Josh Caratelli
G'day!
I'm Josh, a hardworking, team-oriented programmer who strives to write clean, cache friendly code. I’m always eager to learn and leverage my skills to facilitate unforgettable gameplay and narrative driven experiences.
I love working in teams and keeping busy
Over the years I've worked on several shipped titles and major franchises:
I also concurrently studied a Bachelor of Computer Science at RMIT University, graduating with Distinction, while shipping four of the above AAA titles.
I'm an adept programmer and love learning
I love coding and game development with a passion, and solving challenging problems by working with others to hit deadlines. I realize that I don't know everything, but I recognize my weak points and add it to my learning.
Over the years though I've honed my experience with the following:
I'm a STEM diversity advocate and enjoy speaking and presenting
I believe everyone should be able to make games and that having diverse people brings a plethora of benefits to not only the team but the project as well.
To help with this, I've co-created a STEM scholarship to promote and inspire people from diverse backgrounds into games development and tech.
I also regularly speak at conferences, conventions and to media and provide advice for students and buddying game developers on how they can start making their own games.
Professional Projects
A sample of the game titles that I've worked on over the years
Call of Duty: Vanguard
Senior Software Engineer | Core / Systems
(XS | PS5 | XB1 | PS4 | PC)
Senior Software Engineer
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare // Call of Duty: Warzone
Software Engineer | Core
Sledgehammer Games
(XB1 | PS4 | PC)
Software Engineer
Call of Duty: WWII
Software Engineer | Core / Live Ops
Sledgehammer Games
(XB1 | PS4 | PC)
Software Engineer
Curriculum Vitae (CV)
A brief summary of my professional work experience, if you would like to see some more detail check out my LinkedIn!
Gravity Well
Senior Engineer Aug 2022 - Current
Titles:
Creating a new AAA title alongside a veteran team which includes the founding members of Infinity Ward (Call of Duty) and Respawn Entertainment (Titanfall, Apex Legends, Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order)
For our first AAA title, we have partnered with a large Western publisher as we create an original IP. We aren't talking about the game yet, but we're excited to show it to you in the future
Find out more at gravitywell.games
Sledgehammer Games, an Activision Studio
Senior Software Engineer Mar 2022 – Jul 2022
Software Engineer Jun 2017 – Mar 2022
Titles:
As a Senior Software Engineer with Core Engineering, I predominately deal with core game engine and low-level system programming in both single and multi-player networked environments. I have worked on supporting marquee features for Call of Duty titles in the last several years such as Large Map Technology and Destruction.
Other responsibilities:
Big Ant Studios
Junior Programmer Jan 2016 – Jun 2017
Titles:
As a Junior Programmer I work with an interdisciplinary agile team of artists, designers, sound engineers and programmers to design, prototype and implement new features within our existing proprietary engine technology. I ultimately strive to write clean, readable and maintainable code in C++ and LUA to meet deadlines on time and under memory budget.
Responsibilities include:
Double Mercury Entertainment Pty Ltd
Founder/Programmer Jan 2015 – Jan 2016
Titles:
Founder at Double Mercury Entertainment where I was the sole programmer on Smog Game, an award winning eco-themed colour matching endless runner for the iPhone and iPad, which shows children the benefit of reducing their 'Smog' carbon footprint. www.smog-game.com
Responsibilities Include:
Speaker: Various Conferences and Conventions
Speaker Jul 2013 – Present
I've been invited to speak at various conferences and conventions, primarily talks focused on providing advice for students and budding game developers.
Keynotes:
Panelist:
Lectures:
(VOLUNTEER) Epic Games
User Group Founder March 2016 – Jun 2017
As the groups founder I organized and ran Unreal Engine community events on behalf of Epic Games in Melbourne, Australia one of the burgeoning capitals of game development in the world.
Unreal Engine Melbourne is Epic's largest user group in Australia with over 250+ members. The meetup provides events such as technical talks, networking events and launch parties:
meetup.com/unreal-engine-melbourne
Epic Games provides official sponsorship through event assistance and supplying promotional merchandise such as NVIDIA Shield consoles, signage and assistance with promotion on their social channels.
Epic Games also provides Skype / Hangouts talks to get feedback, to see how they can better support the group, or just chat in general.
Media Attention & Publications
I thoroughly enjoy interacting with media and communities, especially when providing advice on how to break into game development and on topics such as STEM diversity. Here's a sample of that:
Sledgehammer Games / Activision
Sledgehammer Games and Activision did a developer spotlight highlighting my work as a Core Engineer, and detailed my story of how I got into the games development industry.
Epic Games & the Unreal Engine website
I wrote a guest blog post for the Unreal Engine website on using analytics for mobile titles: focusing on best practices for analytics and the process behind setting it up.
Game Connect Asia Pacific (2019)
Presentation I gave at Game Connect Asia Pacific, Australia's premier game developer conference a part of Melbourne International Games Week.
This presentation covers a variety of engineering practices used at Sledgehammer Games both pre and post-launch for Call of Duty: WWII to ensure the best possible experience for both the players and the development team.
Kotaku
2K Australia closed its doors after the release of Borderlands: The Pre-Sequel!
I helped organize a community effort to help those affected by providing a public Google doc where members of the community posted job listings for those the talented developers who were now out of work.
RMIT University
RMIT University featured me as their primary marketing asset for their Computer Science course.
Good Game Spawn Point
I appeared on national Australian television on the critically acclaimed Good Game: Spawn Point TV show for a developer interview.
The interview covers my work history, my recently launched title Smog Game onto the App Store and tips for budding game developers to get into the industry.
Awards & Recognition
I've been lucky enough to pick up some awards along the way! Here are some listed below:
Finalist, Victoria 2017
Winner, Australia 2015
2nd Place - Smog Game, Sri Lanka 2015
Winner - Smog Game, Australia 2014
Winner - Smog Game, Australian STEM Challenge 2014
Winner - Smog Game, Australia 2015
Winner - Smog Game, Victoria 2015
Honorable Mention, International 2014
Personal Projects
Some commercial and non commercial personal projects I've worked on!
iPhone/iPad endless runner.
Smog Game is a color matching, eco-themed endless runner for the iPhone/iPad.
GLSL audio responsive desktop wallpaper
A small abstract audio responsive 'speaker' for your desktop created in HLSL for the Wallpaper Engine Steam Workshop. It now has over 6,000 downloads!
Crank up your favourite tunes, sit back and relax.
Popular Steam Workshop weapons for Garry's Mods 'Trouble in Terrorist Town' mode
For a weekend project, a friend and I co-created some custom Steam Workshop weapons for Garry's Mods.
The Silent AWP and Backstab Knife, which have custom gameplay mechanics and art assets, promote the "Vanilla" tenants of patience and stealth in the social deduction 'TTT" game mode.
The weapons are highly rated and now have over 10,000 downloads between them.
Contact me
CALL OF DUTY © 2022 Activision Publishing, Inc. ACTIVISION
Rugby League Live 4 artwork © 2016 Big Ant Studios and Tru Blu Entertainment.