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Nikola Garabandić
Verified Expert in Engineering
Unity Developer
Novi Sad, Vojvodina, Serbia
Toptal member since September 26, 2022
Bio
Nikola is a Certified Professional Unity developer and a Certified Unity instructor with over five years of experience building Unity-based games in various genres, from hypercasual to full-fledged multiplayer first-person shooter games. The biggest game that Nikola has worked on was Isonzo; it took over three years to be developed and was released on Windows, Linux PS, and Xbox in September 2022.
Portfolio
Zach Singleton
Unity, C#, User Interface (UI), API Integration, Plugins, Spotify API...
ChainSafe Systems
C#, Dependency Injection, Unity, Solidity, 3D Games, Multiplayer, SDKs...
KrishnaKishore PS
Unity3D, C#, Mobile Game Development, User Interface (UI), Leadership...
Experience
- Unity - 7 years
- C# - 7 years
- C#.NET - 5 years
- Unity3D - 5 years
- Game AI - 3 years
- Quantum - 2 years
- Java - 1 year
Preferred Environment
Windows, JetBrains Rider, Discord, Unity2D
The most amazing...
...and advanced project I've developed is the AI for Isonzo; I had to ensure that the bots would react appropriately to all the scenarios in the game.
Work Experience
Unity Engineer
2024 - 2025
Zach Singleton
- Made several bridges between the iOS and Android Spotify SDK and the Unity app.
- Refactored legacy code for mini games to a new generic format so that many new mini games can be added. Created additional mini games that enhance user experience in the venues.
- Implemented live activities on iOS that were created through API from the server, ensuring that the users had a great experience while using the Unity app.
- Separated properly all aspects of the game between development and production (from database to two different Unity apps), ensuring that in-progress features never get seen by the real users until they've been heavily tested.
- Automated all aspects of iOS deployment to ensure the app can be published to the App Store with just a few clicks in XCode (or automated through GitHub).
- Added new music sources to the game besides Spotify, where I also had to write iOS and Android Native parts.
Technologies: Unity, C#, User Interface (UI), API Integration, Plugins, Spotify API, Technical Design, Android, iOS, Objective-C, Swift, Node.js, Express.js, Firebase, Universal Render Pipeline (URP)
Senior Technical Lead
2023 - 2025
ChainSafe Systems
- Mentored and built career paths for three direct reports, fostering their professional growth within Chainsafe Systems.
- Led the scheduling and execution of the release cycle for Web3.Unity SDK, delivering it on time and within budget.
- Enhanced the developer experience. Developed Unity wrappers for native iOS and Android code provided by Ramp.Network. That means that web3.unity is the first Web3 SDK on the market with a Fiat On/Off Ramp embedded in it.
- Implemented cross-chain EVM transfers by utilizing Sygna. This expanded the capabilities of Chainsafe's technology stack by enabling seamless transfer of digital assets between different blockchain networks.
Technologies: C#, Dependency Injection, Unity, Solidity, 3D Games, Multiplayer, SDKs, TestFlight, User Interface (UI), Leadership, Technical Leadership, Solution Architecture, Blockchain, Web3, Games, Gaming Platforms, WebGL, React Unity WebGL, Design, Git, Unity3D Native Plugin Interface, Android, iOS, Universal Render Pipeline (URP)
Unity Game Developer
2024 - 2024
KrishnaKishore PS
- Added new features to the hyper-causal game according to the game design document.
- Fixed optimization issues that were related to using improper rendering pipeline settings for the mobile platform.
- Wrote flexible code so the client can easily extend and add as many features as possible.
Technologies: Unity3D, C#, Mobile Game Development, User Interface (UI), Leadership, Solution Architecture, Unity Game Assets, Games, Gaming Platforms, Design, Git, Unity3D Native Plugin Interface, Android, iOS, Universal Render Pipeline (URP)
Unity Game Developer
2024 - 2024
KrishnaKishore P S
- Optimized the game by extracting the complex and unreadable logic into a more structured piece of code.
- Consulted the client on Unity and programming best practices, covering topics such as variable names, inheritance, and polymorphism.
- Unified different bot behaviors into simpler and more extendable classes so that the client can later work on expanding the logic pretty easily.
Technologies: Unity3D, C#, Mobile Game Development, TestFlight, User Interface (UI), Games, Gaming Platforms, Design, Git, Android, iOS, Universal Render Pipeline (URP)
Senior Unity Developer
2022 - 2023
Mentava, Inc.
- Was part of the core team for the Learn2Read app that helps kids aged 2+ how to read.
- Wrote the code for the app functionality and was mainly focused on helping and delivering the best Unity practices for the rest of the team recently introduced to Unity.
- Solved some more complex tasks, which involved writing custom shaders for certain parts of the app.
- Untangled some issues and bugs that were intermittent or/and that required extensive Unity experience in order to be solved.
Technologies: Unity, Gaming, Communication, Flutter, iPad, GitHub, TestFlight, User Interface (UI), Leadership, Solution Architecture, Unity Game Assets, Games, Gaming Platforms, WebGL, Design, Git, Unity3D Native Plugin Interface, Android, iOS, Universal Render Pipeline (URP)
Unity Developer
2019 - 2023
WW1 Game Series
- Made an AI system from scratch in which bots would appropriately react to each and every game scenario.
- Built the entire settings system to be as performant and intuitive as possible for the other developers.
- Fixed memory leaks and optimized code in various systems, even those I wasn't in charge of.
- Ensured that all the music behaved according to the composer's vision.
