About Me

Sic Parvis Magna

"Greatness From Small Beginnings"

My Start

Hello! My name is Dylan and I have always loved creative and technical challenges. From a young age I was fascinated by how things worked, and I found joy in taking things apart and putting them back together. Some of my favorite childhood memories are those of using a snap-circuit kit to build simple electronic devices. Followed closely by building various mechnaical contraptions with an Erector set. As I grew older, and my passion for video games grew, I became increasingly curious about how games were made.

This is where my passion for programming began. I had to find out what was involved in making games, I found some C++ tutorials, and ended up spending countless nights coding. Sometimes until 2 AM! Even though I was just a beginner, I was hooked.

Adding Fuel To My Passion

At first, I built small console-based applications to help with my homework. However, I quickly wanted to learn more. I explored various graphics libraries and dabbled in Allegro before settling on SFML for its clean design and simple, yet expansive, functionality.

I recreated classics like Pong, Brick Breaker, and Snake. I even attempted to build a simple multi-level platformer. These projects taught me the fundamentals of game loops, rendering, game state management, and the ever so useful strong foundation in C++.

First slide
The College Years

I first entered college in 2016 as a dual major in Software Engineering and Embedded Systems Engineering. While I loved both fields, I had to step away from school in 2018 for personal/family reasons.

During that time, I continued to code, experiment with new technologies, and work on personal projects to keep my skills expanding.

Now, I'm back in school and have been pursuing my Bachelor of Science in Software Engineering with an expected graduation of 2027! I chose to focus on Software Engineering alone to balance costs and maximize my more immediate career goals. Returning to school has been an exciting opportunity to deepen my knowledge, work with new technologies, and push towards completing what I started.

Reflection

From the beginning of my journey to this very day, one thing has remained consistent: my love of learning new technologies and deepening my expertise in the ones I use daily.

This portfolio itself is practice. Originally built as an express app, it is now converted to be using HTML5, CSS, TypeScript, React, Next.js, and Bootstrap. It is a reflection of my commitment to constant growth as a developer.