My name is Darrell Blake, I am 24, and I currently work as a games programmer for Kuju in Sheffield. At the minute I'm working on the Xbox Live Arcade version of Sensible Soccer but I'm due to be moving onto an unannounced Xbox 360/PS3 title using the Unreal 3 engine in the next few weeks.

I am an avid gamer and software engineer and, as a result, I especially enjoy game development. The projects section of this website contains examples of games, demos, tech demos and proof of concept applications I have written throughout my education and personal use of computers.

Typically, I prefer to develop in C++ using OpenGL and SDL or DirectX for the graphics. I also like C as it was one of the first programming languages I ever learnt but it's been years since I have done anything in C as I'm quite the OO advocate. I have done a little in Objective-C too which is a very nice language but, from what I saw, it didn't offer anything significant to warrant the migration from C++. I also like Java and C# but am fairly new to writing games using managed code. I do, however, have plenty of experience writing non-game applications in both.

As well as developing games I also love to play them and, if you're inclined, you can view my Xbox Live achievements by clicking on my gamercard on the main page. Feel free to add me (SuburbanMonkey) to your friends list if you fancy playing a few games. My favourite game to date is still Frontier: Elite II as it was my first experience of a truly enormous open-ended game. It is an exemplary achievement considering that David Braben wrote the game purely in m68k assembler.

I also enjoy socialising and particularly enjoy the Devonshire Quarter area of Sheffield. I have had too many nice beers in the Devonshire Cat =o) The Boardwalk is another favourite of mine. I have seen many fantastic local bands there.

Another of my hobbies is music, both listening to and playing. I have been playing the piano since age 8 and I have been teaching myself to play the guitar for seven years. I'm a metal/rock fan and tend to like most rock music from the 60s onwards. My favourite bands consist of Sepultura, Kalmah, Pink Floyd, Metallica, Rainbow, Mastodon, Iron Maiden, Pitchshifter, Hatesphere, Tool, Marillion, Soul Fly... There's too many to mention.