- Discovered and fixed a lot of intermittent issues that were lingering all the way back from Verdun and Tannenberg.
Technologies: C#, Unity, .NET, Gaming, Communication, C#.NET, Unity3D, Game Design, Game AI, FMOD, Scrum, Agile, Favro, Kanban, Photon Unity Networking (PUN), Photon, Multiplayer, Architecture, Responsive Design, Game Development, User Interface (UI), Solution Architecture, Unity Game Assets, Games, Gaming Platforms, Universal Render Pipeline (URP)
Unity Developer
2018 - 2020
Polyspice
- Continued and finished the development of the game, Beat Cancer.
- Spearheaded the prototyping of a game that became known as Planet Rabbit two years later.
- Managed junior developers, including onboarding, explaining the codebase, and overseeing their game development progress.
Technologies: Unity, C#, .NET, iOS, Mobile Game Development, Gaming, Communication, C#.NET, Unity3D, Game Design, Game AI, Scrum, Agile, Trello, Kanban, Jira, SQL, Architecture, Responsive Design, Unity2D, Mobile Games, Game Development, GitHub, TestFlight, User Interface (UI), Leadership, CTO, Solution Architecture, Unity Game Assets, Games, Gaming Platforms, Design, Git, Android, Universal Render Pipeline (URP)
CTO | Unity Developer
2017 - 2018
Stick & Rope
- Managed several developers who, after I left the company, successfully managed to finish and publish the games all by themselves.
- Completed several games from the prototyping phase to the live ops phase as the only developer.
- Rapid-prototyped dozens of games with the CEO deciding which games we should continue working on based on how fun they are.
Technologies: C#, Unity, TypeScript, .NET, iOS, Mobile Game Development, Gaming, Communication, C#.NET, Unity3D, Game Design, Game AI, Scrum, Agile, Trello, Kanban, Jira, SQL, Architecture, Unity2D, Mobile Games, Toon Boom, Game Development, TestFlight, User Interface (UI), CTO, Solution Architecture, Gaming Platforms, Design, Git
Experience
Isonzo
https://store.steampowered.com/app/1556790/Isonzo/After the AI lead left, I was appointed to that spot to start working on improving bots and making new systems from scratch for them as well as adding new behaviors. I also worked on several other systems.
SYSTEM CONTRIBUTIONS
• Spawning system
• Player classes
• Making and fixing tools for mappers and game designers
• Progression/unlock system
• Points-and-perks system
• Character controller system
• Creation of new features for the internal trailer tool system (it was used for recording trailers)
My final contributions included rewriting the entire game settings logic to be as clean and as performant as possible.
SYSTEM CONTRIBUTIONS
• Spawning system
• Player classes
• Making and fixing tools for mappers and game designers
• Progression/unlock system
• Points-and-perks system
• Character controller system
• Creation of new features for the internal trailer tool system (it was used for recording trailers)
My final contributions included rewriting the entire game settings logic to be as clean and as performant as possible.
Beat Cancer
https://polyspice.com/beat-cancer/This is the game that was my first freelance gig done for the Danish studio called Polyspice. On this project, I was in charge of adding new features, such as new weapons and a separate section in the game called Comedy Club; this was necessary to complete the game. I also heavily experimented with Firebase remote notifications and cloud functions, but that feature never went live.
Tap to the Moon
https://tap-to-the-moon.en.aptoide.com/appTap to the Moon is the first game I developed when the studio was officially formed. I was responsible for prototyping the game. After we validated the prototype, we took on mechanics which were fun and started building other parts of the game. I also added new level segments, the UI, shop, and IAP.
Verdun and Tannenberg
https://store.steampowered.com/bundle/5227/WW1_Game_Series/Verdun is the first fully-fledged WW1 Game that got published on Steam all the way back in 2013. I joined the team in 2019 to help finish Tannenberg's development and add new enhancements to Verdun. Although the games are now mainly in the maintenance stage, they were actively under regular development until mid-2020.
Education
2014 - 2018
Bachelor's Degree in Computer Science
Faculty Of Technical Sciences - Novi Sad, Serbia
Certifications
SEPTEMBER 2021 - PRESENT
Certified Unity Instructor
Unity Technologies
APRIL 2021 - APRIL 2027
Unity Certified Professional: Programmer
Unity Technologies
Skills
Libraries/APIs
WebGL, FMOD, Spotify API, Node.js
Tools
GitHub, TestFlight, Git, Trello, Jira, Toon Boom
Languages
C#, C#.NET, TypeScript, SQL, Java, Python, C++, C, JavaScript, Solidity, Objective-C, Swift
Frameworks
Unity, .NET, Unity3D, Photon Unity Networking (PUN), Photon, Unity2D, Flutter, Spring MVC, Express.js
Platforms
iOS, Android, Firebase, Blockchain
Paradigms
Scrum, Agile, Kanban, Dependency Injection, Mobile Development
Other
Gaming, Communication, Favro, Multiplayer, Architecture, Mobile Games, Game Development, User Interface (UI), Solution Architecture, Games, Gaming Platforms, Unity3D Native Plugin Interface, User Behavior, Mobile Game Development, Game Design, Game AI, 3D Games, 2D Games, Responsive Design, Quantum, Leadership, CTO, Web3, Unity Game Assets, React Unity WebGL, Universal Render Pipeline (URP), iPad, SDKs, Identity Aware Proxy (IAP), Technical Leadership, Design, API Integration, Plugins, Technical Design
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