Humza Younas
Game Programmer
Currently working at Playdemic, a studio under EA (Electronic Arts)
Hello I'm Humza, a games programmer from the UK. I've been working in the games industry for over a decade with my adventures ranging from small indie studios to larger studios under the likes of Warner Bros. and EA. I am currently working at Playdemic as part of the EA family, working on Golf Clash.
Experience
I have experience working with the following:
- Languages; C#/.NET, C/C++, JavaScript, HTML/CSS, Python
- Version Control; SVN, Perforce, Git, Mercurial
- Game Engines; Unity (Mono + ECS/DOTS), Unreal Engine 5 (Blueprints), IdeasEngine (Playdemic In-House), Tengine (PSQ In-House)
- Software; Visual Studio, Rider, Photoshop, Autodesk Maya, 3DS Max, Blender
- Project Tools; Jaas, JIRA, Confluence, Miro
Personal
Behind the work scene, I'm a gamer who loves his MMO's and RPG's and I'm a cat person by nature. I own too many cats at this point, it's gotten silly.
My pastimes include gaming (ofcourse), programming (no really), building and upgrading PCs and creating websites using html/css/javascript (like this portfolio).
Professional Work
A sample of the projects I've worked on in a professional capacity and my contributions to them.
Golf Clash
Client Programmer
Playdemic
Ideas Engine (In-House)
iOS/Android/EMS
Live Service
About
Golf Clash is an award winning mobile sports game developed by Playdemic under ELECTRONIC ARTS. I've had the pleasure of working as both a client and network programmer on this title, with most of my time spent on the client side using the In-House Ideas Engine.
Implementations
Whilst working on Golf Clash my contributions included:
- Implementing UI and logic for the recent 'Checkpoint Challenge' game feature. An entirely new game mode released at the backend of 2022
- Implementing UI and logic for the ball sorting feature, allowing players to sort and favourite balls in the game
- Reworked various smaller areas of the game UI and user flows to align with updated designs
- Implemented a reworked new player clan experience
- Adjusted photon validation to support a new game mode
Responsibilities
My on going responsibilities on this project consist of maintaining and updating existing features as needed.
Implementing features based on new or updated designs.
Working with design to iterate and finalize features.
Undisclosed Project
Framework Programmer
Playdemic
Unity/ECS/DOTS/C#
iOS/Android/PC
In Development (NDA)
Project
Sadly I can't say much about the project itself due to on going development and NDA's. Only that it is being developed in the Unity engine using new technologies such as DOTS and ECS.
Implementations
Whilst working on this project I implemented:
- Multi threaded lazy loading asset management system
- Matchmaking systems that utilise a third party matchmaking library
- Backend systems for commerce and social features such as parties and friends
- Front end UI to support matchmaking and social features
- Designer facing content creation tools
- Developer facing asset management tools
- Extensive multi threaded backend logic to support various systems
Responsibilities
My on going responsibilities on this project consist of maintaining and extending implemented systems as needed.
Creating new tools to support data management and content creation.
Iterating on matchmaking and social flows in response to design changes.
Implementing new commerce related features.
Rum Pirates
Sole Indie Developer
FoG Games
Unity/.NET/C#
PC/Steam
On Hold
I started this project after experiencing a niche genre of games which utilise heavy networked physics.
These games rely on complex 'active ragdoll' characters, physics objects and their interactions with other physics enabled characters and objects.
This project presented two technical challenges that I enjoyed overcoming. The first was creating a physics based character and rig that felt and responded well to player input.
The second was the performant networking of physical objects and characters to facilitate multiplayer game modes.
Each character is composed of many physics enabled joints and colliders which required custom network serialisation and compression.
The current state of this project as seen in the demo is feature complete. Needing only additional content to support the game modes I had planned.
However due to personal deadlines, I was forced to shelve it for the time being.
Stick War: Castle Defence
Sole Indie Developer
FoG Games
Unity/.NET/C#
PC/Steam
Published
StickWar: Castle Defence was my first professionally developed project as a full time solo Indie Developer.
The game is a mix between 3D & 2D visuals, with a static perspective. With all characters consisting of 2D, sprite based physics ragdolls.
The keywords that drove the design for this project were 'Interaction', 'Ragdoll' and '2.5D'. I wanted to emphasise the physicality of the 2D characters in a 3D world through player interaction
leading to humorous conclusions.
As the sole developer on this project, everything seen within the final product was created by myself with only a handful of assets being outsourced (some trees and background music). I was able to tackle the creation and implementation of various types of content including; shaders, textures, materials, 2D and 3D art assets, audio, particle systems and many more. On the coding side, I enjoyed implementing the AI behaviour systems, interactive ragdoll controls, a performant on-demand audio effect system, leader board system using Steamworks API and RPG-esque loot mechanics.
This project was a joy to work on and facilitated the growth of my knowledge and experience within the Unity engine.
I was able to fully release this project onto the Steam platform in late 2017, and some smaller indie platforms such as itch.io.
Personal Work
A sample of projects I've worked on in my spare time, born of varying inspirations, technical curiosities and occasionally commercial projects.
Fantasy Bestiary
Commissioned
Unity/.NET/C#
Windows App
Shipped
This project was commissioned by a client who wanted a themed method of storing and displaying text and image content in the form of a bestiary
for an undisclosed piece of fiction.
The finalised design included functionality to add both images and text. These came with various formatting options that you would expect with modern day rich text editors
and image placement.
The core of this project focused on the 3D representation of the book/bestiary. This was responsible for displaying content and it's formatting.
In particular, animations were difficult and I had to jump through some hoops, using Render To Texture techniques to display content on pages which were mid-animation.
This was an enjoyable challenge and turned out quite well.
Following this, the remaining technical hurdles involved parsing and serialization. I added a raw output feature, which would dump the raw text content entered by the user
into a text file for each page. This was to enforce data redundancies.
I also implemented a simplistic, text based GUI during the prototyping phase. This was later developed into an icon based GUI.
Infinite Speed
Mobile Prototype
Unity/.NET/C#
Anroid/iOS
On Hold
While one of my older projects, I began Infinite Speed to familiarise myself with mobile development in Unity. It was a self imposed test of my ability to maintain simplicity throughout my technical implementations.
The main feature I focused on was a procedural engine to generate all of the oncoming assets including, variable environments, characters and obstacles. This would make every 'level' refreshing and somewhat unique, depending on the number of assets injected into the procedural system.
As of writing this description, the technical aspects of the procedural engine are finished and missing only art assets. I enjoyed working on this project and it's prototype has kept myself and friends entertained on long journeys.
Sadly, I left this project on the backburner while I work on my larger projects. It's present state is very playable and feature complete, lacking only the polish and media content required to publish.
If you need to get in touch, feel free to contact me, preferably by email.