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Game Dev, CS & Math Tutor | 14 Years at Riot Games & LinkedIn
Justin H.

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About Justin

Bio

I hold a Bachelor of Science in Computer Science and Mathematics from the University of Nebraska, Omaha, with coursework concentrated in programming languages, compilers, and discrete mathematics. I have supplemented that foundation with continuing education in game design through courses at the California Institute of the Arts and Michigan State University, covering game development for modern platforms, world design, character design, and narrative. Professionally, I have spent fourteen...

I hold a Bachelor of Science in Computer Science and Mathematics from the University of Nebraska, Omaha, with coursework concentrated in programming languages, compilers, and discrete mathematics. I have supplemented that foundation with continuing education in game design through courses at the California Institute of the Arts and Michigan State University, covering game development for modern platforms, world design, character design, and narrative. Professionally, I have spent fourteen years as a software engineer, including positions at Riot Games and LinkedIn, with work spanning game development, backend systems, and developer tools.

Mentorship and one-on-one technical instruction have been a consistent thread throughout my career. As a senior engineer, I regularly onboard newer engineers, walked them through unfamiliar codebases, reviewed their work, and worked through difficult problems alongside them. My approach starts from what the learner already understands and builds toward new concepts through concrete examples before introducing abstractions. I prefer to give students room to work through their own reasoning, since debugging one's own thinking is where most of the real learning happens.

Most of my direct teaching outside of work has been with college and high school students, and I have run game design workshops for adult learners. These gave me experience structuring multi-session instruction and adapting explanations across mixed skill levels, while the work with younger students has been the strongest practice in meeting a learner where they are rather than where I assume them to be. Alongside this, I have spent several years teaching tabletop role-playing games to new players and run an indie publishing company writing instructional materials for game masters and designers, both of which have sharpened my ability to communicate technical procedures in clear, narrative form. Across all of it, the throughline has been patience and careful listening.

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Education

University of Nebraska Omaha
BS CompSci Math
University of Nebraska Omaha
Graduate Coursework

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Approved Subjects

AWS

AWS

I have professional AWS experience across multiple industry contexts, including large-scale data classification and pipeline work at Bizo and LinkedIn, where I built and maintained cloud infrastructure supporting production data services. At Riot Games, I used AWS to host and manage networked game services, working with the reliability and latency requirements that live game infrastructure demands. My hands-on experience spans core AWS services including compute, storage, networking, and managed data services in real production environments. Whether you're preparing for AWS certification, learning cloud fundamentals, or working through a specific architecture problem, I can draw on years of applied industry experience to help you get there.
C#

C#

I spent over seven years as a software engineer at Riot Games, where C# was central to my work on game tooling, Unity 3D prototyping, and gameplay R&D. I am comfortable across the full range of C# topics students typically encounter — from introductory syntax and object-oriented fundamentals through generics, LINQ, async/await, and the Unity-specific patterns of MonoBehaviour lifecycle, coroutines, and ScriptableObjects. I have a particular soft spot for helping students who are learning C# in order to build games, since Unity's component model is one of the cleanest real-world demonstrations of why object-oriented design exists in the first place. My broader background spans fourteen years of professional software engineering, so I can also help students who encounter C# in general .NET, web, or backend contexts.
C++

C++

I have extensive professional C++ experience from over a decade in R&D game development, including low-level systems programming with SDL3, client/server architecture design, and performance-critical engine work. At Riot Games, I worked on research and prototyping projects that demanded tight control over memory, data layout, and execution performance — the kind of work where C++ mastery is non-negotiable. I'm also actively developing original C++ projects including a turn-based tactics game engine built from scratch with SDL3 and Lua scripting integration. From pointers and memory management to templates, data-oriented design, and build systems, I can meet students wherever they are and get them writing clean, professional-grade C++.
Computer Gaming

Computer Gaming

I've competed in tournament-level play across multiple fighting game communities, including Street Fighter III, Street Fighter IV, and Super Smash Bros. at the local circuit level. I'm also an active player in competitive team games — Dota 2, League of Legends, and Marvel Rivals — and have a lifelong love of difficult and strategy-heavy single-player titles like Dark Souls and Dwarf Fortress. My background as a software engineer at Riot Games, the studio behind League of Legends, gives me an unusual perspective on coaching: I understand games from the inside, both as a player and as someone who has built them for a living. I can help students improve at specific competitive games (MOBAs, hero shooters, and fighting games), develop strategic thinking for complex titles, or just learn to enjoy harder games without bouncing off them.
Computer Science

