Martijn Hagenaars on studying game programming at BUas and his internship at Nixxes

What was your journey leading up to BUas? 

Martijn: ‘I have always had an interest in working with computers. During high school, I took ICT and computer programming classes, which I enjoyed and did well in. As I approached graduation, I started exploring study options related to programming.’ 

‘Since I live in Breda, I happened to come across BUas’ game programming course, which felt like a perfect fit. I attended an open day, saw student projects, and was very impressed. BUas also had a strong reputation, and the work produced by students was high quality.’ 

‘Before starting my studies, I had already experimented with Unreal Engine, recreating elements from existing games out of curiosity. Later, I began learning C++, which was necessary for the BUas intake assignment. I spent several months working on a game in C++, learning a lot in the process, which ultimately helped me successfully complete the intake.’ 

Can you describe a project you worked on? 

Martijn: ‘In my third year, I worked on On the Bubble, a custom engine project. Our team spent an entire year building our own engine, focusing on features like path tracing for realistic lighting and a custom physics engine with gravity simulation.’ 

‘At the start of the year, we could choose from several topics, such as projects working with Unreal Engine. However, one of the options was the custom engine project, which immediately caught my attention. I enjoy bringing systems together, so this was the perfect challenge for me.’ 

‘The project itself was quite technical. We had to create a Monkey Ball-style game while also implementing our own physics and rendering systems.’ 

What was your role in this project? 

Martijn: ‘Our team was relatively small, around 12 people. My primary responsibility was creating systems for object management, data loading, and saving within the custom engine.’ 

‘During the first half of the year, only programmers worked on this project. In the second half, designers and visual artists joined. Initially, our focus was purely on building the engine, ensuring that it could support a game. This gave us the freedom to experiment, try new ideas, and learn from trial and error.’ 

‘One of our biggest challenges was the path tracer. It took a long time before it was usable, meaning we couldn’t properly render the game world for an extended period. In hindsight, we should have used a simpler rendering method first and introduced the path tracer later. That was a valuable lesson.’ 

‘Another major achievement was improving the game’s loading times. Just a few days before release, we noticed that it took an unreasonably long time for players to load into a level. We took a risk and implemented a multi-threading system that drastically reduced loading times from minutes to mere seconds. It was a last-minute fix, but it worked perfectly.’ 

Tell us about the game! 

Martijn: 'On the Bubble is a Monkey Ball-inspired game. Players control a ball and navigate through obstacle courses by tilting the level itself rather than directly moving the ball.' 

‘We analysed how the original Monkey Ball games functioned and recreated that experience in our own style. The game features a leaderboard, as well as a level editor that allows players to create and share custom levels online.’ 

Play On the Bubble on Steam: https://store.steampowered.com/app/2707350/On_the_Bubble/ 

What are your future plans? 

Martijn: ‘I started my internship at Nixxes last September and will be working there for a full academic year. It has been an amazing experience so far. I have had the opportunity to work on a project from nearly the beginning to release, which has given me insight into the entire development process. Right now, we are in the release phase, and it’s fascinating to see how everything comes together, including deadlines, marketing, and final preparations.’ 

‘Nixxes specialises in support and porting games, such as bringing PlayStation titles to PC. As a system programmer, I work on both gameplay and engine-related systems, which is very challenging and exciting. Unlike in the project during my third year, where we built everything from scratch, here I work with existing, large-scale engines with massive codebases. Understanding how everything functions and communicates has been an exciting learning experience.’ 

‘April 3rd, The Last of Us Part II releases on PC, a project I have been involved with. It is great to see it finally launch, and I have full confidence in the team’s work.’ 

‘As for the future, I definitely want to continue working in the games industry. How exactly that will take shape, I am not sure yet, but I am excited for what is ahead!’ 

Connect with Martijn 

• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/martijn-hagenaars-493671200/ 
• Portfolio: https://martijnhagenaars.com/