It's time for the next entry in our "Meet the Team" series. Today we are introducing the leader of the console team, Andras. He was kind enough to answer some questions and provide a glimpse into the world of our in-house console porting division which has been working on the PlayStation and Xbox versions of our games, their current project being King Arthur: Knight's Tale.

Let's get to know Andras a bit better, shall we?

Can you tell us about your job at NeocoreGames?

I’m the leader of the console team. My most important task is to help the team so they can focus on what they do best – porting games to consoles. So, I ensure the team can work without obstacles and in a safe and happy environment.

How many people work on porting the games to consoles, what are the individual tasks required?

About ten people are working on console ports at NeocoreGames, sometimes fewer, sometimes more. The two most important parts of porting are perhaps creating the user experience with easy-to-use controller and GUI, and graphics coding including performance optimization.

What are some of the recurring challenges with the console versions and how do you overcome them?

What runs flawlessly on a high-end PC, may not even start on a console. Optimizing fidelity and speed is a delicate process on consoles. Sometimes it takes a long time to figure out, for example, why a map is running slowly or why black artifacts appear on another one. Fortunately, we work with some super talented GFX coders, who help us make the game look great and run smoothly.

Do you have any interesting stories about development? 

We’ve released World of Van Helsing: Deathtrap on Xbox One and PlayStation 4 a few years ago and it was a relatively easy and straightforward development. However, a few months after the PlayStation 5 console was released, we started to receive bug reports that certain players didn’t get the virtual currency they bought in the store. We simply couldn't reproduce this issue on our side. We tried everything, even contacted Sony support, but nothing helped. After weeks of trial and error, we figured that the PS5 system was basically too quick for the game code we wrote originally for PS4 and that was the reason for some package loss. We had to slow down the code a bit, and then buying virtual currency for Deathtrap worked fine again for PS5 users. This was quite a facepalm experience for us. :)

What did you do before NeocoreGames?

I’ve studied psychology at the university, but never worked as a psychologist. I started working in the gaming industry in my final university year at Ernő Rubik’s gaming company and have worked at several Hungarian game companies since then.

What do you do when you’re not working? Any interesting hobbies?

Besides playing games on consoles, I like all kinds of sports like running, biking, strength training, martial arts, tennis, etc. Yeah, I know, it’s a lot of sports...  I also like reading and watching sci-fi.

What are some of your favorite things you’d like to mention?

I really like the Culture series from Iain M. Banks and many classics from Isaac Asimov, Philip K. Dick, William Gibson, or Robert A. Heinlein to name just a few. If I’m not reading sci-fi, I opt for Jenő Rejtő, a great Hungarian writer with unique humor.

Tell us something cool about yourself!

I have a wife and two big daughters whom I love. Family is very important in my opinion; you should spend as much time as you can with your loved ones.