Aleksandr Pindyk on Creating, Playing and Writing About Games

This story is a part of Hacker Noon's Meet the Writer series of interviews. The series is intended for tech professionals contributing the most insightful Hacker Noon stories to share more about their writing habits, ideas, and professional background (and maybe a hobby or two). If you too would like to start contributing to Hacker Noon, you can do so here.

So let’s start! Tell us a bit about yourself. For example, name, profession, and personal interests.

Hi! My name is Aleksandr Pindyk. I have been in the gaming industry for over ten years. I love playing games and making games. When I was still in school, I became interested in game development. I created simple games with C++.

After graduating from the university with a degree in computer science, I start a professional game development career. Four years ago, I got carried away with the development of artificial intelligence, and since then, I have been working in this area. I am also fond of robotics, chess, and building everything from Lego with my son.

Interesting! What was your latest Hackernoon Top story about?

This story is about why we use AI in cooperative games and how it helps us create and develop them. It is exciting to talk about how AI allows us to develop games even faster.

Do you usually write on similar topics? If not, what do you usually write about?

I usually write about AI in games, stories like this, and technical stories for developers. Before that, I wrote in my native language, and this is my first article in English :)

Great! What is your usual writing routine like (if you have one?)

I write down the topics that I would like to talk about. And also, what is the main idea of the story. Then, for some time, I collect notes and thoughts on this matter. When I see that there are a lot of notes, I brew delicious tea and write the outline of the article in the form of abstracts. And after that, I am starting writing the main text. After writing, I leave a story for a couple of days. Then I read again, make the last changes, and send for publication.

Being a writer in tech can be a challenge. It’s not often our main role, but an addition to another one. What is the biggest challenge you have when it comes to writing?

The hardest thing is to write a story that would be interesting for developers and everyone who loves the gaming industry. I also try to explain everything I write to my son. He is still small and most likely does not understand me. :) But every time I tell him a story, I see difficult and uninteresting places and correct them.

What is the next thing you hope to achieve in your career?

I want to create an AI that will develop AI for me. It is a joke :) But we are working on it. And besides that, I would like to create such an artificial intelligence that would adapt to the player's actions and help him learn complex games. Another exciting area is artificial intelligence, which allows you to create stories and worlds on the fly for the player, depending on his actions.

Wow, that’s admirable. Now, something more casual: What is your guilty pleasure of choice?

Make another move in Civilization 6, and then understand that it is 4 a.m. :)

Do you have a non-tech-related hobby? If yes, what is it?

I love to play chess and read fantasy and science fiction books. Also, ride a bike and spend time with my family on long journeys by car.

What can the Hacker Noon community expect to read from you next?

I am currently writing an article on how to become an artificial intelligence developer and why it can be an exciting adventure!

Thanks for taking time to join our “Meet the writer” series. It was a pleasure. Do you have any closing words?

Thanks to Hackernoon for the opportunity to talk about artificial intelligence in games and about myself. Let there be more exciting stories, and everyone can find something inspiring!