Managing the engineering team behind IGDB at Twitch — the games database that powers a lot more than just the site. Hiring, mentoring, roadmap, and keeping a small team productive across timezones.
jacob
cattrall.
const role = "engineering manager @ twitch";
I'm an engineer who manages engineers who build awesome products
for the most passionate communities in the world. Co-founded
IGDB.com, now part of Twitch.
Oh, and I'm really, REALLY into the Godot engine.
## experience
Co-founded IGDB.com — a community-driven games database — and led the frontend through every stage from prototype to acquisition by Twitch in 2019. Built the public site, the API surface, and most of what users actually touched.
Building websites and front-ends for a varied client base — bespoke CMS work, integrations, and a fair amount of “make this old thing do a new trick.”
Ran my own shop building web applications and sites — mostly WordPress, some bespoke. Did the dev, the client calls, and the invoices.
Looked after the site end-to-end — content, hosting, and the bits in between that nobody else wants to touch.
Freelance web development for whoever needed it — design, build, deploy.
## open source
A selection of repos I maintain — mostly Godot tooling, a Rust thing or two, and one stubborn old jQuery library that refuses to die.
A node composition library for Godot 4.
Dynamic CSS3 keyframe generation with callback events.
In-memory, Redis-like key-value store for Godot.
Free terrain & roguelike dungeon generation resources for Godot.
AGENTS.md on steroids — a file format and toolkit for deterministic context.
A comprehensive BitTorrent GDExtension for Godot 4.
AI-assisted 3D modelling software, built for coders.
A free, open-source chat app for communities.
## games
Games I've shipped.
3D first-person physics puzzle game — solve room-by-room challenges with the boots, the orb, and the power fist.
Clean up Silver Lake after a nuclear fallout.
Multiplayer word-guessing party game with words, images, and sounds — play in the browser, no install.
## recent posts
A month ago I wrote a defence of building a chat app on a game engine. Here's why I'm rebuilding the Daccord client in Flutter anyway — and why that isn't a knock on Godot.
A free, open-source, bring-your-own-key tool for procedural 3D model generation. You write (or prompt) a compact DSL; deterministic Rust expands it into game-ready glTF assets — no hallucinated triangles.
A multiplayer word-guessing party game built for the browser — one clue-giver, one-word hints, and a board mixing words, images, and sounds. Don't pick the assassin.
## contact
mail · jakecattrall@proton.me
github · @krazyjakee
linkedin · /in/jacobcattrall
bsky · @cattrall.itch.io
mastodon · @krazyjakee@gamedev.place
itch · cattrall.itch.io
rss · feed