| About Me |
It’s been more than 5 years since I’ve started this blog, and as it changed over the years, so was the ‘about me’ information. I’ll try to keep it short and simple, as usual.
| Me |
My name is Ohad Barzilay, I’m a Game Developer and Entrepreneur. I go by the nickname Civax for many years (even before I was introduced to the internet). I work as a game developer and lives not far from Tel Aviv, Israel.
You can see my professional profile on Linked In or contact me on Facebook. Please note I don’t automatically approve friends requests of Facebook. I am, however, always happy to meet interesting new people and others that work in the same fields I do.
| This Blog |
This blog started as a page for my Cloth Simulation project I did when I was an undergrad at the Computer Graphics Research Lab during university. When later I’ve bought a webcam I used this page to upload the recent pictures for family and friends. Not much after I’ve removed the cloth simulation files and started this blog. A about a year after, I’ve stopped using the webcam but kept the blog going.
I’m not really a steady blogger and since I usually write about the Israeli-Arab conflict, I tend to be active during times of terror attacks and war, and be almost completely silent other times. I also realized I’m not fond of the big spotlights too much when I had a brief exposure in the traditional media during the 2nd Gulf war. I was mirroring the blog of the Iraqi blogger Salam-Pax and was spotted by journalists covering his story. I was interviewed to newspapers in Israel, US and Europe as well as interviewed on an American radio show. The attention caused me to stop updating the blog for a while until traffic will go down again.
Today most of my non-conflict related posts are on TV shows (which I don’t watch on TV, really…) and links I post for personal use. I hardly post work-related stuff here, as I run a couple of other sites where that content is much more in place. This blog is not one of the popular one-theme blogs and many of the posts here are personal. Most of my regulars are friends, anyway.
| Computer Graphics |
My main interest in computers is Computer Graphics and Simulations. I have very deep roots in the Demo Scene. I’ve been organizing Demo Parties in Israel between the years 1995-1998, been a co-organizer on Assembly’97 in Finland and have ran a popular scene / game development website - CFXweb - for 3 years. I’m also the Chapter Coordinator for IGDA in Israel.
Research fields that interests me are Simulations of Natural Phenomenons (cloth, water, fire, magnetism etc) and visual representations of A-Life (Genetic algorithms, evolving virtual creatures etc).
My game development experience covers platforms such as PC, Web, mobile and ITV. I’ve programmed on C++, Java, j2me, Symbian, Php and Perl and designed original, independent games as well as games for big brands such as DreamWorks (Shark Tale, Shrek 2 etc) and MGA (Bratz).
| Traveling |
Traveling is another (huge!) hobby of mine, but unfortunately, I cannot practice it often (time and money issues…).
Future destinations may include New-Zealand (and Australia), Canada and the US. I would also like to travel in Iran, though this will probably won’t be possible in the near future… The country I was mostly affected by was by far Ireland, where I fall in love with the land and people. I keep hearing Celtic music and Irish pubs (like the Israeli Molly Blooms) are my favorite. There is no doubt I will return to this wonderful country one day.
I’m a backpacker in soul, and feel uncomfortable when things are too smooth and comfy. I’ve noticed that specially when I visited Prague with Gali, a good friend. I’m also not much of a city tourist. I get bored quickly and wish to be on the road again. I guess I’ll get more comfortable with hotels and smooth travels as I’ll get older, but I’m not that spoiled yet… 
| Other Interests |
I also like to read about various scientific fields (specially anything to do with space exploration), Some SciFi and Fantasy, Mythology, History, Art and Writing. Evolutionary biology and Genetic Engineering are also subjects I find interesting. Of course, this doesn’t really cover all my interests but it’s just what I could come up with at the moment…
I’m also interested in all sorts of creative activities and even some extreme sports. The one I’ve practiced the most is wall climbing (used to do a lot of it, both in Israel and in Scandinavia). As of education, I keep taking courses in university all the time, and I don’t see a time when I will stop learning. There is so much information out there that regardless of degrees, I think I will always be learning something.