun and a great segue into deck-building games (or just card games in general).

2. T.I.M.E Stories

T.I.M.E Stories is a fairly linear game, so there isn’t a whole lot of replay value once you beat it. The mechanics of the game are well-done and will leave you wanting more. To keep the game fresh the developers release expansion scenarios.

3. Job Simulator

Setting aside my interests in tabletop games, I also enjoy VR games. Job Simulator is one of my favorites. The game has tons of fun interactions and makes the experience as easy as possible for the player. If you are looking to create a VR game (especially a room scaled one) this game is a great reference.”