Senior Nathan Danque “keeps fire blazing” with Swing Innovations

Senior Nathan Danque keeps fire blazing with Swing Innovations

Joseph Park, Staff Writer

Have you ever seen a student donning a horse mask in the the senior stands during rallies? Well, here’s the culprit: Nathan Danque, a senior at Cathedral Catholic, known for his involvement as Head Programmer in the robotics club as well as an owner of an Oculus Rift.

Nathan’s many interests range from architecture to coding to computer graphics. Through his software company, Swing Innovations, Nathan channels his interest in computers. Swing Innovations functions as an independent software company with a “focus on developing software,” said Nathan.

Swing Innovations was co-founded by Nathan and John Murcko, a senior at San Pasqual High School in Escondido. “I’ve known [John] since kindergarten, and he’s the greatest friend I’ll probably ever have,” Nathan said.

During their middle school years, they both developed an interest in software development, which lead into, as Nathan put it, “an arms race”: both of them began attempting to learn coding and trying to outdo one another. As high school began, the two parted ways but resolved to stay in touch.

“We wanted to keep that fire we started blazing,” Nathan said.

In the spring of 2012, Nathan and John came up with an alias for their collaboration effort in honor of their memories and experiences at their swing set where , when younger, they came up with the “craziest conspiracies.”

“To us,” Nathan said, “the swing-set is the genesis of our craziest ideas.”

At Swing Innovations, Nathan and John develop video games and utility software. Together, they have participated in video game development jams and worked with international developers.

Officially, Nathan works as the “Pixel Puncher.” He is in charge of the design decisions regarding the UI/UX (User Interface & User Experience). Nathan usually works behind the scenes with managing file servers, maintaining a game engine, porting and fixing existing apps to other platforms, and so on. Similarly, John fulfills the game design portion of the group, designing and testing prototypes for various ideas to determine their viability.

Both work on the same jobs in coding, game designing, and porting programs. The two operate on an open-source model, which means that “our source code is freely available for anyone to view and derive ideas from,” said Nathan. “I thought of myself when I was starting out, how the lack of resources was somewhat demoralizing. It’s amazing how much information is available on the Internet.”

“Previously, I had an interest in ichthyology (a branch of zoology dealing with fish), which then evolved to architecture, which then evolved to computers,” Nathan said. “I got interested in architecture while creating mods for the game, SimCity 4. I would say this was the start of my interest in computer graphics.”

According to Nathan, “of the things published under Swing, there are ten times as much content that was never released.” Nathan highlighted the fact that Swing Innovations holds the quality of user experience in highest esteem. “If it does not live up to our standards, it will be retained until it does.”

As for his future plans with Swing Innovations, Nathan says that he hopes that the company will be financially viable “so it can be my full time job. College isn’t going to change my plans with Swing.”

Nathan does hope to use college to further his education and broaden his horizons. With Swing, Nathan hopes to design and create more games, participate in more game jams, and do more research and develop with experimental tech such as the Oculus Rift. “We hope to broaden our horizons, developing for more platforms like mobile to more obscure ones like Haiku,” said Nathan. “We also eventually hope to get involved in hardware.”

As for additional staff members being added in the future, Nathan believes that keeping the number small would be better. “It’s easier keeping everyone on the same page,” he said.

But the real heart of the future lies within Nathan himself. “I found ambition to be like a fire,” Nathan said. “Harnessed correctly, and it helps fuel the creative process. But let it grow uncontrollably, and it burns everything. Don’t wait for the ‘right’ moment – carpe diem.”