Gameplay Programmer at Shiverbug Studios

Oliver Neal

Games Developer · Unity (C#)

I graduated from Teesside University with First Class Honours in Games Development, and my final year project won Best Games Programming and Development Artefact at ExpoTees 2026. I build gameplay systems in Unity: enemy AI, multiplayer netcode and simulations that stay fast under load.

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About

A bit about me

I'm Oliver, a games developer working in Unity and C#. I graduated from Teesside University in July 2026 with First Class Honours in BSc (Hons) Games Development, and I've just started as a gameplay programmer at Shiverbug Studios.

The part of games I enjoy most is the systems layer: state machines driving enemy AI, multiplayer netcode, and the optimisation that lets thousands of entities simulate without dropping frames. My final-year project artefact, Cyber Station, scored 90 out of 100.

Everything below is playable, most of it on itch.io with source on GitHub. If you'd rather read about the engineering, the project breakdowns go deeper on seven of them.

1stBSc (Hons) Games Development
80%overall degree average
90final year artefact grade

Now

Gameplay Programmer at Shiverbug Studios

Building gameplay systems in engine, every day, on an original IP.

Out of Water in game screenshot: the seagull and turtle sitting on a pile of crates in an open beach level, surrounded by sand, palm trees and rocky cliffs

Internship · 13 Jul to 18 Sep 2026 · 10 weeks

Out of Water, an original IP

A 3D platformer collectathon built for two players on one sofa, in splitscreen, starring a turtle and a seagull. I own the character and enemy gameplay code, and I work in engine across:

Component driven state machines for both playable characters and the enemies, rebuilt from single file controllers
The co-op moveset that hangs off them, and the game feel around it
A decoupled FMOD layer the audio team plugs into
Supporting systems the rest of the team works through, including collectable saving and an in-game debug console
Shaders in Shader Graph for the water surface and its caustics

Unity 6
C#
FSM / HSM
FMOD
Cinemachine
Shader Graph

Skills

What I work with

Languages & engines: C#, Unity 2D / 3D, Shader Graph, Unreal Engine 5, Python
Gameplay & AI: Gameplay programming, systems design, finite & hierarchical state machines, AI navigation, Unity UI
Performance: Performance optimisation, time-sliced & multi-rate simulation, runtime NavMesh baking, profiling large entity counts
Multiplayer & services: Netcode for GameObjects, Unity Authentication, Relay, Lobbies, Cloud Save
Tools & workflow: Git, Visual Studio, JetBrains Rider, Figma, Trello, technical documentation

Projects

Solo projects

Newest first. Click a thumbnail to play the game; hover to see it in motion.

Cyber Station late game: cyan trains stretched along the platforms of a large neon station while crowds of passengers move through the concourse

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Best Games Programming & Development Artefact · ExpoTees 2026

Cyber Station

Apr 2026

My final year project: a neon station management game where placement, passenger flow, ratings and progression all feed into each other. Passenger AI, train scheduling, staff, economy and save systems run together in one simulation.

Unity 3D
C#
AI Navigation
Simulation

Breakdown itch.io

Tile Turfer

Jan 2026

A turf-war arena shooter where one territory percentage drives the difficulty, your fire rate and your attacks at once, across procedurally generated caves with runtime 2D navigation.

Unity 2D
C#
Procedural
Enemy AI

Breakdown itch.io GitHub Report

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Minimalists

Aug 2025

Minimalist 3D RTS with advanced enemy AI. Capture structures, commit forces by percentage and outthink opponents in anything from a duel to a four way free for all.

Unity 3D
C#
Enemy AI
RTS

Breakdown itch.io GitHub

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Unicellular

Feb 2025

Idle simulation stress-tested to 10,000 entities at once, kept smooth by finite state machines, a multi-rate tick and time-sliced proximity AI inside Unity's GameObject workflow.

Unity
C#
FSM
Optimisation

Breakdown itch.io GitHub

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3D Netcode Tank Game

Jan 2025

Server-authoritative multiplayer tank shooter on Unity Netcode for GameObjects: Relay-hosted sessions, cloud authentication and a 64-ray hitscan resolved on the server.

Unity 3D
C#
Netcode
Multiplayer

Breakdown GitHub

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Pinnable

Mar 2024

A 2D arcade score-attack game: catch marbles from a moving cannon, dodge the pins, and survive a spawn director that ramps up the harder you play.

Unity 2D
C#
Arcade
Physics

Breakdown itch.io GitHub

Projects

Team projects

Group builds, with my individual contribution called out on each.

Team project · 10 people

Space Bar Simulator

Jan 2026

A retro futurist bar simulator set on its own asteroid, a 1950s diner drifting through space. Built in Unreal Engine 5 for Beta Arcade, Teesside's studio simulation module.

My role: player controller, interaction architecture and the camera-blended station systems.

Unreal Engine 5
Blueprints
Interaction
UI

Breakdown

Candy Corporate: pixel art top down view of the candy company storefront

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Team project

Candy Corporate

Apr 2024

A 2D top-down extraction game inspired by Lethal Company: delve into the candy company, fill your pockets, and choose whether to eat your haul for abilities and health or sell whatever you carry back out alive.

My role: level design, tile creation and pixel art integration.

Pixel art
Level design
Tilesets
Extraction

itch.io

Case studies