Hello, I'm Vincent!
Hi there! I'm Vincent Martineau, and I've been a programmer for, well, quite a long time now. My journey began just after the dot-com bubble burst—which, let's just say, was not the most ideal timing. Back then, I was intending a Master's degree in AI with the goal of exploring neural networks, but a few folks advised against it, saying it was "bad research." With hindsight, I think they might've been a little off the mark.
Instead, I went straight into the working world, and somehow, I ended up in the video game industry—18 years ago, to be exact. I started out making games for mobile phones back when typing a single word felt like a real challenge. These were the days before "smart" was even part of the phone vocabulary. From there, I moved to consoles, building bigger and bigger games, all fueled by curiosity, a love of innovation, and a passion for technology-meets-creativity.
What I'm Into Now
Even though my roots are in traditional game programming, my true interests lie in deep learning and data science. Yeah, I know, it sounds like I'm the kind of guy who thinks we can "measure fun." And honestly, I am that guy. I think it's totally possible—well, at least somewhat—to have a set of metrics that help us understand what makes games enjoyable. Of course, fun is subjective, but if you're designing a racing game, I think we should be able to measure whether we're getting closer to what players want based on actual data, not just someone's biased opinion in a meeting room. This fascination with understanding players and the fun factor is what drew me to machine learning and data science.
Why This Blog Exists
So why a blog? Well, I love computer science in general, and I'm always exploring new algorithms and ideas. This blog is a bit of technical therapy for me. I often face challenges at work or in my hobbies that lead me back to some fundamental concepts to see how they can be adapted to solve new problems. I usually jot down my thoughts on a notepad or whiteboard, but, unsurprisingly, I end up losing them. My hope is that by writing things down here, I'll not only keep track of them better but maybe help someone else in the process—or even get some feedback (I love a good critique, as long as it's well-written!).
Expect lots of small discoveries, nuggets of technical insight, and musings on machine learning and game development. And don't worry, I'll keep things light and fun!
Let's Connect
If you're into AI, machine learning, or just want to chat about game development, feel free to drop me a line via email. I'm always up for networking, sharing ideas, and collaborating on cool projects.