Nick Balyanitsa
Verified Expert in Engineering
Game Developer
London, United Kingdom
Toptal member since April 18, 2022
Nick is a seasoned game developer who started his career in the game industry over 13 years ago. He took part in various projects, including some very popular games and applications, and held leading roles in many of them. Skilled in different technologies, programming languages, and frameworks, Nick has a keen interest in the technological stack for game development, ranging from high load multiplayer servers to lightweight and performant client apps.
Portfolio
Experience
- Games - 13 years
- 2D Games - 10 years
- C# - 7 years
- Unity - 6 years
- JavaScript - 5 years
- Game AI - 5 years
- Visual Studio Code (VS Code) - 4 years
- Blockchain - 2 years
Preferred Environment
Unity, JetBrains Rider, Visual Studio Code (VS Code)
The most amazing...
...game I've created is played by over one million users daily.
Work Experience
Senior Game Developer
Zynga
- Created a multitude of rich features that added significant value to the project.
- Built an automation tool for LiveOps management that reduces operational costs and human error.
- Integrated a flexible experimentation framework, allowing extensively A/B testing of new and existing features.
Senior Game Developer
Gamesys
- Created a game engine that enables the construction and skin of different games out of modules, minimizing the developer's reliance while supporting a portfolio of games.
- Hosted multiple technical talks and was a speaker at some.
- Led a UX team in revamping the games portfolio website.
Head of Games
IQ Friends
- Built a framework to create and support a suite of brain training games.
- Raised seed funding in a global accelerator for the project.
- Achieved optimal performance by allowing the framework to support low-end devices.
Lead Flash Developer
Level UP Games
- Led a small team in creating a project from the ground up to production in four months.
- Worked closely with the user acquisition (UA) team to facilitate efficient user conversion.
- Tracked analytics and oversaw the company-wide culture of data-driven decisions.
Lead Flash Developer
iWin
- Managed an international team and supported a functioning process that allowed us to meet deadlines without crunch and stress.
- Created the prototype of a new game that helped an outsource team build the final product more efficiently.
- Introduced data-driven integrations in an existing legacy project, enabling more efficient business decisions.
Game Developer
Sunwind Games
- Developed an efficient network protocol based on Google Protocol Buffers (Protobuf).
- Set up and maintained continuous integration and delivery.
- Created a game client with user-generated content tooling and an in-game character editor.
Experience
Merge Dragons
https://www.mergedragons.com/Gambling Games Portfolio
https://www.jackpotjoy.com/IQ Friends
Education
Master's Degree in Computer Science
National Technical University of Ukraine (NTUU KPI) - Kyiv, Ukraine
Skills
Tools
JetBrains Rider
Languages
C#, JavaScript, HaXe, C++, ActionScript 3, Java
Frameworks
Unity, Cocos2d, Angular
Platforms
Blockchain, Visual Studio Code (VS Code)
Other
Software, Artificial Intelligence (AI), Games, 2D Games, Game AI, Simulations, Probability Theory, LiveOps
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