Hello World!
I'm Ulisses Dantas, a developer passionate about creating games, working since 2012 with Unity / C#, leading teams and projects, and always aiming for the best delivery
Works
Here you can check the details of some of the projects I've worked on over the past few years, just click on the image to see details about each one:
The Kludos
2018 / 2021
Learning Game/Platform created in Unity, using REST API's, Addressables, modular structures and ECS
Cobra Kai
2020
Game based on the famous Cobra Kai series, continuation of Karate Kid movie
Talent Matching
2016
Various learning games, using modular structures, REST API's, Facebook and others
The Kludos
At Kludo (formerly Talent Matching), using all the lessons we had over three and a half years, we decided to create a more robust experience from scratch, following the same architecture and concepts of the games and platform we had developed until then.
At this moment, I designed and led a larger multidisciplinary team of 12 people (backend, frontend, BI, designers, 3d artists and Unity developers) to recreate the learning platform, with a game based on The Sims, where students are rewarded for the consumption of training content, being able to customize their avatars and do missions in 3d scenarios representative of our clients' businesses.
The platform is the startup's flagship product and, despite all challenges, we managed to achieve a robust learning experience, using games and gamification.
The major challenges and lessons learned from this project were:
-
Translate the errors and problems of the previous platform into new solutions;
-
Lead a much larger team, dealing with team engagement, individual desires and the professional development of each one. Also creating bridges between areas, bringing more integrated solutions to optimize the work of the entire team;
-
Direct product decisions, reporting to stakeholders, bringing the business vision to the team, and making concessions and adaptations according to the business needs.
Cobra Kai – The Karate Kid Saga Continues
As a freelancer, I was invited by Flux Game Studio to implement some subsystems to the Beat`em Up Cobra Kai developed in Unity.
Due to my experience with data orientation, I was responsible for implementing tracking of various gameplay elements, such as: number of hits, hit types, consolidations by type of attack, enemy and player. These were used to implement rating systems, achievements and in game challenges.
I was also responsible for rewriting the Save and Loading system, preparing it to be extended by the porting team to the PS4, Xbox and Switch consoles. In addition to doing bug-fixing work and some optimization guidance for the team.
Talent Matching Games
Talent Matching (now called Kludo) is a startup focused on delivering applications aimed at education, mainly corporate.
I was invited to start and develop the startup's first product, a game aimed at behavioral analysis of university students,when the startup had only just three people (myself being the only developer).
Over time, we pivoted and iterated the product (s), to create a platform for corporate education, where company educators could create training content in a simple way through a web interface, and students would consume this content within games.
Along with that, the startup team grew and I was invited to become a partner and lead the entire game development area and later on also technology and product.
The product consists of 4 layers:
-
Backend where applications consume and feed data through RESTful APIs;
-
An administrative web interface, for creating content and access controls, permission and reports;
-
An interchangeable “base game”, which is a game layer focused purely on student entertainment, but has its features tied to student performance in minigames;
-
Minigames, which are small games where in fact the content created by educators takes shape, and are of the most diverse forms.
Over 3 and a half years, I designed, planned and developed a construction tycoon game, a track game and a candy crush as base games, as well as specific adaptations for specific customers and 7 minigames, with different learning objectives such as: quizzes , dialogues, associations, interactive videos, among others.
The biggest challenges and important learnings were:
-
The assembly of a robust architecture on the games side, to allow the necessary interchangeability of the platform in addition to keeping the product stable regardless of the number of features and / or developers working on the project;
-
Optimization, since the initial targets were web versions using deprecated browsers (Internet Explorer);
-
Develop leadership skills, pointing out solutions, best practices, stimulating the team and dealing with stakeholders.
World Ship Simulator
2015
Ship Simulator Game, with open world, missions and realistic physics
Advergames
----
Various games for events and marketing campaigns, using Kinect, PHP, MySQL, touch screens and others
Other projects and Learn
----
A little about recent work and older studies
World Ship Simulator
World Ship Simulator is a simulator game developed by Odin Game Studio.
I worked on it as the only programmer and dealing with aspects of art and design. This was my first experience working in a company that develops only games, and the first experience in a long-term project.
One of the biggest challenges was trying to develop the best game possible within the time limits (eight months) and in a small team (only two people committed to the project).
I learned a lot about scheduling a project, dealing with a highly complex project and dealing with a publisher's requirements.
I also performed all the integration with Valve's Steam, developing a mod tool to allow users to create their own ships and upload them to the Steam workshop.
Advergames
At the beginning of my career and over the years as a freelancer, I worked with the development of applications and advergames for the most diverse uses: events, fairs, team meetings, web promotions, among others.
I developed them mostly using Unity or Cocos Creator (for web-focused applications) in addition to using supplementary systems such as MySQL, PHP, Javascript, MongoDB, and dealing with the most diverse technologies such as: IOS, Android, Kinect, Arduino, serial communication (for use with specific sensors), Wii-Remote, Leap Motion, REST APIs, among others.
Other projects and Learning
I recently worked with porting games for consoles (PS4, Switch, Xbox One) and with the development of multiplayer games using Photon Unity.
In addition, mainly, due to the role in technology leadership at Kludo, I learned a lot and took courses referring to technologies not directly used for game development, such as: Node.JS (Express), React, MongoDB, Serverless (Lambda and Azure Functions), PostgresSQL maintenance, .NET Core, infrastructure management and services in AWS and Azure, and Playfab.
Previously, during the beginning of my formation, during the undergraduate course in Game Design at Universidade Anhembi Morumbi I developed several games in lean teams, where I was always responsible for the technical implementation of games (programming and engine use), looking for solutions to make games delivered within tight development schedules, seeking the best delivery in terms of visuals, gameplay and development processes (such as bringing technical art solutions to modelers and artists), in addition to helping with decision making of Game Design and UI.
Contact
Do you want to know a little more about me? Download my Curriculum Vitae or check my LinkedIn below.
Did you miss code? As my focus has always been on commercial projects and the startup where I am a partner, most of my repositories are private, but just contact me and I can share access to an authorized project for sharing for portfolio purposes.
Email: ulisses.s.dantas@gmail.com
Telephone: +55 (11) 97240-4465
