Ali Kassab

Graduated July 2024. Completed military exemption process July – November 2024 prior to joining Mega Cat Studios.

Pittsburgh, PA

• Architected core roguelike systems for the Pit of Agonies mode in God of War: Sons of Sparta: reward and enemy seeding, shop, progression, economy, inventory management and legacy system rework.
• Developed modular NPC behavior systems using Behavior Trees and FSMs, supporting 10+ archetypes in God of War: Sons of Sparta.
• Implemented gameplay feel systems (physics, camera, input, UI) and state-driven animation sequencing in Backyard Baseball.
• Built a YAML-driven balancing system enabling designer tuning without code changes in God of War: Sons of Sparta.
• Authored the input system for Maximum Apocalypse, decoupling input and gameplay to reduce cross-system dependencies, supporting action and map blocking and enabling on multiple layers.
• Built and maintained the localization system for Maximum Apocalypse, supporting multi-language pipelines and runtime string management with fallback support.
• Authored and developed the whole demo shipping pipeline in Maximum Apocalypse, including content locking and progress persistence to the main game.
• Authored the whole save files architecture in Maximum Apocalypse, including save files back up, corrupted data salvaging, scheme versioning, encoding and save files hashing.
• Contributed to C++ porting pipelines for Android across 5 shipped Backyard Sports titles with performance and feature parity on memory management and rendering systems on Android and IOS.

Cairo, Egypt

• Designed core game systems (error handling, UI, user access, command prompting) for published mobile title Sinai Heroes.
• Integrated networking and multiplayer with Photon PUN, reducing connection issues by 70%.
• Authored the matchmaking system and matchmaking filters ensuring fair player lobbies.
• Optimized environments and meshes, reducing draw calls by 75%.
• Set up lighting settings for Mission 1 of the game.
• Built VR hand pose tracking and object interaction features, ensuring realistic and immersive training scenarios.

Unity, C# · Lead Programmer · Team of 3 · Multiplayer Detective Co-op

• Implemented multiplayer functionality using Unity Netcode.
• Designed core game systems and shipped a successful early development trailer.
• Developed customer AI using FSM and a flexible cooking actions system.

Unity, C# · Lead Programmer · Team of 3 · GDA JAM - 1st Place · Stealth, Simulation, and Comedy

• Engineered an NPC awareness system detecting suspicious behavior via activity, movement, and reaction time, improving challenge adaptation by 35%.
• Integrated adaptive time dilation for precise decision-making during high-risk moments, improving reaction success by 50%.
• Built customizable pathfinding (BFS, DFS, A*) and a gaze system with randomized state transitions to increase replayability.
• Optimized task-balancing mechanics requiring players to manage in-game progress and workplace deception simultaneously.

Unity, C# · Lead Programmer · Team of 4 · ITI-BelMasry Tech Hackathon - 1st Place · Narrative-Driven Adventure

• Expanded maze regeneration using Recursive Backtracking, improving generation efficiency by 40%.
• Integrated graph-based dialogue and quest systems, boosting player engagement by 50%.
• Created NPC AI with NavMesh pathfinding, increasing responsiveness by 50%.
• Structured modular UI using Command Design Pattern, reducing update time by 20%.

SFML, C++ · Developer · Team of 6 · 2D Platformer

• Implemented UI, input systems, player animation, and movement systems.
• Architected collision systems to handle jump states and prevent overlapping.
• Designed collectibles, progression, hazards, and enemies with patrol and turret behaviors.
• Managed scene and state transitions for menus, controls, and cutscenes.