Following up with the announcement of Crytek's new VR game, The Climb, we're happy to introduce you to Darío Sancho, Lead Programmer for our Virtual Reality projects.

Name and position

Name: Dario Sancho

Position: Lead Programmer

Why did you want to work in the games industry and how did you get started?

Since I was a kid I always loved science and technology. Yeah, I was a bit of a geek! I remember playing in the arcades when I was 12 or 13 and I was trying to figure out how the developers could put all this awesome stuff into a motherboard. So I knew very early on that I wanted to study a science degree. After playing La Abadia del Crimen, a Spanish video game from 1987 based on the book The Name of the Rose, I decided I wanted to be an engineer, just like the guy who programmed that game :). I enrolled for an Engineering degree, then completed a PhD, and afterwards I started working for Ninja Theory on Heavenly Sword.

What are you working on at the moment? What's first on your to-do list? (That you can talk about)

Right now I am exposing some PS4 controller-specific functionality to game designers and I will soon work on making use of some interesting features from the Oculus SDK to improve the visuals of our UI.

What music do you listen to at work?

All sorts! I mostly listen to alternative music from the 80s-90s-2000s, plus old school rock, heavy metal and punk. I also like classics like Dire Straits, The Doors, The Beatles, The Beach Boys and Silvio Rodriguez.  From time to time, classical music is great to work to. 

What tools are you using at the moment?

Visual Studio 2012 & 2015 for programming in C++, Perforce and Collaborator for version control, and some internal Crytek tools. Also PlayStation 4 Developer Tools, plus lots of documentation on the Oculus SDK :). 

What types of games do you like, and what is your favorite game of all time?

I always loved old-school strategy games such as Civilization and Caesar III. More recently on PS3 I enjoyed Uncharted, and GTA V. On Xbox One I recently played and loved Tomb Raider: Definitive Edition and Shadows of Mordor.

What do you enjoy doing outside of work?

My free time is usually family time :). I like to visit friends, go to new places, playing music, playing video games, and reading books.

Where are you going on your next vacation?

At Christmas we’ll go back to Spain to visit my parents and catch up with some good old friends.

Do you have any tips for people wanting to get started in the industry?

If you want to be a game programmer with a company like Crytek, learn C++ really, really well. Study how a computer functions internally and try to understand how things work under the hood. Read books and blogs, put into practice the things you learn, and code every day. The rest will be easy :)