Kalle Rustholkarhu Programming resume and portfolio
Most recently Lead Programmer for Still Running, shipping Morbid: The Lords of Ire in 2024
Projects showcased in this portfolio are written in plain C or C++ (Unreal Engine). Conversion for showcasing on the web has been made from C into Web Assembly using the Emscripten open source toolchain. 2D graphical library used is SDL2, with SDL2_image, SDL2_ttf and SDL2_mixer extensions. Projects are developed for and on the Linux and Mac environments but would be portable to the mobile platforms and Windows desktop as well, due to the cross-platform nature of SDL2. The web portability is showcased here.
Portfolio established during studies at Hive Helsinki, porting plain C graphics branch projects to the web platform for demoing purposes. For the sake of fundamental learning at Hive, our projects were restricted to CPU calculations only (software rendering). Projects that showcase the effective use of the GPU via OpenGL are missing - with OpenGL and GPU rendering, many of the optimizations and design choices utilized to increase performance with direct pixel manipulation would be obsoleted. GPU accelerated modern 3D rendering is a highly specialized and interesting field! Leveraging 3D rendering to the fullest capability require larger teams, investing a lot of resources into generating the impressive graphical end results.
Creating fluid, efficient and performant cross-platform graphical user interfaces is a prospective affair. I specialized into the graphics branch at Hive Helsinki because of the attractive potential of all the visual things one can perceive on the digital platforms, both as pure entertainment or as part of some other meaningful interaction. The fluidness, smoothness and joy generated of well made 2D interfaces and games is very attractive in my opinion. I enjoy strategy board games and games like chess. I grew up consuming a lot of 16-bit era console games, often frusturated by how far more graphically advanced games missed the mark on the actual gameplay experience. Thus I believe that well executed, functional ideas and polished designs will be always in fashion and demand. Knowing how to program fundamentally performant code that can be deployed onto the modern multiplatform digital space is a key interest for me.
Enrolled to Hive Helsinki as a student after a rigorous 24/7 one month C-programming Piscine in 2019. Beyond fundamental C programming I also branched to 2D/3D graphics and passed a two week intensive web developement Piscine later too. Prior to C++/C, I've coded with Java to produce Apps and 2D prototypes for Android and for desktop PC. Meager web experience includes basic HTML, CSS, JS, PHP, SQL, WASM and Devops. Coding origin story involves a Visual Basic Step-by-Step book at age 10, building calculators and simulators for my own use.
Cross-platform high performance programming is interesting to me. I adore fluid code with a smart architecture. Combining high performance with an instant and highly accessible user experience, Web Assembly seems like a promising possibility of enabling accessible high performance computation on the web platform. Balancing high performance with flexibility and scalability of development, building on top of C with C++ skills is of interest to me. Always becoming more sophisticated motivates me. I work to conquer complexity.
Whether targeting the Web, Mobile, Console or Desktop platforms, I am game! Further deepening my programming skills and working best practices via a midlevel position is my next career step as a Programmer. I have no requirements for any particular tech or stack - ideally I would work in a company that has a very practical approach on choosing technologies to develop with. Adapting to your environment, solving problems and providing value is my proposition. If an open Programming role fits my skill set, hire me!