Oculus VR is known for its groundbreaking hardware, but Ted DiNola is helping the company make strides with its software. As a Developer Relations Engineer, 泰德通过跳入他们的代码库并提供高端技术和设计反馈，与Oculus VR游戏开发者进行一对一的咨询. Ted通过运用他在《十大菠菜台子》中的基础知识和之前的工作经验，将自己的技能和对电子游戏的热情结合起来.

泰德在开始玩科幻冒险游戏时爱上了电子游戏 Homeworld at age 13. 他意识到自己可以使用Lua(一种脚本语言)修改所有游戏关卡. “这是最早让我对游戏制作产生兴趣的游戏之一," he says.

Ted在青少年时期制作了自己的小型Java和Flash游戏. 他获得了物理学的大学学位，但这个领域并没有像游戏那样吸引他. Ted started playing a new game called Sword of the Stars 并通过游戏玩法认识了游戏的创造者Martin Cirulis.

"Being an earnest and ambitious kid, I reached out to him, and I said, 'Hey Martin, 我想我想从事专业游戏制作, do you need an intern?'," recalls Ted.

Martin responded with a resounding yes, Ted飞到温哥华，花了三个月的时间来帮助Kerberos Productions推出他们的 Sword of the Stars expansion. 在该工作室的经历让Ted体验到了游戏行业的职业生涯.

"They had me do a little bit of everything," he says. “我做了一些脚本，试图帮助他们自动化一些设计内容. 我在做一些调试……我在修复他们的一些模型. 我还在早上给马丁泡茶，”泰德笑着说.

当Ted回到美国时，他决定找一个新的本科项目，专注于游戏. Full Sail's Game Development bachelor's fit the bill. 学校以技能为基础的学习立刻开始为他的成功奠定基础.

“关于如何建设性地思考你的系统的很酷的课程, and about design, how to be really good and flexible with your code, and with mathematics, and with algorithms, and stuff like that ... 这些都是将永远伴随着你的关键基础，”泰德说.

泰德是在经济大萧条时期从Full Sail毕业的, 但他利用自己的新游戏开发技能创建了自己的项目. 他利用其中一款游戏成为游戏工作室新潮娱乐的开发总监, 然后帮助Shadow Health创建3D虚拟病人. 之后，他辗转到湾区，为Zynga和PLAYSTUDIOS开发手机游戏.

After that, 在他的职业生涯中，他拥有了更多自由去选择自己所创造的游戏类型.

"I didn't really like social mobile games," he says. "There's this question of, ‘Hey, 游戏设计是有道德的”，你要努力让人们继续玩下去, 花他们的钱花他们的时间一旦你安定下来, and your options are kind of opened up, 作为一名开发者，想想你真正重要的是什么."

Ted离开了社交手机游戏领域，独立开发了几年. 从那时起，他充分利用自己的经验，获得了一个令人兴奋的职位——高级工程师 Funomena, where he worked alongside industry luminaries Robin Hunicke and Keita Takahashi. After a year at Funomena, Facebook找上门来，找他做Oculus VR的开发者关系工程师.

"I got this job I didn't really even know existed ... 他们找到我是因为我一直在这个行业工作, and really just doing my best," Ted says. “现在我的工作不是花一两年时间开发一款游戏，而是开发10款游戏. I'm helping to really work with our internal teams, to try and make our developers have a better time.

他继续说道:“这是一个非常好的游戏节奏变化. "I'm still incredibly involved in the game industry, but also very well-supported, and in the position where I can accelerate stuff."

充分利用Full Sail的学习环境，为Ted职业生涯的头几年做好了准备, 当时他还在摸索如何融入游戏世界. Full Sail的学生如果把目光投向了这个行业，也应该这样做.

“你不会像在工作室工作那样受到限制, where you have either timelines to hit, or budget guidelines to hit, or just ‘Hey, you're a junior, so you're working on somebody else's thing,'" he advises. "So maximize that time to really explore what you can, and really figure out what interests you about games."