Samy Duc

I am a Game Developer.

Respawn Parking Lot Feb. 2026

Nowadays, I’m a Principal Technical Director (principal btw) on a live-service FPS. My role involves tackling technical or organizational challenges, mentoring internal talent to take over once resolved, and then moving on to the next issue. Rinse and repeat. It’s a very fun gig.

As a young fresh French teenager, I did not think it was possible to make a career in games so I studied EE and Networking. Think 8 bits microcontroller, low-power, ZigBee and wireless shenanigans. I always wanted to be a tinkerer. I am interested in making the technology, not integrate it. My Master Degree project was in trains. We had to prove that we could setup a full mesh network, from the tail to the head of the train, to gather sensor data. I also worked in white rooms and anechoic chambers. I look at my industry experience fondly. I still do electronics as a hobby with some esp32 and a 3d printer.

In my youth I mostly played at my grand parents on Amiga 500, mouse and keyboard, plugged on a TV. If there is one thing to remember: SpeedBall 2. I completely skipped consoles and went straight to PC where I would 1v1 against my cousin in direct cable and IPX. It was the Total Annihilation, Fallout, Half-Life and Imperium Galactica II generation (1997, 1998). What a time to play video games. I was also an avid reader of the magazine Joystick.

I started programming late, around 18, despite being a Slackware and FreeBSD user. I was already a snob running blackbox on Windows. My first program was a mastermind game in Python. I remember exactly where I was, when it was because I knew a new world just opened to me. I felt a similar thrill later when I began understanding spoken English. At the time, my English was non existent. I pushed myself to learn it around 21, watching the first 3 seasons of Lost without subtitles. I barely understood anything, except for the Korean character’s line which had subtitles.

I program every day to this day, it is my passion.

I worked at Ubisoft Annecy, The Coalition Microsoft and Respawn Electronic Arts. Check my game Credits.