About
Disclaimer: You are entitled to just scan read this essay, it’s pretty boring actually. I even marked keywords in bold for your convenience!
Otherwise here is my CV if you’re interested: Attila Malarik’s CV.
*takes a deep breath…*
So where did the nickname come from? The ‘indy‘ part happened, because I was nuts for SGI’s (then) totally kickass workstation with the same name; the numbers got added after each other when I had to realize just how many other people got the same idea for a nick on the Internets. Eventually it stuck to me and I guess it would be difficult now to get rid of it. Plus I can be usually pretty sure it’s not taken, when I register for the n+1st web2.0 service…
Otherwise I’m called Attila (yes, like The Hun, I got a mug with my name on it too!) and I spent my childhood in this small village in Hungary, not too far from the capital. Good times. I was exposed to foreign languages fairly early, starting with German and spent a few summers of my elementary school years in Germany, as an exchange student.
I got my first computer -a Commodore 64- roughly at the same time I learned reading (which became a very handy talent to use said computer). Soon I was programming away, either working on my own little programs, or typing in code listings from magazines (paper based of course, there was no Internet back then).
I spent my high school years in a town much closer to Budapest, where I was in this awesome class. As shocking as it may sound (if you look at me now) I even had dance lessons then; I think there is a video of my high school prom somewhere. That was also, where I got most of my English lessons (beside all the music, movies, cartoons and all the other things that flooded Hungary after the wall came down). Oh and I was a Commodore Amiga “enthusiast” and I became interested in motion graphics; I cannot tell you how much I hated PCs, but that changed later…
After finishing high school there was no doubt, that I have to study something computer related, so I went to the university named after the father of holography, Dennis Gabor. That’s where the games industry got me and soon I was working full time on some pretty interesting (and very much cancelled) projects. Oh, that was also the time I began to learn Japanese, which started out as the love of anime, manga and video games of course and evolved into a general interest in Japanese culture.
Beside work I did some Unreal modding, which fortunately got further than the modelling of an AK47… Seriously people, most every mod starts out with some cliché weapon model. Don’t we have enough of those already?
Aaanyway, in 2004 the modding work took me abroad and scored me a job in Vienna, as a Level Designer for that infamous game. I lived there for about 2 years, and met some amazing people from all over the world. I’d say the name Rockstar fit fairly well in a lot of ways. This is also where I started to shoot lots of photos, with my first digital point and shoot.
After the closing down fiasco my work took me even further away from home and I ended up in rainy England and became a Technical Designer Ninja. Having spent two years here I have to say, that most of the stereotypes are true, good or bad. Again I’ve met more amazing people and I have worked on some pretty cool stuff here.
I also switched to Mac from PC when I came to England, as well as I got into photography much more seriously (both of which hobbies have a tendency of being expensive).
Lately I’m contemplating world domination and to get more sunshine, which would probably be easier if I wouldn’t have a monitor or camera stuck in front of my face most of the time…
OK, this got waaay too long, if you’ve read this far you have too much free time on your hands…
