# About Canonical page: https://gamemathemagics.com/#/about ## Curious and relentless problem solver, always looking to understand the systems behind a problem and then bend them to my will. I am deeply fascinated by anything technical, and mathematics has been the crowbar: it gets me into the systems underneath almost anything, very quickly. From there the job is to abstract that math into a non-technical interface, so the person using it never has to meet any of it. This site is my playground. I love building my insights into tools, and I love solving whole classes of problems rather than one instance of one. Everything under Systems is running live in your browser, so you can go and use it rather than take my word for it. ### What that looks like Distributions ##### Paint the shape you want Draw a payout distribution freehand and watch hit rate and sum hold as invariants, preserved by construction rather than repaired afterwards. Progressives ##### Draw the curve Sketch the progressive hit-rate curve the game should have, and let the contribution rates fall out of it. Volatility ##### One slider Move a single control and watch the volatility of a payout distribution reshape around it, everything else staying where you put it. Pre-determined outcomes ##### Script it, then solve it A template scripter designers use to literally script the player experience for a feature ticket: hold and spins, free games, any variety. A custom-built hierarchical knapsack solver then unwraps that template into an actual paying ticket. Player experience ##### Ask the distribution a question A creative convolutional kernel decomposition turns the player experience into something you can query directly, in the terms a designer actually thinks in: Odds of hitting a hold and spin paying 50× or more, while their bankroll sits between 5× and 20×, before going bust on a 50× bankroll. ### Game mathematics Game mathematics has been my passion for the last year or so, and in that time I have solved a number of the fundamental problems in the space. The reel design problem is the one I am proudest of: a constructive solution that moves the state of the art from heuristic search to closed-form construction. That buys exact metrics and a degree of control over the design experience that simply was not available before. The full argument is in the paper, Existence and Construction of Reel Strips from Mathematical Specifications. ### How I got here It started early. Sophomore year of high school I jumped two or three years ahead of the track, self-studied Calculus BC and passed it, went straight on to Calculus 3, and never really stopped. By the time I got to university the appetite was insatiable: I took every class I could get into, finished all the undergraduate mathematics in two years, and stacked 27 graduate units on top of it, roughly a master’s worth of coursework, at a 4.0. Then I ended up in a pull-tab shop. Arrow International, hired as a junior game mathematician. It did not stay that way for long. - Hired Junior Game Mathematician - Within months Technical consultant in all but title - Then Game Design Systems Engineer, a custom title on a custom career plan, at double my starting compensation - Written in Senior, then Lead Game Design Systems Engineer, with the promotion trigger defined up front None of that ladder existed before. It was drafted as a formal role proposal: a new title, a defined mission, a first-six-months scope and a six-month promotion trigger, written for a role the company did not have. Read the proposal in full. Now I am heading for actuarial work and full credentials. Five exams are already done, SOA P, FM, FAM and SRM plus CAS MAS-1, all inside a year. Instead of making math models, I get to make math models. They are just called insurance products instead of slot machines.