Jamie Holding

Senior Principal Programmer & Theme Park Data Nerd

VR & games technology · Surrey, UK

about

I've spent over a decade at nDreams shipping VR games and the technology underneath them, from PSVR and Google Daydream launch titles to leading engineering on Phantom: Covert Ops and Ghostbusters: Rise of the Ghost Lord.

Today I work in Core Tech, where much of my job is helping shape architecture, technical decisions and direction across the company. Along the way I've driven studio-wide adoption of DevOps technologies, automated testing, and hiring staff in the engineering, technical art, and production teams.

Outside work I run ThemeParks.wiki, a real-time theme park data platform used by tens of thousands of people every day.

now

nDreams Core Tech

Senior Principal · cross-studio

A small team of domain specialists building the technology every nDreams project shares, so game teams spend their time on the game rather than re-solving the same problems.

  • Performance intelligence. A web service that automatically tracks game performance, capturing hundreds of metrics, screenshots and Unreal Insights captures, plus live performance feedback during playthroughs. A dashboard lets anyone in the team review performance history and spot regressions, and an MCP server lets engineers query the data directly from AI assistants.
  • Device farm. A web service for managing Meta Quest headsets remotely, so automated tests and performance runs happen on real hardware every day.
  • Anti-piracy for Meta Quest. Designed and built protection that safeguarded revenue through the launch window of major titles.
  • VR interaction. Helping architect and debug the studio's migration to a new physics-driven interaction system.
  • Engine ownership. Maintaining nDreams' Unreal Engine fork and merging custom builds from multiple hardware partners.

games

Also contributed to

Titles across nDreams' studios that my work went into.

  • Reach
    • engine support
    • anti-piracy
    • gameplay plugins
  • Synapse
    • build pipeline support
  • Oh My Galaxy!
    • anti-piracy support
  • Wreckin’ Raccoon, Hands, Meat Man, Last Connection
    • engine support
    • build pipeline
    • multiplayer support
    • gameplay plugins

Plus unreleased and work-for-hire projects, including social VR for a major film publisher, local multiplayer on PSVR, a four-player VR arcade shooter, a competitive multiplayer sports title, and a VR port of a BAFTA winning AAA horror game.

the other obsession

ThemeParks.wiki

A 24/7 real-time database of theme park queue times and park data from around the world, with an open API used by tens of thousands of users every day.

Runs on Node.js, .NET, PostgreSQL and Cloudflare across multiple cloud providers.

Used by tens of thousands of unique users every day.

30k+ daily users 190+ parks open source · 550+ ★

Defunctland VR: 20,000 Leagues

Sole engineer on a VR recreation of Walt Disney World's long-closed 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea ride, built in Unreal Engine for Defunctland. Coordinated a worldwide team of volunteer artists.

Unreal Engine 900k+ views

recognition

toolbox

Engines
  • Unreal Engine 4/5
  • Unity
  • Proprietary engines
Languages
  • C++
  • C#
  • JavaScript / Node.js
  • Python
  • Kotlin
Cloud & Ops
  • AWS
  • GCP
  • Cloudflare
  • PostgreSQL
  • Docker
  • Terraform
  • TeamCity
  • Jenkins
  • Horde
Performance
  • Unreal Insights
  • RenderDoc
  • Razor CPU/GPU
Platforms
  • Meta Quest
  • PlayStation / PSVR2
  • PC VR
Workflow
  • Perforce
  • Git
  • UnrealGameSync
  • MCP servers

path

  1. 2013 – now

    nDreams

    Promoted five times, from Programmer to Senior Principal. Lead engineer on two titles, now working on cutting-edge technologies in Core Tech.

  2. 2011 – 2013

    Netcraft

    Internet services developer. Web application penetration testing for major UK banks and retailers, and automated phishing detection.

  3. 2007 – 2011

    University of Bristol

    MEng Computer Science.