d3t welcomes Lukas Buricin, Principal Programmer

21st Nov 2023

Tell us a bit of information about your experience/career background?

I have been a passionate game developer since my time at university, where since graduating my free time has been mostly split between rock-climbing, going in the pub and programming games in order to learn how to code graphics etc. There were no university courses targeted at video games in the Czech Republic, so my course was “Mechatronics” which is somewhere between robotics, mechanics, and programming. Hence I had to learn on my own how to make games. In fact I often spent 15 hours a day learning how to code with Direct3D and OpenGL in C++ or C#.

However, being extremely enthusiastic about coding paid dividends fairly soon as I started to get jobs at games studios. At first it was at Indie studios, but it soon progressed to me working at some well recognised studios, such as Sony, Warner Bros and Epic Games. Where I helped to produce many world-wide known game titles.

Why d3t?

I gathered that d3t is a really nice company to work for, so I did some more research and learned about the number of awards that d3t got for being a great place to work in the recent years. I also very much like the idea of the business model, which implies that most people get to work on different projects and don’t get stuck for years in one spot. Furthermore, I found out that there are some people at d3t I used to work with in other companies in the past, so getting onboard whilst knowing some colleagues was a very pleasant bonus.

What do you love about games?

It’s the fun and imagination part combined with being an active actor of the game. I often compare games with movies and say that whilst I like some movies that are fun and inspiring, one is just passively watching them. With games I can decide how I enjoy the time and often where I take the story. Whether I am seeking for all the secrets in a particular level, or where I am exploring the limits of the game, such as getting to places the designers didn’t intend to etc. There is also a purely selfish aspect of being into games, which involves my kids who also love games, so I get a lot of “Daddy is sooo cool!”.

What games are you currently playing, and what is your favourite game?

Funnily enough, I have played some fairly retro games lately. I’m currently playing Quake 2 on PS5, however, before that I was diving into Duke Nukem, Quake 1 and Chasm the Rift – yes the games we used to play on DOS, I used to play these on my 486!

From some less archaic titles, I like Assassin Creed, I enjoyed Ghost of Tsushima and Far Cry. I am also a big fan of all the Heroes of Might and Magic series.

Do you have any fun facts or hobbies?

I play top division in table-tennis (so watch out). I like to restore vintage power-tools or engineer my own in my workshop (I am a fully qualified auto-mechanic and I used to have my own garage before going to university).

I also have a tree nursery with around a thousand trees most of which are UK native and naturalised species. I also play guitar and the drums and consider myself a fairly tolerable person (from time-to-time).