Tobia Giani

I’m a mathematician and programmer with an interest in the creation of videogames and the application of numerical methods in real-time applications and data visualization.

Currently, I’m working for FCA Italy as Autonomous Driving Engineering Specialist on the making of the L3 and L4 technologies for autonomous driving car in the Thunder project.

I have a BSc in Science and Technology for Media at the University of Rome “Tor Vergata” and an MSc in Computer Science at the University of Turin.

In the past, I’ve worked at MixedBag Games in Turin where I was the lead software engineer and where we worked on many game titles for every console and on some B2B projects. Previously I worked with Mutabilis for 4 months in Rome, where we worked with DigitalTales to make porting some of their interactive tales for Android smartphones. We also made a visualization tool for a traffic prediction model made by the University of Rome “Tor Vergata” about the urban area of Rome.

My hobbies are basketball, cycling and obviously videogames, but also I like so much travel and read about history.

What I can do

As a programmer, I’ve taken care of:

  • I have always tried to take advantage of my skills in mathematics and physics, to deal with that code more focused on the simulation of physics system both for vehicle modelling and physical object in a game;
  • design and development of AI entities for games with both state machine and behaviour tree technics;
  • I’ve also written many internal tools to increase the workflow speed of the team;
  • integrate SDK provided by suppliers, platform holder or external cloud services, for instance, Simulink generated codes or low-level API developed by Nintendo;
  • develop an abstraction layer of code to get transparent for the application on which platform is running, for instance, I’ve developed code for video games to make them compatible with different video game consoles like Sony PlayStation 4, Microsoft Xbox One, Nintendo Switch;
  • take care of the entire process of sending a game/app for verification, both for consoles or mobile stores and for production in the automotive sector;
  • write down UI or menu logic to increase UX implementing assets provided by UI artist

As the team leader and/or project manager, I’ve taken care of:

  • design of the application architecture taking care of technologies involved, services to use and identify complexity;
  • develop the task board for the programming team, giving priority and checking the completion of the goals to be achieved
  • maintain the communications with the customer and I’ve done meetings to understand their needs and deal with most complex requests trying to get more information as possible for internal team
  • although in a small team I’ve developed and maintained CI/CD pipeline to automatize the recurrent job and avoid lost hours

I’m credited in the following games:

  • Little Red Riding Hood: Digital Tales (Android)
  • Jack and the Beanstalk: Digital Tales (Android)
  • A trip to the Moon: Digital Tales (Android)
  • Futuridium EP Deluxe: MixedBag Games (Apple TV, Windows, Mac, Linux/Steam OS, Nintendo WiiU)
  • Futuridium EP Deluxe Physical edition: MixedBag Games & Limited Run games (PS4 and PSVita)
  • Wheels of Aurelia: Santa Ragione & MixedBag Games (PS4, Nintendo Switch and Xbox One)
  • forma.8: MixedBag Games (PS4, PSVita, Xbox One, Wii U, PC, Mac, Nintendo Switch)
  • forma.8 Physical edition: MixedBag Games & Limited Run games (PS4, PSVita)
  • Still Time: Alan Zucconi (PS4 and PSVita)
  • Avery: MixedBag Games & IBM Italy (iOS and Android)
  • ATOMINE: Broken Arms Games & MixedBag Games (PS4, Xbox One and Nintendo Switch)
  • Waking Violet: Marco Mastropaolo & MixedBag Games (PC, Mac, PS4, PSVita and Nintendo Switch)
  • The Wardrobe: C.I.N.I.C. Games & MixedBag Games (PS4 and Nintendo Switch)
  • Detective Gallo: Footprints Game studios & MixedBag Games (PS4 and Nintendo Switch)
  • Secret Oops: MixedBag Games published by Apple Inc. (iOS, tvOS and macOS)

I’ve also worked on two VR experience for museum exhibitions, where I got experience with VR headset and B2B projects.

One of this experience is now exposed at the Officine Grandi Riparazioni in Turin and it’s named OGR VR, in this application we’ve recreated an old factory where they repair trains recreating the look how appeared in 1920.

My CV

Projects

OGR-VR


This is a VR experience actually exposed at the Officine Grandi Riparazioni in Turin that it’s named OGR VR.

In this application, we’ve recreated an old factory where they repair trains recreating the look how appeared in 1920.

For this experience we used the Oculus Rift and the Unity3D engine.

forma.8


forma.8 is a unique take on the proven Metroidvania action-adventure formula, with a striking visual style and a huge world to explore.

The second game made by MixedBag games where I worked mainly on the low-level code to allow the release of the game on many platforms. In fact, my main task was to write code that maps all the functionality of the game to the different platforms supported.

Avery


“Avery” is the playable mystery of an Artificial Intelligence in love.

This game was commissioned by IBM Italy to MixedBag to show up the power and the capability the IBM’s Watson, mainly focusing on the ability of recognize the human language and respond to it.

MixedBag portings


MixedBag portings were a way to profit by from our experience in console development and our many friendship with other italians game dev.

After the first game made by MixedBag, the team has started a new branch of jobs regarding the porting and publishing of game made by other italian teams.

This new branch of the company would take advantage of the know-how and the codebase that the team have written during the past years to increase the portfolio of games that the company owns.

Futuridium EP Deluxe


Futuridium EP Deluxe is full of cube, psychedelic music and visual distortions.

Futuridium is the first game made by MixedBag team and it was released initially on Sony Playstation 4, Sony Playstation Vita and Steam.

My job was to make the porting of the game for three additional platforms: Apple TV, Nintendo Wii U and Nintendo 3DS

Little Red Riding Hood and other interactive tales


Nothing feels more magic that be able to interact with your favourite tales

Relive the magical fairy tale of Little Red Riding Hood with your children. Fill the basket with delicacies… Grandma is waiting for you!

In the 4 months that I spent in the Mutabilis Srl company in Rome I worked on this small series of games/interactive tales for DigitalTales making the porting of their applications for Android device.

Get in touch

I'm a passionate user of the web and new technologies, so it's easy really easy find a way to contact me: you can email me if you want propose me something serious like a job, or you can also contact me through my social account if you want just chat with me about gaming, NBA, or whenever you want.