Palash Gharde — Technical Game Designer

PALASH GHARDE

// Technical Game Designer

Shipped Titles

Yrs Engineering

3.9

MS GPA / 4.0

Engines

LinkedIn ↗ Itch.io ↗ GitHub ↗ palash.gharde047@gmail.com ↗

// Who I Am

ABOUT ME

Hey there, I'm Palash! I'm a Technical Game Designer focused on building gameplay systems, rapid prototypes, and interactive level experiences in Unreal Engine and Unity. My work combines design thinking with a strong software engineering foundation, and I have built multiple game projects with a focus on modular gameplay systems, AI behavior, interaction systems, procedural systems, and player-centered mechanics.

I started my game development journey while working full-time as a Software Developer, where I realized I wanted to combine my love for games with my interest in coding. I began learning Unity and Blender in my free time, then later picked up Unreal Engine during my master's degree and became drawn to Blueprint scripting for rapid prototyping. Since then, I have built games in Unreal Engine and Unity, focusing on gameplay mechanics, interactive systems, and NPC AI using Behavior Trees, Blackboards, and AI Perception. My software development background helps me build systems that are logical, robust, and scalable.

I'm now looking to join the game industry full-time as a Technical Game Designer, where I can contribute to meaningful gameplay experiences as part of a collaborative team. Whether it's prototyping a new mechanic, scripting interactive systems, building NPC behavior, improving level flow, or supporting designers with technical implementation, I'm excited to help bring creative ideas to life.

// What I Work With

Unreal Engine 5 Unity Godot Blueprint Behavior Trees AI Perception C++ C# Python Blender Level Design

// Education

MS Computer Science — Arizona State University, Tempe AZ · GPA 3.9 / 4.0 · 2023–2025

BTech Computer Engineering — Vishwakarma Institute of Technology, Pune · 2016–2020

KIDNAPPED

Horror · Escape · Puzzle · Survival

First-person survival horror set across a house, dark maze, and eerie tower. Escape before the kidnapper catches you — solve puzzles, manage survival stats, and outsmart adaptive AI. Structured 20–30 min play across 8 sequences.

EngineUnreal Engine 5

ToolsBlueprint, C++, Blender

Year2024

PlatformPC

Systems Designer Level Designer AI Designer Solo Developer

Play on Itch.io ↗ Trailer ↗

⤢ CLICK TO EXPAND

// Mechanics

GAME SYSTEMS

// Core Gameplay Loop

Explore

Navigate house, maze & tower

Find Items

Collect 20+ interactables

Solve

8 puzzle sequences

Survive

Manage health, stamina, hunger

Escape

Outsmart the AI

// Core System

Modular Interaction System

Blueprint parent/child hierarchy with Blueprint Interfaces — scales to 20+ interactable types with zero code duplication.

Single parent class handles pickup, inspect & use logic
Child classes override only unique behaviors
Doors, keys, chests, food — one unified pickup & drop system

⤢ CLICK TO EXPAND

// Survival

Survival Systems Suite

Hunger, thirst, stamina, and health — all driven by Data Tables, enabling rapid iteration without code changes.

Data Table-driven decay rates and thresholds
Stamina depletes faster when starved — layered pressure
Find and consume food/water to stay above critical

⤢ CLICK TO EXPAND

// Enemy AI

Kidnapper AI — Behavior Trees

Relentless enemy using Behavior Trees + Blackboards + AI Perception (sight & hearing). Reacts dynamically to all player actions.

Patrol Investigate Chase Attack

Default Roam - Chooses 1 out of 3 Spline Paths randomly, to roam around house
Sound events (running, doors) → Investigate
Line-of-sight → Chase → Attack

⤢ CLICK TO EXPAND

// Narrative

Story-Driven Cutscenes and Dailogs

Cinematic cutscenes via UE5 Level Sequencer, triggered at puzzle completion checkpoints — delivers narrative without breaking flow.

Trigger-based activation on puzzle completion
Character dialogue & environmental storytelling
Structured pacing across all 8 sequences

⤢ CLICK TO EXPAND

THE ELEMENTAL ASCENT

Puzzle · Platformer · Physics · Adventure

Third-person puzzle-platformer where players harness fire and ice to navigate a mysterious machine-driven environment. Physics-based chain reactions power every puzzle.

EngineUnreal Engine 5

ToolsBlueprint, Gameplay Animation Sample

Year2026

PlatformPC

Level Designer Mechanics Designer Systems Designer Solo Developer

Walkthrough ↗

⤢ CLICK TO EXPAND

// Mechanics

ELEMENTAL SYSTEMS

// Chain Reaction — Steam Lift Puzzle

Fire

Ignites wood below container

Ice Block

Player places ice above

Melt

Heat melts ice → water fills

Steam

Boiling generates lift

Deactivates

Lift drops when water evaporates

// Element: Ice

Freeze Water → Ice Blocks

Cooling with visual state progression. Spawns placeable ice blocks the player picks up for traversal and puzzle solving.

Visual feedback shows freeze progression
Integrated into interaction system — pick & place
Block shrinks visually as it melts

⤢ CLICK TO EXPAND

// Element: Fire

Fire — Burn & Heating mechanics

Fireball projectiles trigger Burnable Interface responses on impact. Burning objects propagate heat via Raycast, Heating the objects with Heatable Interface causing a chain-reaction for puzzle solutions.

