Every great journey starts with great people, and ours began 25 years ago.
As part of our 25th anniversary celebrations, we’re interviewing some of the people who helped shape Gameloft into what it is today.
Today, we're ending our series with lead programmer Dragos Iftimi, one of Gameloft Bucharest’s very first employees. Learn how his career evolved over the years, what gaming meant to him at 25, and the proudest moment of his long journey with the studio.
Where were you at 25?
The year was 2000 and I was working at Ubisoft Romania in the beginning of that year. But in March, a fresh new project spawned from Ubisoft, and it was named Ludiwap. In Bucharest, it started with only three developers, including me. In a few months, Ludiwap transformed into Ludigames and then Gameloft, and the rest is history.
What were you playing at 25?
Pretty much all the games I could get my hands on. There were some favorites, of course, like Counter-Strike, Bomberman, Starcraft, Warcraft, and a ton of adventure games. It was an interesting era for PC gaming, and the 3D graphic cards revolution was just starting with the first proper GPUs from Nvidia, which challenged the VoodooFX line.
Why gaming?
I went to a computer science high school in the early ’90s, and once I discovered computers, everything changed. I got a Sinclair ZX Spectrum variant, and I started playing games. Pretty soon, I started toying with making my own experiments, first in Basic, then in Assembly, and then C/C++ during high school. This continued during my time at the Faculty of Automatic Control and Computer Science, and the chosen path was already set.
Most important advice?
Follow your passion and always try to improve yourself.
Proudest moment?
I was the lead developer for the first full 3D game on a mobile device, Brother in Arms 3D.
Favorite genre?
First-person shooters followed by RPGs in a very close second. In general, I like large open-world games with freedom of exploration and immersive worlds.
Favorite game?
The Half-Life series is first. It was groundbreaking when it launched, and it’s still is one of the best game series ever. Then the Fallout series.
