While there's a lot of information about me on the internet and in my CV, here is a small autobiography for those who wish to get to know me a bit better.
I was born in April 1995, and from an early age, I wasn't happy with the identity I was assigned, and so spent most of those early years jumping between various fleeting identities just to avoid the one I was given. At age 6, I was diagnosed with Aspergers Syndrome, a form of Autism. My family celebrated it, and said that "All it means is that your brain is wired a bit differently, you might take longer to do some things, but you'll still manage." During these early years, specifically at some point after getting a Sega Master System II, I also began to develop a desire to make games.
At the age of 11, I started attending a specialist autistic school. Before going, my confidence was at an all time low, and ever since going there, I've been hundreds of times happier, and millions of times more confident. I also developed skills I never thought I would have. Around this time, I also began taking an interest in the furry fandom, and began developing my fursona, an anthropomorphic blue fox known as Fox Chaotica. I quickly adopted this name as a nickname.
At age 18, I finished attending the school for autism, and began the process of legally changing my name to Fox Chaotica, after calling myself that for about 6 years. I went to Cleveland College of Art and Design, and my legal name change was complete about a week into my first year.
At CCAD, I began initial steps for chasing my dream job. I learned a few various art programs, I developed my initial programming skills in my spare time, and began accumulating an extensive knowledge of video games. This all accumulated in my final major project at CCAD: the mock-up game demo Paradoxical. After those 2 years at CCAD, I passed with a D*D*D [Triple Distinction Double Star] grade, and was accepted into Teesside University on the Computer Games Programming course, one step closer to achieving my dream.
In Nov 2015, while at university, I got the opportunity to take a supervised Mensa test consisting of two papers, and two weeks later in December, I recieved the results: a score of 130 [top 10%] on the Cattell III B Scale, and a score of 140 [top 1%] on the Culture Fair Scale. A score in the top 2% on either test is the requirement to pass, and as such, I was invited to be a member of Mensa.
Since the start of 2016, I began developing my passion for retro gaming, and began collecting retro consoles and games. During May 2017, I started streaming on Twitch.tv, with a channel I call "The Mainframe", showing off my collection of games and consoles. On Apr 14 2018, through a bit of random luck, I was given the chance to become a Twitch affiliate.
Through 2018 and 2019, I developed my own solo game, Kryptic, in my spare time, which released in Jun 2019. I also passed my course at Teesside University, securing myself a BSc in Computer Games Programming. I didn't get the grade I was hoping for due to various factors including stress from an ex-girlfriend I was dating at the time, and some tutors not explaining things clearly enough for me to understand, but I'm still ultimately happy I passed.
In Oct 2019, through a lucky break, I got headhunted and subsequently employed by Tanglewood Games, and immediately started working alongside The Indie Stone on Project Zomboid. In August 2023, my contract with Tanglewood Games came to an end, and The Indie Stone offered me a new contract to continue my work on Project Zomboid.
Throughout all of this, starting from 2006, I was coming up with various ideas and concepts for my fursona and the world they lived in. This kept growing and growing, gathering influences from sources like Sonic The Hedgehog, Super Mario Galaxy, Doctor Who, Digimon, Tron, and The Matrix, to name a few. "An anthropomorphic blue fox" developed into "An alien species that visually appear like anthropomorphic creatures", "The world they lived in" developed into "The universe they live in", and, most importantly, "my fursona" became "me". I finally opened this up to the public and shared my work, titled The Glichan Race, which is still being worked on to this day.
Having worked on it for over 19 years, the Glichan Race is my life's work and a core part of my identity. It has even made the occasional cameo in other works I've been involved with.
I firmly believe that life should be enjoyed as much as possible, and my attitude reflects that, being playful, and having a laugh whenever possible, while still being serious when needed. I love solving problems and puzzles, and always look for things to challenge my capabilities.
I have dabbled a small bit in HTML, CSS and JavaScript in my time at college, learned and progressively sharpened my skills with C++ and C# at university. and learned Java and Lua in my time at Tanglewood Games and The Indie Stone. I would consider myself to have a high skill level, but I firmly believe that I can keep improving my skills, and welcome any chance to do so.