Coconut Lizard welcomes Dovydas Šimoliūnas, Graduate Programmer to the team!

Please detail a bit of information about your experience/career background?

I came from Lithuania to the UK to do a general Computer Science degree at Newcastle University. Initially, I intended on being a Software Developer as I didn’t know much about what choices are out there. However, in my second year of university I was fortunate enough to get a year-long industry placement as a Programmer in a games company. After that year I knew that I wanted to pursue this career path further and changed my degree to an integrated master’s in Games Engineering.

Why Coconut Lizard?

Before Coconut Lizard came into our university to do a talk about their company, I was not aware of work-for-hire game companies. They seemed like a great company and I decided to apply after hearing about what they do, and realising about the wide variety of experience I could get working for them.

What do you love about games?

My favourite thing about video games is probably the escapism of it all. I quickly get immersed into whatever game I’m playing and don’t even notice the hours go by. That’s a big reason why I don’t let myself play them if I have a deadline coming up, haha. Though this mostly affects single player story games.

What games are you currently playing, and what is your favourite game?

I am a big fan of single player story games. Especially those that either give me a challenge or are a bit goofy/edgy. My favourites that are coming to mind right now are Elden Ring and Dark Souls 1. These are the games that I keep coming back to along with games like Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance and the Yakuza series.

I recently got the platinum trophy in Elden Ring, so I decided it’s time to put it down and start going through my backlog of games. With Budokai Tenkaichi 4 being announced recently, I have started DBZ: Kakarot and am having a fun time with it.

Any fun facts or hobbies?

This year I got into playing Dungeons & Dragons with my university’s tabletop society. I wish I had discovered it earlier in my university life because it is so much fun.

My flatmate and I also started collecting board games this year and are inviting a bunch of our friends to our flat to hang out and play some. We do this every couple of weeks and it is a great way to have a bunch of our friends from different circles meet each other and hang out.

As for less day-to-day things - I enjoy travelling and seeing other countries as well as playing sports, like Table Tennis, Badminton, or Basketball.