zenos career spotlight
meet the team

The Personal Path

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What game sparked your initial curiosity and drove you to become a Technical Artist?

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My all-time favourite games are the Half-Life and Hitman series, and they have truly led me to where I am today. As a passionate gamer and teenager, my curiosity was always sparked by the desire to know what lay behind the inaccessible doors or gates in those games. I was naively convinced there must be some secret way to unlock them. This led me to experiment with map-making tools like Hammer Editor. I recall creating a secret multiplayer map for Half-Life 2 deathmatch where I was the only one who knew the key code to the door. There was a button that led to a flooding of the whole map, which led to killing everyone except the one in the control room - me. That desire to explore and understand the game world by creating it myself was a significant driver in my career path.

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Your journey began as a 3D artist before moving heavily into programming and reverse engineering. What does the day-to-day of a Technical Artist at Zenos actually involve?

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Yes, I began as a 3D artist, focusing purely on 3D map re-creation. In my early career stages, I understood that I needed to look at the end result, the data or the code if it is available. It helps to understand engine or game-specific nuances and see how things should be recreated. Programming was always my side gig during my career, and regarding the Technical Artist role, it is very useful when programming automation tools. Reverse engineering is not only programming, but also a lot of research into the subject. Working on multiple game titles also required understanding community tools and whichever coding language they are written in. In the majority of cases, we modify open-source tools to support our needs.

Day-to-day is different, but also depends on what tasks are at hand. Some tasks are straightforward; they can be done in a few hours, while some can last for weeks and be stuck in a research phase until the required missing data piece is discovered. My work can contain anything from VFX creation to automated map importing tool creation.

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You worked closely with Tim Mcguinness, our CEO, before joining Zenos full-time. What was that initial collaboration like, and what inspired you to come on board officially?

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I always admired Tim because he is a super-fast-thinking CEO, but at the same time, a good developer, which is extremely rare. Our collaboration began when Zenos, then known as Virtex Stadium, wanted to onboard Counter-Strike. At that time, I worked at Skybox, one of my responsibilities was the core visuals of re-created CS:GO and CS2 games.

For Zenos, the challenge was to recreate the same, but a more optimised version of maps in Unreal Engine. Skybox, at the time, was migrating from Unity to Unreal as well. This is where Tim and I collaborated most. When Skybox3D, the product I was working on at Skybox, was cancelled, my position was made redundant. It was a Friday evening, and I got in touch with Tim right after the news broke. He promised a meeting on Monday, where I was offered a full-time position at Zenos.

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The Role & Technical Challenges

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Zenos’s projects require creating 1:1 game twins of major esports titles. What is the single biggest technical hurdle you face in ensuring authenticity?

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The biggest challenge is the data. The data is never simply handed to you; you have to discover or uncover it through decompiling and reverse engineering. In the worst-case scenario, if there is no data, the work must be created manually, which is a very long and tedious process. Without the data, it is a bit harder to match the game 1:1, but it is still possible. Also, dealing with proprietary engines, like the one Street Fighter use, adds complexity, sometimes requiring us to create custom tools because existing ones are insufficient or do not exist. Furthermore, Zenos features, such as different viewing angles, can require visuals that are not created from these perspectives. This requires creating my own interpretation of how the world would look outside those boundaries using tools like Blender or Maya. To keep authenticity, the same game visual style is maintained in these areas or angles.

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You’ve mentioned that automation is key. What is it like seeing the tools you create handle complex processes, and which of our products (Zenos Player, Director, AR, Web) do you contribute to most?

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Yes, automation is really important; it has a big initial cost, but it catches up if we need to do the same or similar thing at least a few times. Seeing our own automation tool transferring something as a game map to our engine by a single button press, especially for the first time, feels magical. Automation handles many objects or tasks at once, which otherwise would have been a very tedious process. 

I have personally worked on content for several game-twins, including League of Legends, Counter-Strike, CS2, Street Fighter, Fortnite, and Rocket League. Since these games contribute content for products like Zenos Player and Director, I collaborate directly on those products' content mostly. 

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Project Highlights & Impact

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What has been your proudest moment or most satisfying project since joining the team?

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It is very hard to pinpoint one moment. I am particularly proud of the fast and efficient development of Street Fighter. We completed the map, characters, VFX, and playback in our player within a few months, despite the proprietary engine. This project was difficult because the main modding community was shut down, meaning all the technical knowledge had disappeared. However, our colleague Manello found crucial archives by using the "Wayback Machine" to figure out how to decompile the game and get the data. On a personal level, I am proud of learning Blender and Python scripting with Zenos’s support, which helped me overcome a long-standing "Maya tunnel vision".

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Zenos’s vision is to change the future of esports. From your perspective, what is the most game-changing aspect of our technology for fans and broadcasters?

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It is the freedom of viewership. Zenos allows the end user to control what they see, offering features like non-possible angles, slow motion, time rewind, and different perspectives, which are unavailable in regular viewing experiences like Twitch and YouTube, or even actual games. Our technology, including VR, AR, and 3D solutions, gives the end user full control over what they see. Our web-based solutions are going to be particularly game-changing because they remove some of the hardware limitations, allowing Mac/Linux users, who might not be able to install Windows-developed software, to be onboarded, potentially bringing new esports viewers.

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Zenos Culture & Future

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Collaboration is essential to what we do. How would you describe the company culture, and how does it compare to your past experience in the often-brutal gaming industry?

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Zenos has a very healthy and easygoing working experience. Despite the challenging tasks, the work is uniquely stress-free and enjoyable. We have well-established co-working activities like donut chats, Friday playtime and monthly jam sessions. We also have a dedicated one-hour lunch break, which allows me to exercise daily. We are a smaller team, and even though we are geographically separated, communication is easy, making people feel reachable, as if they are just a message away. Importantly, Zenos ensures security by not putting "all eggs in one basket," diversifying across multiple games and technologies, which contrasts with the often insecure nature of the gaming industry.

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Looking ahead, what challenge are you most excited to tackle next?

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My biggest anticipation is seeing customers use our solutions, as this is a huge milestone that will provide crucial feedback and help Zenos become a core representative in the esports industry. Personally, I would love to work on PUBG. I know it would be a significant challenge because it runs on a custom Unreal Engine, similar to Fortnite. However, reverse engineering state-of-the-art AAA games allows you to find patterns created by talented developers, which is a great opportunity to learn and see the "secrets" of how they achieve high quality.

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Finally, what is your key piece of advice for someone aspiring to work in Technical Art in the gaming industry?

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You must have a deep passion for playing video games. Game creation is extremely hard and broad, encompassing art, music, programming, narrative, and more. My general career advice is to start early, be curious, creative, and highly disciplined. You need focus to dive deep into development in the modern era of distraction. If you push through the initial hard milestones, you create a "core" that will motivate and push you further in your journey.

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