Gal Afik — Game Developer & Software Engineer

Who I Am

The Full Picture

Engineer, game-maker, problem solver.

I have been writing code since 2008, turned professional in 2016, and have not stopped shipping since. My background spans game engines, enterprise Java, VR/XR simulations, database systems, and front-end web — giving me the ability to move fluently across the full stack.

As founder of Mythos Interactive, I have led a team of 6 through complete game development cycles and published a collection of 9 original titles on Steam. By day I have built VR training simulations for military and healthcare clients, Smithsonian museum installations, and financial systems at Deutsche Bank.

I hold a B.Sc. in Information Systems from UMBC and have accumulated 8+ industry certifications including Unity Certified Professional, AWS Cloud Practitioner, and Azure Fundamentals.

Unity Certified Professional

Unity Certified Associate

AWS Cloud Practitioner

Azure Fundamentals

C++ Certified Associate

Oracle Java SE 7 OCA

Google AI Essentials

CompTIA A+ Core 1

🎮

Game Development

Unity · Unreal Engine · Gameplay · VR/XR · Steam

🌐

Web / Full-Stack

Java · Angular · Spring Boot · MySQL · REST APIs

🧥

VR / XR Simulations

Meta Quest · OpenXR · SteamVR · MetaXR · UE5

🗃

Data & Cloud

PostgreSQL · Oracle PL/SQL · AWS · Azure · ETL

⚙

Systems & DevOps

C++ · Docker · Jenkins · Git · Nginx · Linux

Expertise

What I Build

⚙

Gameplay Systems

Combat mechanics, AI behavior trees, character systems, navigation, and state machines from concept to shipped product.

State MachinesAI / BTCharacter Systems

🧥

VR / XR Development

4 shipped VR/MR training simulations for military, healthcare, and commercial clients on Meta Quest 2/Pro/3 and SteamVR using OpenXR and MetaXR standards.

OpenXRMetaXRSteamVR

🔧

Performance Optimization

Doubled VR framerate from 45 to 90 FPS through Unreal Insights profiling and targeted refactoring. Expert in LOD, draw calls, and shader optimization.

Unreal InsightsUnity ProfilerLOD

🛠

Editor Tooling & Plugins

Custom Unity editor extensions, a Unity plugin integrating OpenAI API for dynamic NPC dialogue, and streamlined artist workflow tools.

Unity EditorOpenAI APIPipeline

🎨

UI/UX for Games

Full UI/UX design and implementation across 12+ titles including accessibility-focused VR interaction patterns, prototyping, and usability testing.

FigmaUnity UIVR UX

🔊

Audio & MetaSounds

Full audio integration including MetaSound in Unreal, spatial audio for VR, voice acting on multiple titles, and knowledge-sharing sessions for cross-functional teams.

MetaSoundSpatial AudioVoice Acting

Unity

7+ Years · Certified Professional & Associate

Gameplay & Architecture97%

Editor Tooling & Plugins92%

URP / HDRP Rendering88%

DOTS / ECS80%

Unreal Engine

UE4 / UE5 / UDK · C++ & Blueprints

Blueprints & C++ Gameplay93%

VR / XR (OpenXR / MetaXR)90%

Performance & Profiling88%

Gameplay Framework / GAS82%

☕

Java / Spring Boot

7 years of Java 7/8 professional experience including RESTful APIs, Spring Boot microservices, Maven builds, and enterprise backend architecture.

Java 7/8Spring BootMavenREST

🌐

Front-End Web

HTML5, CSS3/SASS, Angular, AngularJS, jQuery, Bootstrap, TypeScript — production UI/UX across museum, banking, and game analytics platforms.

AngularTypeScriptHTML5/CSS3

🗃

Databases

MySQL, Oracle PL/SQL, PostgreSQL, MongoDB. Designed and maintained a NoSQL system managing 5M+ Smithsonian artifact records. SSIS and ETL pipelines.

PostgreSQLOracle PL/SQLMongoDBSSIS/ETL

⛈

Cloud & Infrastructure

AWS (EC2, S3, Lambda) — certified Cloud Practitioner. Azure IaaS/PaaS — certified Azure Fundamentals. Docker, nginx, Linux/Unix administration.

AWSAzureDockernginx

🔒

Security & DevOps

Technical Information Security Officer at Deutsche Bank. OAuth, SSL/TLS, firewall configuration, Jenkins CI/CD. Scrum Master across global teams.

