I am
Evan Samuel Mickelson

I am a new grad Computer Science and Economics major from Brown University, and I am well-versed in software engineering and product management. I am also a passionate game developer and musician. This website exists as a place for employers to see my experiences and for me to show off my software, music, and thoughts in a centralized place.


As a participant in Capitalism, I seek gainful employment. My latest attempt was from May to August of 2024. I am happy to say that, thanks to the purchasing of V-bucks from the credit cards of millions of parents worldwide, I was employed at Epic Games as a "Gameplay Programming Intern," where I worked on Fortnite Festival using Unreal Engine and C++ on the Harmonix team.


From June to November of 2023, I worked at 2K Games as a "Software Engineering, Product Management Intern" (a bit of a mouthful, I know). There, I helped analyze the onboarding experience and costs of their backend services used across 2K's titles by incorporating them in my own Unreal projects, talking to customers, and undergoing market research.


At Brown University, I am part of the executive board for Brown RISD Game Developers. During my time there, I have contributed to the development of five video games, helped manage our yearly average of roughly 100 students, and taught other students how to use Unity and Unreal effectively. I have also been a TA for two computer science courses, Computer Graphics, and 2D Game engines.


The website you are seeing was made by *yours truly* using Next JS with Tailwind CSS. You can find the code for it Here

Technical Skills Overview

I have been programming and creating games since before high school, and thus have a deep understanding of applied programming practices and experience with a wide range of languages. Here are some languages and tools I am familiar with, and where I made use of them.

  • Unreal Game Engine:
    • Worked on Fortnite Festival at Epic Games (Fortnite's Guitar Hero gamemode). Extensively used C++, Blueprints, and many of Unreal's other features to create cheats, fix bugs, and to improve the developer and user experience
    • At 2K games, used the engine to explore the onboarding process for their internal games backend services.
    • Taught the engine to 30 teenagers while camp counselling at iDTech summer of 2022.
    • Developed small game projects with it, including US(F)PS (an package themed FPS), a VR map for the game Pavlov, and a VR campfire simulator game.
  • Go:
    • Implemented the RAFT distributed dictionary protocol for a distributed systems course.
    • Using Go for the backend of a news headline and summarizing website "The Headliner." Handling web scraping, server-side rendering, API handling, and database access.
  • React, TypeScript, CSS:
    • Used React and TypeScript along with Next.js for this website.
    • Used React for school projects in a software engineering course.
    • Built the frontend for a project in Brown's Entrepreneurship Club using React.
  • C++:
    • In Computer Graphics, built a real-time renderer (using OpenGL), a software raytracer, and a paint application.
    • In Computer Networks, implemented IP and TCP protocols with virtual router and host nodes.
    • For a joint final project between the two classes, created a multiplayer Quake clone with a custom ECS and game client-server architecture. Worked with 2 others on physics, rendering, gameplay, and networking systems.
    • In a Computer Systems course, built Snake with custom levels, added page table features and security to WeenseyOS (a Unix-like OS project), and implemented a key-value store all in C++ ("C with classes" style).
  • Unity Game Engine and C#:
    • Used Unity for over 6 years, releasing 6 projects online and building over a dozen prototypes and smaller projects.
    • Gained deep understanding of Unity, C#, and object-oriented programming practices.
  • Godot:
    • Lead programmer for Origami Bird Battle with Brown-RISD Game Developers.
    • Programmed, designed, and architected the game and its systems, while mentoring 10 other programmers of varying skill levels in Godot.
    • Built additional prototypes using the engine.
  • Python:
    • Implemented the PageRank algorithm for a data structures and algorithms course.
  • Java:
    • Built a Wolfenstein-like rendering engine.
    • TA’d for a 2D game engines course, assisting with programming, design, and debugging.
    • Created the backend for a course planning website as part of a software engineering course.