Meet The Magnopians: Chris Chavira
Chris Chavira joined Magnopus over six years ago as a software developer. His first project, Mission: ISS, enabled him to challenge his passions - physics and 3D math - to develop the interactive VR experience. Before joining Magnopus, Chris made a name for himself in the games industry, working on Disney’s Infinity series.
What do you do at Magnopus?
I’m a senior lead software engineer. I help lead projects from a technical perspective and guide the engineering team towards goals. I do a whole lot less programming these days and a whole lot more managing.
How did you end up where you are now, what's your backstory?
I started off in the games industry. In the early days, I was working on Disney Infinity, and then I took the leap from the game industry into Magnopus specifically for our Mission: ISS project. Since I had VR experience and was pretty proficient in 3D math and gameplay programming, I landed on my feet. 6, nearly 7 years later, I’m still here!
What's been your favorite project whilst working at Magnopus?
It’s probably because it’s part nostalgic, part sentimentality, but I really had fun working on Mission: ISS. Coming a close second was Coco VR, which was a slightly bigger team and a really fun concept.
For somebody who wants to get into your line of work, what advice would you give them?
In terms of engineering, there’s a lot of problem-solving. People have the misconception that engineering is a lot of math, but in reality, it’s more problem-solving and just a little bit of math. If you enjoy puzzles and solving problems, and you don't get frustrated by them, that's a really good sign that you can pursue programming in general.
If you enjoy working with people and you enjoy helping them grow, that’s a great place to start for a management track. Managing people isn't about being their boss, it's much more about helping them grow into the best people they can be.
Say you didn't get into this line of work, what job would you be doing?
There's two things that I always say that I would have liked to have been. I always thought I’d be a good lawyer - I like getting into arguments and debating semantics. More realistically, I’d probably get into architecture. I really like planning out things so maybe I’d be a good city planner.
Chris’ 3D printed Iron Man helmet has full electronics!
What are you doing when you're not working?
Like most engineers, gaming is my default - I game a lot! I also recently picked up the hobby of 3D printing stuff which is great fun, but a lot of waiting. I built a fully functional Iron Man helmet for Halloween which was two months in the making. The next step for me is learning how to 3D model, so I can actually model something myself and print it
As a gamer, what's your tactic for surviving a zombie apocalypse?
My first question is, what kind of zombies are we dealing with? Because if we're dealing with like Day of the Dead, really slow reanimated corpses, you can get away from them with a light jog. If we're talking about Resident Evil or World War Z zombies that sprint at you, I think that's a little bit harder. I guess my plan in that scenario would be to get in my car and drive somewhere where someone has a better plan than me!
