Marius Petcu, Developer in Bucharest, Romania
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Marius Petcu

Verified Expert  in Engineering

Front-end Developer

Bucharest, Romania

Toptal member since August 26, 2021

Expertise
Game DevelopmentFull-stackNode.jsWeb DevelopmentJavaScriptReact.jsC++LuaCReduxTypeScriptGitMacOSOpenGL
Bio

Marius is a developer who knows the web—both front and back end—and is familiar with the ins and outs of the JavaScript ecosystem, particularly Node.js, TypeScript, and React. Marius is also comfortable with native development, more specifically game technologies like C++, OpenGL, and Lua and with iOS/macOS development. A career highlight is when Marius co-founded his own indie game development studio.

Portfolio

Critique Gaming
Lua, Defold, Unreal Engine, C++, GLSL, Visual Studio Code (VS Code), Firebase...
Kamua
React, Flow, MobX, Material UI, HTML, YAML, JavaScript, ECMAScript (ES6)...
DocProcess
JavaScript, Flow, React, React Redux, Material UI, HTML, YAML, Figma, Redux...

Experience

  • Node.js - 7 years
  • React - 6 years
  • Computer Graphics - 5 years
  • Lua - 5 years
  • React Redux - 4 years
  • React Native - 3 years
  • Defold - 3 years
  • TypeScript - 2 years

Availability

Part-time

Preferred Environment

MacOS, Vim Text Editor, Git, Node.js, Lua, TypeScript

The most amazing...

...thing I've made recently is a narrative design DSL with a parser, static types, syntax, and linting for Atom, VS Code, and Vim that transpiles to Lua.

Work Experience

Founder | Lead Developer

2015 - PRESENT
Critique Gaming
  • Architected and programmed most of Interrogation, a mid-sized video game written in Defold and released on macOS, Linux, Windows, iOS, Android, and Nintendo Switch.
  • Wrote Fuior, a narrative design domain-specific language that transpires into Lua. It also involves grammar, code generation, Visual Studio Code, Vim, Atom syntax and linter plugins, static types, and a C codebase.
  • Architected and programmed most of The Gods are Fickle, a tactical turn-based video game developed in Unreal Engine 5, which involved Node.js and Unreal multiplayer deployment.
  • Built a hybrid Defold-React front end and Node.js back end for a psychological research-and-therapy game that we were hired to make.
  • Contributed, maintained, and supported several open-source plugins and integrations in the Defold ecosystem.
  • Built various tooling for the rest of the development team, such as a React Redux-based level editor for Interrogation's conversational puzzle content.
  • Taught and coordinated a junior developer on Defold projects.
  • Developed several interactive React projects as work for hire.
  • Took part in the management and executive decision-making.
Technologies: Lua, Defold, Unreal Engine, C++, GLSL, Visual Studio Code (VS Code), Firebase, iOS, MySQL, PostgreSQL, Game Development, Unreal Engine 5, Game Design, HTML, D3.js, 3D, C, Linux, Full-stack, Android, Mobile, Amazon Web Services (AWS), JavaScript, Redux, ECMAScript (ES6), REST APIs

Senior Front-end Developer

2018 - 2019
Kamua
  • Built the front end for an online video editor with React, Flow, MobX, and Material-UI.
  • Tested and debugged cross-browser compatibility especially with respect to audio and video handling.
  • Continuously evaluated and optimized browser performance during the development process.
Technologies: React, Flow, MobX, Material UI, HTML, YAML, JavaScript, ECMAScript (ES6), REST APIs

Senior Front-end Developer

2017 - 2018
DocProcess
  • Led the development of a React front end for an orders and invoice processing solution.
  • Coordinated with another junior front-end developer, a UX designer, and a team of back-end engineers.
  • Set up CI/CD and API mocks. Wrote documentation and various tooling.
Technologies: JavaScript, Flow, React, React Redux, Material UI, HTML, YAML, Figma, Redux, ECMAScript (ES6), REST APIs