Computer Science

I have spent fourteen years as a professional software engineer, including roles at Riot Games and LinkedIn, with work spanning game development, backend systems, distributed services, and developer tooling. My undergraduate degree from the University of Nebraska Omaha focused on the theoretical foundations of computer science — compilers, type systems, programming languages, and discrete mathematics — which gives me a strong base for explaining the reasoning behind data structures, algorithms, and language design questions that often trip up students. I work fluently in Python, Java, C/C++, C#, JavaScript, Go, and Scala, and can support students from introductory programming through college-level coursework in data structures, algorithms, and systems. My favorite moments in tutoring are when a student moves from following code mechanically to actually reasoning about it.
Information Technology

Information Technology

I have spent fourteen years as a professional software engineer, with substantial production experience across AWS infrastructure, Linux and Windows systems, networking fundamentals (DHCP, DNS, NAT, VPN, PKI), and shell scripting in both bash and PowerShell. My time at companies including Riot Games, LinkedIn, and Bizo involved running services at significant scale, which means I have practical instincts for the infrastructure topics students most often struggle with — why DNS exists and how it actually resolves a name, what a subnet really represents, how cloud abstractions map to the physical machines underneath, and where security boundaries live in a system. I can help students working through a college IT course, preparing for entry-level certifications (the foundations behind CompTIA A+, Network+, and AWS certs), or building practical fluency for help desk, junior sysadmin, or DevOps-adjacent roles. I particularly enjoy demystifying networking, which is foundational across all of IT but rarely taught in a way that makes it feel intuitive.
Martial Arts

Martial Arts

I have been participating in martial arts all of my life, starting with judo at a young age, and falling in love with brazilian jiu jitsu in the 2000s. I have trained off and on, taught classes, and coached kids and beginner teammates. I hold a brown belt under the Fronseca brothers (Mendes brothers black belts).
Python

Python

I have over a decade of professional Python experience spanning defense, healthcare, and AAA game development. At the Air Force Weather Agency, I wrote field diagnostic meteorological software and system scripting tools used in operational forecasting environments. At Prairie Ventures, I developed healthcare portal software, working across backend systems with real-world data integrity and compliance constraints. At Riot Games, I built translation systems for domain-specific code generation, bridging the gap between designer-facing tooling and engine-level execution. Whether you're learning Python for the first time or working through advanced topics like metaprogramming, automation pipelines, or domain-specific languages, I bring both teaching clarity and deep industry experience to every session.
Ruby

Ruby

My professional Ruby experience spans about five years across web development and infrastructure work. At Prairie Ventures, I built and maintained healthcare web applications using both Sinatra for lightweight services and Ruby on Rails for the main application, including internationalization and Twilio integration. Later at Bizo and LinkedIn, I worked extensively with Chef (a Ruby-based configuration management tool) to provision infrastructure across our AWS-hosted services. I can help students learning Ruby fundamentals, working through Rails or Sinatra coursework, or picking up Ruby for DevOps work, and I particularly enjoy walking students through Ruby's design philosophy, Matz's "principle of least surprise" makes it one of the more genuinely pleasant languages to teach.
Unity

Unity

I spent over seven years as a software engineer at Riot Games, where I used C# and Unity 3D to build mobile games, prototypes, and gameplay R&D projects. Alongside professional work, I develop indie games of my own, which keeps me grounded in the day-to-day realities of solo and small-team Unity development — project setup, asset pipelines, version control, and the discipline of actually shipping. I'm comfortable across the full surface area students typically encounter: MonoBehaviour lifecycle, GameObject and component composition, prefabs, coroutines, ScriptableObjects, the Input System, physics, and the underlying C# concepts (generics, events and delegates, async/await, LINQ) that students often hit walls on. I particularly enjoy helping students bridge from "I followed the tutorial" to "I'm building my own game," since Unity's component model is one of the cleanest real-world demonstrations of why object-oriented design exists in the first place.
Unreal Engine

Unreal Engine

I've used Unreal Engine professionally at Riot Games on multiplayer R&D projects and on third-party SDK integration work for our Unreal toolchain. My fourteen years of software engineering experience and strong C++ background let me help students across the full range of Unreal topics: Blueprint visual scripting, the C++ side of the engine, the gameplay framework (Actors, Components, Pawns, GameMode), and the bridge between Blueprint and C++ when projects outgrow visual scripting alone. I can support students at any level — from following along with first tutorials, through writing custom Actor components, building gameplay systems, and reasoning about Unreal's networking and replication model. I particularly enjoy helping students bridge from "I made the tutorial work" to "I understand why Unreal is structured this way and can solve my own problems."
Algebra 1
Algebra 2
C
Computer Programming
General Computer
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Hourly Rate: $65
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