OAuthSSL/TLSJenkinsScrum Master

🧪

Testing & QA

TDD practitioner using JUnit and PyTest. Led QA processes on multi-platform VR titles. Automated testing pipelines integrated into CI/CD workflows.

JUnitPyTestTDDQA Automation

Web & Systems Stack

Java · Angular · Spring Boot · PostgreSQL · AWS

Java / Spring Boot95%

Angular / TypeScript85%

SQL / Database Design88%

AWS / Azure Cloud80%

REST APIs / Microservices90%

Docker / DevOps82%

Mythos Interactive

My Games

Unity · 3DPirate Jam 16

Action / Arcade

Sword vs Squash

Soar through a medieval village as a mysteriously animated sword with a grudge against magical pumpkins. Built solo in under 4 days for Pirate Software Game Jam 16 — physics-driven flight, double-jump combat, and a hidden secret in the icy mountains.

Unreal Engine · FPSGMTK Jam 2022

First-Person Shooter

To The Last

Fight demonic hordes as the Diceslinger — a fearsome cowboy whose dice are both ammo and health. Built in Unreal Engine in 48 hours for GMTK Game Jam 2022, with a full quality-of-life update post-jam.

Unity · Top-DownLudum Dare 50

Action / Real-Time Strategy

25 Vikings

Command a clan of Vikings captured by the hordes of Helheim in this top-down survival RTS made in 72 hours for Ludum Dare 50. Post-jam update adds auto-upgrade and a lightning smite ability.

Unity · Cross-Platform

Action / Narrative

Internal Medicine

Play as a young doctor juggling patient care and mental health under pressure. Extra Credits Game Jam 2020 submission released on Windows, Mac, Linux, and HTML5. Earned a perfect 5-star rating on itch.io.

Unity · Puzzle

Puzzle / Adventure

The Case of the Deviant Detective

Uncle Frankie needs a job done. A quirky noir-flavored mystery puzzle game playable in the browser — voice acted, written, designed, and developed entirely by Gal Afik.

Unity · PuzzleGMTK 2020

Puzzle

Runaway Robot

Help little robots find their way in the world. A browser puzzle game built for GMTK Game Jam 2020 with classic jam-style level design and a charming robot aesthetic.

Unity · BrowserGMTK 2024

Puzzle / Strategy

Hefty Heights

Test your stacking skills and precision as you carefully balance everyday objects to hit the perfect weight. Every move counts in this thrilling challenge of balance and strategy. Built for GMTK Game Jam 2024.

Unity · Educational

Educational / Simulation

The World That Lies Below

Come spend some time with the juvenile green sea turtle. An educational experience exploring ocean life and the challenges faced by sea turtles in their natural habitat.

Unreal · ActionEpic MegaJam 2021

Action / Platformer

Harold's Harrowing Heroics

Slime slashing, heroic dashing, and harrowing hair gel!? A collaborative action game built for the 2021 Epic MegaJam with Plus2Studios. Dodge, dash, and slash through chaotic enemies as the unlikely hero Harold.

Unity · Mobile

Arcade / Runner

Terminal Charge

Get to your gate before you miss your flight, but make sure to keep your phone charged or you won't make it! A frantic airport dash where time, battery life, and your gate number are all working against you.

Unity · Browser

Action / Casual

Kinoko Dash

A short, fast-paced casual game about clicking and dashing around while chopping angry mushroom enemies into tiny bits. Keep enemies at a distance while timing your clicks just right to execute a SUPER DASH!

Unity · Puzzle

Puzzle / Action

Prepare to Re-Pair!

Bring these two magnet buddies back together before loneliness overwhelms them. A charming and hectic puzzle action game where you guide cute robot friends through increasingly tricky obstacles to reunite them.

Unity

Action / Arcade

Unnamed Chicken Game

A scrappy jam game starring a very determined chicken. What it lacks in a name it makes up for in chaotic energy. Sometimes the best games come from the least expected premises.

Unity

Narrative / Puzzle

Stars: Transmission

A narrative-driven experience centered around stars and the transmissions they carry across the cosmos. An atmospheric, story-focused jam game exploring themes of distance, communication, and connection.

Unity

Puzzle / Strategy

Ingenuity

A puzzle and strategy game demanding creative thinking and clever problem-solving. Named after NASA's Mars helicopter, Ingenuity challenges players to engineer solutions under pressure.

🎮 Full Collection on Steam All Games on itch.io ↗

Portfolio

Professional Projects

🧥 VR / XR — Applied Research Associates

Military & Healthcare VR Simulations

Staff Serious Games Developer on 4 VR/MR training simulations for military, healthcare, and commercial clients. Led technical efforts on 2 Unreal Engine projects. Optimized performance from 45 to 90 FPS. Presented at ITSEC and ECGC conferences.