Full-stack Developer

2014 - 2015
Learn Forward
  • Architected and developed a Node.js tool and front end for an HTML5 textbook compiler.
  • Built a mobile app with web technologies that presented landmarks on a map for a local tourism association.
  • Coordinated with a team of three other developers using tools such as GitHub Issues and Git.
  • Managed releases of the above-mentioned projects.
Technologies: Node.js, Web, Gulp, Cordova, JavaScript, CoffeeScript, CSS, HTML, Three.js, 3D, YAML, Full-stack Development, Full-stack, Mobile, ECMAScript (ES6), REST APIs

Founder | Developer

2010 - 2013
Porkholt Labs!
  • Wrote a cross-platform (iOS, Android, OS X, and Linux) 2D/3D OpenGL game engine from scratch along with various demo apps and two playable platform games.
  • Built an iOS jailbreak tweak and app (LivePapers) that allows users to have highly configurable custom animated wallpapers on their home screens (created with the above-mentioned engine). This involved reverse-engineering Apple's SpringBoard code.
  • Provided customer and tech support for LivePapers for over one year.
Technologies: C++, OpenGL ES, Lua, GLSL, Objective-C, Cocoa Touch, Game Development, 3D

The Gods are Fickle

https://store.steampowered.com/app/2065780/The_Gods_Are_Fickle/
Architected and led development for an Unreal Engine turn-based tactical game with trading cards and rogue-lite elements. Handled game logic, UI, dialogue, multiplayer (Node.js and Unreal Engine server), AI, etc. Led a team of two other devs on this project.

Interrogation

https://interrogation-game.com
A commercial video game released on desktop, mobile, and Nintendo Switch platforms and built in Defold.

I did most of the programming and some of the UI design and animation for it. I also built tooling, e.g., a narrative design DSL for visual-novel-like conversation scenes and a React/Redux-based level editor for conversational puzzle content.

Fuior

https://github.com/critique-gaming/fuior
I built a Turing-complete DSL designed for narrative design to be used by a team of writers. Fuior has a pure-C compiler that transpiles Fuior code to Lua. Also, I created a Defold (game engine) plugin that integrates Fuior with a game and syntax and linting plugins for Vim, VSCode, and Atom.

SmartSous

http://smartsous.com/
I wrote the client-side (React Native), the data collection I/O (Node.js), and the embedded firmware (Arduino with AVR C) for a cooking-related IoT project for a customer.

The goal was to log wireless temperature sensors in a sous-vide vat to ensure food safety standards were met. This had to be done in an offline environment (cruise ship) with very occasional phoning home.

Kamua

https://kamua.com/
I wrote front end for a web-based AI-assisted video editor, which would automatically track a subject and crop video (both in aspect ratio and length) for various social media formats. One particular challenge was ensuring video behaves the same across different browsers and platforms.
2013 - 2017

Bachelor's Degree in Computer Science

Universitatea Politehnică București - Bucharest, Romania

Libraries/APIs

Node.js, React, React Redux, OpenGL ES, REST APIs, MobX, Three.js, D3.js, React Native for Web

Tools

Vim Text Editor, Git, Flow, Gulp, Figma

Languages

Lua, TypeScript, C++, JavaScript, HTML, C, ECMAScript (ES6), Objective-C, GLSL, CSS, Embedded C, Python, Lisp, Swift, CoffeeScript, YAML

Frameworks

Defold, Redux, React Native, Material UI, Unreal Engine, Cocoa Touch

Platforms

Web, MacOS, Arduino, iOS, Visual Studio Code (VS Code), Mobile, Firebase, Linux, Bluetooth Low Energy (LE), Android, Amazon Web Services (AWS)

Paradigms

Compiler Design

Storage

MySQL, PostgreSQL

Other

Game Development, 3D, Full-stack, Computer Graphics, Unreal Engine 5, Full-stack Development, Compilers, Networking, Linux Kernel Programming, Digital Electronics, Embedded Software, Cordova, Game Design, Atmel AVR

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