Gameplay Engineer
Unity • C# • C++
Simulated the player's weapon path to predict precise AI contact points, then warned enemies to blend contextual dodge animations. The system made combat more dynamic while keeping enemies within the player's threat area instead of their previous "dash away" behavior
Developed a weapon penetration and resistance system that made sword strikes feel lodged and weighty, with directional pull-out resistance and rotational freedom. It also used my centralized player feedback pipeline to trigger coordinated SFX, VFX, haptics, and decals with managed lifecycles.
Performed memory and performance profiling on Iron Man VR, tracing assets and code responsible for memory leaks that were eventually crashing the game. Improved framerate and reduced loading hitches by identifying objects that needed to be prewarmed, and resolved more than 50 critical or progression-blocking bugs while working within a large scale co-development partner's production pipeline.
A retro-inspired snapshot of my professional experience, education, and technical toolkit. In a stat screen!
Adapted Unity's Boss Room sample into a player-versus-player MOBA to evaluate Netcode for GameObjects. The prototype included fully networked combat and agents, jungle respawning, camp stacking, shared experience, catch-up experience, and progression modeled after established MOBAs.
Reimagined a Returnal-inspired procedural room-layout tool from a GDC presentation. Designers could place unrestricted connection volumes on rooms of widely different scales while the generator searched for valid, non-overlapping arrangements.
Rapidly prototyped a momentum-driven skating movement mode using hooks from my custom player movement system. It featured reduced turning control, airborne movement from ramps and ledges, and a crouched skating posture.
Built a 3D tower-defense game in a custom C++ game engine with third-person construction and combat. I co-led design meetings, engineering mettings, supported team workflow, created an external level editor, and iterated from extensive player feedback.
Designed a variable box-and-spring system in C++ that physically responds as anchor points move through user input. This is the foundation for dynamic, physics-based bridges or other structures affected by moving endpoints or environmental forces.
Implemented a scalable force-based particle system in C++ with vortex, spiral, and bounce operators. The architecture is scalable and could be extended with additional environmental forces such as wind and waves easily.
Designed a hierarchical skeletal-animation system in C++ and combined it with smooth path following and speed control to keep animated feet from sliding across the ground.
A single-propagation hide-and-seek AI agent awareness system in C++ where AI combines terrain analysis with the player's last known position and speed to estimate where the player could currently be. The red cells visualize those potential locations, and the agentic awareness code is designed to be portable across game engines and agent types.
Implemented image-based lighting and ambient occlusion in C++ and a custom OpenGL framework for advanced real-time rendering coursework.
Designed and developed a C++ dungeon stealth platformer on a custom 2D engine. The team implemented physics, graphics, animation, combat, cooldowns, levels, and objectives while using player feedback to improve clarity, difficulty, controls, and learning.
Used Perlin-noise terrain and real Sierra Nevada tree-plot data in Unity C#, to place different tree species based on elevation data with normal distributions, producing nature-inspired procedural vegetation patterns.
My first game built on my own custom C++ engine: a simple tower-defense game featuring waves of enemies, pathing, and damage when enemies escaped the maze path.
Created a 24-hour Unity C# game jam about painting a city to advance through levels. Enemy AI either pursued the player or cleaned up the paint left behind.
Hi there, my name is Adam Rhoades. I am a Gameplay Engineer based in Renton, Washington, with 4 years of professional game development experience and an additional 5 years of C# software development experience in ERP business software. I worked on and helped ship Marvel’s Iron Man VR along with three other unreleased studio projects. My work so far has included authoring gameplay systems such as player movement, universal feedback (VFX, SFX, haptics, UI, debris, decals, etc), VR interactions, damage systems, combat features, damage systems, rapid prototyping, and performance profiling.
Alongside my professional experience, I hold a Master of Science in Computer Science from DigiPen Institute of Technology, with a concentration in Computer Graphics, as well as a Bachelor of Science in Computer Science from Pacific Lutheran University with a minor in Mathematics. My background has given me a strong foundation in C#, C++, maintainable and scalable architecture, and gameplay programming. I am comfortable working within large, unfamiliar codebases, adapting to established workflows, and translating design goals into practical, maintainable gameplay features.
As a developer, I value thoughtful collaboration, clear communication, and careful problem solving. I enjoy working closely with designers, artists, and engineers to build systems that support both the player experience and the broader needs of the project. I am particularly motivated by gameplay challenges that require rapid iteration, strong technical judgment, and an awareness of performance, usability, and long-term maintainability.