🌐 Web Platform — Smithsonian

eMammal — Wildlife Camera Trap Platform

Contributed to emammal.si.edu, a Smithsonian Institution camera-trap data platform used by wildlife researchers worldwide to catalog millions of animal images. Full-stack development using Java, Spring Boot, and database tooling.

⚙ Museum Systems — Smithsonian / Quotient

NMAAHC Interactive Exhibits & Digital Archive

Built interactive exhibit software and digital archiving infrastructure for the National Museum of African American History and Culture. NoSQL database system handling 5M+ artifact records (Drupal 7 + Spring Boot).

⚙ FinTech — Deutsche Bank

Internal Auditing & SSIS Pipeline Systems

Software Engineer and Scrum Master on Deutsche Bank's internal auditing infrastructure. SSIS pipelines for Oracle financial databases. Technical Information Security Officer. Organized global hackathon with 200+ participants, producing 2 production-shipped projects.

🌐 Dashboard — UNC Chapel Hill

OpenPark — Vehicle Occupancy Dashboard

Built a real-time vehicle occupancy and parking management dashboard for UNC Chapel Hill's Parking & Transportation department. Aggregates sensor data to give administrators live facility utilization across campus.

⚙ Game Dev Tool — Mythos Interactive

Unity OpenAI NPC Dialogue Plugin

Custom Unity plugin integrating OpenAI's API to generate dynamic, contextually-aware NPC dialogue at runtime. Designers define character personalities; AI handles infinite conversation variation without pre-scripting every branch.

Career

Experience Timeline

Apr 2019 — Present

Founder & Gameplay Engineer

Mythos Interactive

Founded and operate a 2D/3D game studio — 9 titles released on Steam as the Mythos Interactive Game Collection; received Editor's Choice on Simmer.io.
Led a team of 6 through full game development cycles using Agile methodology across Unity and Unreal Engine projects.
Handled all development, voice acting, level design, UI/UX, audio integration, and post-release marketing campaigns.
Developed a Unity plugin integrating OpenAI's API for dynamic, AI-generated NPC dialogue at runtime.
Built custom editor tooling in Unity and Unreal Engine to streamline artist and designer workflows.

Nov 2020 — Jul 2024

Staff Serious Games Developer

Applied Research Associates

Developed 4 VR/MR training simulations for Meta Quest 2/Pro/3 and SteamVR for military, healthcare, and commercial clients using OpenXR/MetaXR.
Led technical efforts on 2 Unreal Engine projects in Blueprints and native C++; optimized VR performance from 45 to 90 FPS using Unreal Insights.
Designed and implemented accessible VR UI/UX systems through iterative prototyping and usability testing.
Led peer code reviews, MetaSound knowledge-sharing sessions, and mentored a 14-member cross-functional team (4 artists, 1 designer, 7 engineers, 2 QA).
Facilitated client meetings, product demos, and presented at ITSEC and ECGC industry conferences.

Feb 2019 — Nov 2020

Software Engineer

Deutsche Bank

Developed and maintained SQL Server Integration Services for financial Oracle databases using PL/SQL.
Served as Scrum Master, leading sprint rituals and facilitating cross-timezone Agile coordination for a global team across 4 time zones.
Established security protocols and compliance measures as Technical Information Security Officer.
Organized and led a global hackathon with 200+ participants; 2 resulting projects were implemented in production.

May 2016 — May 2018

Associate Developer

Quotient, Inc.

Built a NoSQL database management system for the Smithsonian Institution handling 5M+ artifact records using Drupal 7 and Spring Boot.
Architected RESTful APIs supporting concurrent multi-client access with multi-threaded request handling and messaging queues.
Built interactive exhibit software and digital archiving systems for the NMAAHC (National Museum of African American History and Culture).
Created a configurable CMS enabling multimedia content management for non-technical museum staff.

Sep 2010 — May 2016

B.Sc. Information Systems

University of Maryland, Baltimore County (UMBC)

Degree in Information Systems with focus on software engineering, database systems, and systems architecture.
Programming independently since 2008 — 8 years of personal projects and game development prior to professional entry.

GalAfik

The Full Picture

Engineer, game-maker, problem solver.

What I Build

Watch the Trailer

9 Games. One Studio.

My Games

Professional Projects

Languages & Tools

Experience Timeline

Let's Work

Ready to build something remarkable?