Fire projectile → burning state → heat propagation
Heatable Interface detected by Raycast
Chain: burn wood → heat container → melt ice → steam

⤢ CLICK TO EXPAND

// Blueprint Implementation

Pickup, Interact & Elemental Systems — Blueprint Code

All core mechanics are implemented in Blueprint. Three interconnected systems handle everything from object interaction to elemental chain reactions.

Pickup & Place — BP_ThirdPersonCharacter

Tap F — pick up object (Started action)
Hold F — show placement preview mesh
Release F — place if location valid
Green material = valid surface / Red = invalid
BPI_PickableObjects interface on all pickable actors
BPC_CheckPlacingSurface component on BP_IceCube & BP_WoodStack

Interact — BP_RotatingLever

E key — enter / exit lever interaction mode
W / S — rotate lever while in interaction mode
Sphere trace in BP_ThirdPersonCharacter detects interactables in front of player
Same E key used for door interaction and ladder mount

Elemental Chain — Interface-Driven

BP_Fireball hits WoodStack → triggers BPI_BurnableObjects
Burning wood propagates heat → BPI_HeatableObjects on BP_WaterContainer
BP_WaterContainer detects BP_IceCube above and melt it → fills container with water -> after ice completely melts, the water starts boiling.
Boiling water generates steam → pushes lift's counterweight up -> lift comes down
Water evaporation timer → lift's counterweight descends automatically after water evaporates completely -> lift goes up

// Blueprint Screenshots for Pick and Place 7 images

click to browse Blueprint code screenshots ↗

// Initial Prototype — Initial level blockout and game mechanics (After 2 weeks of development)

Step-by-Step Gameplay Walkthrough

F Pick / Place E Interact WASD Move RMB Aim LMB Shoot Fireball

Place Wood Stack

Walk near Wood Stack → Tap F to pick up. Hold F to see preview, walk to Yellow Plate, Release F to place.

Place Ice Cube in Container

Pick up Ice Cube → go to the top floor → place ice inside the green water container using Hold & Release F.

Move Container with Lever

Approach first lever → E to enter lever mode → W/S to rotate → position the green container below the lift's counterweight (orange box) → E to exit.

Move Log Plate with Second Lever

Use the second lever the same way — rotate to slide the log plate directly below the green container so the fire can heat it.

Shoot Fireball — Start the Chain

Right click to aim → Left click to shoot fireball at the Wood Stack. Fire burns wood → heats container → melts ice → water boils → generates steam (~45 sec chain).

Ride the Steam Lift

While wood burns and ice melts, go to the lift entrance. Wait for the counterweight to rise and the lift to come down. Enter and wait — lift rises automatically once steam is fully active, then descends when water evaporates.

Open the Door & Climb Ladder

Find the door blocking the stairs on the right → E to open. Interact with ladder → W to climb up, S to climb down to reach the next stage.

Exit — Cutscene Trigger Temporary

Used a temporary teleport box as a lift to reach the exit as lift system not implemeted yet.

// Puzzle Screenshots 6 images

click to browse puzzle solution screenshots ↗

// Process

LEVEL DESIGN PROCESS

Concept

Came up with intial concept for the puzzle, then thought about the relevent mechanics aroun it.

// Concept Ideas 4 images

click to browse all images ↗

2D Layout Planning

Designed 4-floor vertical structure in 2D. Mapped player flow, puzzle sequencing, interaction placement, and readability checkpoints per floor before any 3D work.

// 2D Floor Maps 5 images

click to browse all images ↗

3D Blockout in UE5

Translated 2D layouts into playable 3D blockout. Iterated on spatial feel, adding ladders, shortcuts, and alternate paths based on playtesting feedback.

// 3D Blockout Screenshot 5 images

click to browse all images ↗

Final Version with Assets and Materials

Added relevent 3D assets, materials, lights, water and puzzle elements.

// Final Version Screenshot 5 images

click to browse all images ↗

// Screenshots

⤢ CLICK TO EXPAND

BURGER SHOP

Cooking Sim · Time Management · Restaurant

Fast-paced 3D cooking sim built on the modular counter/kitchen-object architecture from Code Monkey's Kitchen Chaos course. Extended independently with four original systems — a deep-fry mechanic, a UI-driven soda mini-game, an expanded plate/tray system, and layered character animation — to explore state machines, mini-game UI, and animation layering beyond the course scope.

EngineUnity

LanguageC#

Year2026

PlatformWebGL · Windows

Gameplay Programmer Systems Extension UI / Mini-Game Design

Play on Itch.io ↗ View Source ↗

⤢ CLICK TO EXPAND

// Mechanics

GAME SYSTEMS

// Core Gameplay Loop

Read Order

Customer recipe appears

Prep

Cut, cook, or fry ingredients

Plate

Assemble on the serving tray

Mix Drink

Soda machine mini-game

Deliver

Score before time runs out

// Cooking Systems

Deep-Fry State Machine

New DeepFryCounter reusing the stove counter's burn-timing pattern — Idle → Frying → Burning → Burned — extended for fries instead of writing a one-off timer from scratch.

State machine reused and adapted from the existing stove-cooking counter
ScriptableObject-driven recipes define fry time and burn threshold per ingredient
Burnt fries spawn a distinct "packed" pickup instead of just failing silently

// Mini-Game

Soda Machine Mixing Mini-Game

UI-driven mini-game triggered from a soda counter — grab a cup, fill it with one of four drinks, cap it with a lid. