Elie Harfouche

About me

I was born/grew up in: Lebanon

I now live in: Laval, QC, Canada

I completed my training/education at: Computer Science at McGill University

What I do at work

I worked as a game play programmer with a team of 7 others to create the elements of a video that players interact with. This includes everything from what you can control to making the enemies fight and try to beat you. My day to day tasks involve programming and math to make our ideas a reality. However, more importantly, we spend a lot of time collaborating with the different people on the project (artists, designers, musicians) to make sure we are creating a fun game for players to enjoy.

My career path is

I have always wanted to work in video games, but until CEGEP I was unsure of how to make my dream a reality. At the end of high school, I enrolled in a computer science and math program at Vanier College and began to learn how to code. Outside of my classes I started watching videos on how to make games, and going to game development events. I continued doing so in university, which allowed me to intern at two different game development studios. Now I love to help teach others how to express themselves and make the games that they would love.

I am motivated by

The most exciting part of my job, is to see what I program come to life on screen. Being able to create something unique that I can share with potentially millions of people around the world is a powerful feeling. However, more importantly, I hope that my work can be used by someone to escape their everyday life into another world where they can have fun.

How I affect peoples’ lives

Game Development allows me to express my creativity in ways that I can't otherwise. I can bring any world I can imagine to life through code. In doing so, we create experiences which would be otherwise impossible to have in real life.

Outside of work I

In my spare time I love to play games (surprise!), shoot pictures, cook, and bike! I also love trying out new food, traveling to new places and meeting new people, because it's the most fun way to learn about the world.

My advice to others

Don't be intimidated by what you don't know, struggling and failing are natural parts of learning.