Cameron Owen
20+ years in games, VR, and interactive media. Currently leading engineering on multiplayer VR training simulations at Real Serious Games. Built real-time 3D, VR, and AR products for Coles, Domino's, ANZ, and the Australian Defence Force at Deloitte Digital. Earlier, designed and engineered Cartoon Network titles at Defiant Development. Founded Attract Mode Games, whose racing title won Unity's 'Flash in a Flash' competition and shipped on iOS, Android, and PC.
Skills
- Engineering 20+ yrs
- Design 15+ yrs
- Production 10+ yrs
Experience
Lead Engineer
- Translated design briefs into technical requirements and solution designs
- Delivered prototypes through iteration to fixed-scope, shippable builds
- Built multiplayer training systems supporting facilitator-led sessions with up to 16 simultaneous participants
- Engineered simulated electrical and mechanical systems for safety-critical training
- Delivered cross-platform builds across VR, desktop and WebGL
- Updated and repackaged legacy VR content for modern mobile platforms
Key Projects
- NMTAFE Pump VR Experience
- Multiplayer disassembly and reassembly training
- QLD TAFE Energy VR Training
- Solar PV and electrical systems safety training
- Vehicle Incident Response Training
- First responder vehicle incident scenarios
Senior Engineer — A Township Tale (PC, Quest, Pico)
- Designed 'Ways of Working' for engineering best practices
- Enhanced code quality processes and streamlined build pipeline
- Created platform agnostic framework to streamline porting
- Led Pico VR Headset porting project (internal team)
- Engineered, estimated, and implemented solutions for design briefs
Lead Engineer — A Township Tale (PC, Quest, Pico, PlayStation VR2)
- Established new workflows and mentored team in solution design
- Defined release procedures for live game updates
- Triaged defects and coordinated resolutions with internal teams
- Coordinated PlayStation VR 2 porting (external team)
- Owned technical estimation and design-brief sign-off across the wider team
- Navigated team changes and downsizing
Senior Software Engineer
- Developer and design consultant for the Deloitte Creative Technology team (formerly Well Placed Cactus)
- Led a team from ideation to delivery on key defence (Army & Navy) visualisation and educational projects
- Ground-up bespoke real-time 3D, VR & AR solutions for projects with Coles, Dominos, Belong & ANZ
- Authored and maintained core software libraries to accelerate the team making games and AR/VR apps
- Managed and directed development of the team's internal software stack
- Defined the team's best practice standards from a technical perspective; mentored others to reach them
- Helped grow wider team collaboration between engineers and creatives
Key Projects
- Army, Navy & Defence
- Multiple interactive training projects under NDA
- Airforce – AIMEE
- 3D digital human with AWS AI driven voice interface
- Carbon Thumbprint
- Belong's mobile AR marketing campaign for carbon offset internet services
- Coles Little Shop 2
- Mobile AR rhythm game app for Coles with characters for over 30 brands
- Caydon Display Suite
- Microsoft Surface app + Node JS networking for media casting
- Domino's Pizza Chef
- Unity 3D AR pizza configurator embedded in native mobile app
- ANZ Breakpoint
- Unity 3D + Microsoft Kinect installation
- Hand of Fate Mobile
- Unreleased Unity 3D mobile game
- Honda Fuel Cell
- Microsoft Surface multitouch table installation at LA Auto Show
- Mazda Retail Hub
- A 3D car configurator kiosk deployed across 100+ Mazda dealerships
- ANZ Virtual Garden
- An 11-metre generative garden inside ANZ's Martin Place flagship branch
Game Designer, Software Engineer — Zombie Anarchy (iOS, Android, Windows Store)
- Designed quest, retention, and combat progression systems; produced UX mock-ups for core flows
- Integrated GameSWF with a custom C++ engine for Flash-based UI, built in ActionScript & C++
- Implemented UI across character selection, combat rewards, base building, and shop systems
Director / Co-Founder — Tail Drift (iOS, Android, PC)
- Grand prize winner of Unity's 'Flash in a Flash' competition (2012); seed funded via Right Pedal Accelerator to take the demo to full production
- Engineered core race-track editor, game modes, and vehicle upgrade systems
- Exhibited at IGDC San Francisco & PAX Australia; pivoted from premium to free-to-play post-launch
Software Engineer, Game Designer
- Ben 10 Slammers: designed and built a card game from paper prototype through digital multiplayer proof of concept, including custom tools for card design and automated playtesting
- Ski Safari Adventure Time: redesigned mechanics and art pipeline (3D to 2D), added 8 characters and 3 environments, and led a full UI rebuild including rewards and store systems
Software Engineer, UI — Stormrise
- First job in the games industry: sole developer on the ActionScript/Scaleform UI for a real-time tactics title built for console rather than ported to one
- Left the studio a few months ahead of the March 2009 release
Education & Academia
Sessional Academic, Researcher — Lecturer & Tutor in Interaction Design and Game Design
- Taught topics including aesthetics, narrative, emergent play, embodied media, visual communication, immersion, critical thinking, and visual design
- Co-authored several papers in game design fields
- Co-ordinated and curated community-building events for independent game developers in Brisbane
Referees
Available on request.