Jarrett Wendt ’19 ’20MS, Senior Software Developer at AMD and FIEA alumnus of Cohort 16. Photography: Ryan Fox
1. Status: Where are you currently working and what projects are you currently working on (if you can share)?
JW: I’ve been working at AMD since I graduated in 2020. I’m part of a team that works on AMD’s DirectX 12 graphics drivers. I like to humblebrag that if you have an AMD graphics card, my code is running on your computer right now. I’ve had the opportunity to work on an exciting breadth of code and projects. We basically get to work on every AAA game before release as we fine-tune optimizations for them. In my day-to-day, I like to focus on general sweeping optimizations to our driver that will impact every game, as well as tools and process improvements to streamline development. I’ve also been assigned to big software feature projects, most recently DirectSR.
2. Noob: Tell us what you did before your time at FIEA. What inspired you to attend FIEA?
JW: I was an undergrad at UCF and planning to start the PhD track in Computer Science immediately after. However, there was just this gloomy, sullen atmosphere over all my peer researchers. I didn’t want to be like that. A friend of mine said they were applying to FIEA, so I took a tour and the atmosphere was completely different. Fun. Upbeat. Creative. I applied right away.
…I took a tour and the atmosphere was completely different. Fun. Upbeat. Creative. I applied right away.
3. PvE: How did FIEA prepare you for the industry?
JW: I came out of undergrad feeling like a master of C/C++. Oh, how naïve I was. Undergrad taught me C, but C++ is a completely different animal. FIEA’s programming curriculum was shockingly thorough in hard programming skills, which are useful anywhere you go.
At AMD it’s kind of like I’m on the other side of a glass wall. I’m not quite in the video game industry, but I’m certainly adjacent to it and witnessing it at all times. With a video game background, my experience with game engine development has given me a unique skill among my peers. This sometimes leads me to better hunches about why a game might behave a certain way when I’m debugging an issue with our graphics card drivers.
4. PvP: Please share any advice you have for current FIEAns as they enter the game development industry.
JW: Know what you’re worth and don’t settle for less. You’re graduating from the No. 1 graduate-level video game school in the world. Be proud and confident of what you’ve achieved. The game dev industry is a uniquely challenging one to make it in, but through teamwork and perseverance you can make waves.
5. AFK: Do you have any recent, interesting personal successes, new hobbies, family updates or activities you would like to share?
JW: I’m always collecting hobbies. Houseplants, gardening, building mechanical keyboards, D&D miniature painting, 3D printing, Arduino programming, repairing vintage electronics, and at least a few more I’m forgetting. I guess the general theme of my hobbies is building/growing things. This is only fitting because my capstone team’s project was Keepers of the Trees, where one of my tasks was to create a vine that the player can grow wherever they want.