Neil Koo

Neil Koo

Senior Gameplay Programmer

Montréal, QC · [email protected] · LinkedIn

Download résumé (PDF)

Senior gameplay programmer with 10+ years building and shipping gameplay systems and AI for action and co-op titles. Specializes in deep, system-wide debugging — root-causing hard, intermittent bugs — and stabilizing complex systems through volatile production phases. Comfortable owning systems end to end and guiding less-experienced programmers.

Experience

Gunmetal Games
Senior Gameplay Programmer (Contract) Apr 2026 – Present

Rewind 99 (UE5)

  • Re-architecting and porting core gameplay systems for the 1.0 release under a compressed timeline.
  • Owning stability and maintainability across systems in C++ and Blueprints.
Invoke Studios Aug 2019 – Oct 2024
Senior Gameplay Programmer Nov 2022 – Oct 2024
Gameplay Programmer Aug 2019 – Nov 2022

WARLOCK: Dungeons & Dragons

  • Drove delivery of the playable prototype; owned debugging and stabilization through prototype and vertical slice.
  • Developed AI behaviors and core gameplay systems in UE5 (C++ and Blueprints); established reusable systems and conventions.

Dungeons & Dragons: Dark Alliance

  • Built AI, progression, and encounter logic for boss fights (Hagedorn, Icewind, the Lich); core AI aggro via GOAP.
  • Built and maintained an extensible gameplay debugger; fixed game-breaking issues (unresponsive and rubberbanding enemies).
LuckyHammers
Programmer Dec 2017 – Jul 2019

Terraforming Mars, Carcassonne, Onitama (C# / Unity)

  • Shipped and supported titles across PC and mobile, including client work with Asmodee.
  • Acted as primary debugger on multiple projects.

Earlier roles

  • Compulsion Games Sep 2017 – Nov 2017 We Happy Few (UE4) — gameplay features in C++ and Blueprints.
  • Hibernum Créations Sep 2016 – Aug 2017 Dice With Buddies, Yahtzee, Dice With Ellen (C# / Unity) — shipped under tight deadlines; advanced to the Production Tools team; maintained a Python build pipeline.
  • Skopworks Inc. Dec 2011 – Jul 2015 2LoC engine — built and maintained an in-house engine (Box2D, touch input), ported to iOS; reusable game implementations for fast designer iteration.

Skills

Languages
C++ · C# · Python · Blueprints
Engines & Tools
Unreal Engine 5 · Unity · Visual Studio · Git · Perforce · JIRA · CMake

Education

B.IT (Honours) — University of Ontario Institute of Technology 2008 – 2012

Specialization in Game Development & Entrepreneurship; Graduated with Distinction.