Dmitrij Savickij

Gameplay Programming

• Enemy behaviour State-machine driven game AI behaviour — patrol/chase/attack cycles, enemy logic for Monochrome Racing and Sniper Online. Deterministic, non-ML patterns suitable for server-side replay and verification.
• Physics & collisions Basic 2D physics systems, spring-based rope simulation, in-game object movement calculations, 2D/3D collision detection within hierarchical coordinate systems.
• Multiplayer bot system Bot system for Sniper Online — player input simulation via client API, sniper ballistics calculations, server-authoritative replication.
• Minigame systems High-velocity minigame production on Wii (101-in-1) — rapid delivery of diverse minigames under tight schedules.
• Game loop & progression Win/lose conditions, scoring systems, level progression and save-state management.
• Demo & edition stripping Demo builds and multiple edition variants with progression locking.
• Input handling Multi-platform input abstraction covering touch, Wii Remote, gamepad, keyboard/mouse across PSP, Wii, mobile, and PC.
• Camera systems Follow cameras, constraint-based rigs, and smooth interpolation for 2D and 3D gameplay scenarios.
• Platform porting Game ports to WiiWare and PSP Minis; PC titles additionally ported to mobile.
• Level & balance tooling In-game and editor-side tools for level design and gameplay balancing; balancing parameter requirements determination and editor tooling for tuning game balance; level editors across most titles in the portfolio.

UI Programming

• Coordinate systems Anchor-relative coordinate systems for resolution-independent UI across mobile and desktop.
• In-house 2D editor Collaborated on an in-house 2D editor — UI export/import pipeline development, and a dynamically generated UI system driven by editor data using object tagging.
• Animation systems Custom tween animation systems and editor tooling for UI animation.

Tools & Editor Development

• Level & grid editors Level editors, grid editor design, editor extensions and Unity package development across most titles in the portfolio.
• Exporter pipelines Collaborated on pipeline modifications to expand exporter functionality — platform-based content stripping/exporting and custom stripper/exporter support; integrated custom shader support for 2D editing tools.
• Data serialisation Binary, XML and JSON serialisation tooling for level, balancing and 2D layout data; FlatBuffers integration for minimal parse overhead on constrained hardware.
• Texture pipeline Texture import/export/post-processing tooling supporting multiple platform formats (DXT/DXN, PVRTC, ETC/ETC2, ASTC, PNG, JPEG+A, WebP and other native formats).
• Visibility checker Custom tool for Sniper Online verifying that all enemies are visible from a selected spawn point and that the spawn point is visible to all enemies.

Performance Optimization

• Render call reduction Shader-swap optimisation — instead of resetting shader state and parameters each draw call, most parameters were moved to vertex buffers; reduced state changes and covered ~90% of render calls with a single shader.
• Particle & UI rendering Particle system, UI, and animation render optimisation.
• GPU/CPU profiling Shader cost reduction and GPU/CPU bottleneck debugging across mobile and desktop targets.
• Memory & heap RAM size/allocation optimisation; collaborated on custom heap management expansion and optimisation.
• Performance test suite Developed engine/game-level performance tests covering memory, CPU, GPU capacity and I/O speeds; results drove runtime decisions on texture compression and framebuffer configuration.
• Runtime tuning Runtime texture compression and framebuffer settings adjusted based on performance test results; data binarisation (FlatBuffers, custom binary formats) to minimise I/O cost at load time.

Rendering & Graphics

• Legacy pipelines Fixed-function pipelines on PSP/Wii and DirectX 9, including optimization patterns and constraints.
• Modern shader pipelines OpenGL 2.0+, OpenGL ES, DirectX 10/11, Unity (HLSL, Shader Graph).
• Shader work Flow-maps, normal maps, water refraction, gaussian blur, black/white shader, masking pipelines; "color-as-data" approach.
• Water rendering 5-layer water (fixed pipeline), flow-map water with refraction, "half-frame water" for low-end mobile devices.

Game Engine Internals

• Object pools Generic/template object pool implementations in C++ and C#.
• ExpandableList C++ ExpandableList — grows when full, never contracts; used for hot allocation paths.
• Pathfinding Pathfinding algorithm optimisation and navigation mesh integration within in-house engine.
• Engine integration Third-party source modification and integration; engine adaptation for project-specific needs.
• 3D math Vectors, matrices, quaternions, coordinate space transforms; applied across physics, camera, collision and rendering systems.
• Bit manipulation & binary data Bitwise operations for flags, masks and compact data packing; binary data format design for efficient serialisation. Implemented next-power-of-two calculation (used for GPU texture memory alignment).

Security & Anti-Cheat

• Server-authoritative logic Game state verified server-side; clients cannot manipulate outcome — shipped across Sniper Online, Building the Great Wall of China, and subsequent titles.
• Anti-piracy Anti-piracy measures on mobile and desktop titles.
• In-app purchase verification Server-verified IAP receipts via authoritative third-party server.
• Anti-cheat backend Node.js/TypeScript anti-cheat backend developed during Building the Great Wall of China — designed as a multi-project compatible solution; later superseded by a different approach.

Technical Leadership

• Architecture decisions Technical direction, architecture decisions and code review across multiple shipped titles.
• Code review Socratic review approach — guide through questions ('what if X?', 'why not Y?') rather than directives; reasoning sticks better than corrections.
• Sprint planning Scrum-based workflow with 3-month milestones broken into 1–2 week sprints; weekly standups for lightweight sync; monthly 1-on-1s focused on growth, blockers, and career development.
• Hiring Full hiring pipeline: interview design, candidate evaluation, onboarding.
• Mentoring 1-on-1 sessions, feedback, performance improvement plans; mentored entry-level developers to independent engineers. Teams of up to 10 programmers.
• Teaching Whiteboard sessions on coordinate systems, geometry/trigonometry, architecture; internal lectures on optimisation and Git; public talk at LOGIN Game Fest 2017.

Game Physics & Simulation

• Spring-chain simulation Fishing-line physics using a spring-chain system (101-in-1 Wii).
• Racing physics Racing physics tuning and collision/constraint handling adapted for target platforms (Monochrome Racing, 101-in-1 racing minigames).
• Artificial horizon Artificial horizon UI element for flight game using fixed-function render pipeline (101-in-1 Wii).

DevOps & Infrastructure

• Build pipelines Multi-platform CI/build runner infrastructure for Win/Android/iOS/Mac.
• Game servers Multiplayer server deployment, fleet/flex configuration and matchmaking for Sniper Online.
• Self-hosted infra Deployment on virtual servers; CI-integrated autoscaling where applicable.

Nordcurrent (2008 – 2025)

Game Programmer → Senior Programmer → Technical Lead

• Gameplay, UI, AI, Physics, tools, and rendering development on in-house engine and Unity
• Technical leadership: architecture decisions, code review, mentoring, onboarding
• Anti-piracy and anti-cheat systems (server-authoritative logic, fraud prevention)
• DevOps and infrastructure: build pipelines, deployment automation, game servers

Vilnius University – Bachelor's degree in Informatics