Employee Spotlight: Kelly Royal - Video Game Collector and Developer Extraoordinare

Tell us a little about yourself.

My Name is Kelly Royal and I’m a software development at fivestar*. I live in Sault Ste. Marie, Michigan. Both on the job and off the job I love development and exploring and learning new languages and processes. When I’m not doing that, I love listening to and playing music, reading, video games, and the outdoors. In Sault Ste. Marie we have a beautiful state park nearby – Tahquamenon falls that we love to go and walk around. Oh! And I’m Glen’s neighbor, he lives about ¾ of a mile away from me – I’ve known him since college.

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Taquamenon Falls

What brought you to fivestar*?

I heard you were hiring from Glen; we went to college together and have worked together for years. After looking around at the website, your clients, and seeing you were voted the best place to work in PA I was immediately intrigued and wanted to learn more. As a bonus, fivestar* uses a technology stack I’m familiar with and all of that combined with the opportunity to work with great people and a variety of different clients just seemed like it would be a super interesting experience.

What are you most excited to get started on?

Really I just can’t wait to get started working! The projects I know I’m going to be working on (Specifically, ARM) all look interesting and engaging.

Describe your role as a developer

Developing the actual web applications for clients, delivering the solutions that meet their needs.

What are your hobbies?

Recently I’ve been focused on learning Haskell which is a very interesting language. Like I mentioned earlier, I love reading, video games, music – pretty much all genres (primarily heavy metal), and getting out in nature. Before the pandemic I was consistently growing my classic video game collection but sadly prices have skyrocketed so I’ve had to slow down a bit for now.

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Video Game Collection

What’s a unique fact about yourself?

I’m a big fan of unconventional covers of songs, some of my favorites are from the bluegrass group “Slaughter of Bluegrass” who do bluegrass covers of heavy metal songs.