About

Since he first put hands on a PC, Catalin knew he wanted to become a programmer, and more so, he knew he wanted to some day create games. The first steps were done in Pascal, followed by a few very small games in Visual Basic.Transition to 3D was done through OpenGL, used over a few years in several languages (C++, Delphi, Visual Basic and Java), and several games came forth. Neither were released for anyone else besides friends and teachers, but the best on the list would include a small RPG, a side-scroller, and a 3D card game made together with some friends. Later, he moved on to Managed DirectX. The excitement of using C# together with Direct3D was soon boosted by news of an upcoming technology from Microsoft named XNA.

Catalin has been involved with XNA Game Studio and the XNA Framework since the first beta version was released on August 30th 2006. In a very short time, he was hooked to XNA Game Studio, and to the great community that gathered around this product. Involvement began with some small samples, showing how one could use Vertex Texture Fetch, and a component that could be used to draw a .swm model (a popular model format in the first beta days ). Soon the www.Xbox360Homebrew.com game competition began, followed by DreamBuildPlay. During these competitions, Quantum Wars, Butterfly Paradise and Dream Sower were developed. The bonds with the community strengthened, and now Catalin is an active member of the Creator’s Club Forums, a regular on #xna (Efnet), and likes to write articles and samples related to XNA.

In April 1st 2008, Catalin was named Microsoft DirectX/XNA Most Valuable Professional for his activity with the XNA community. The title was further renewed on April 1st 2009 and 2010.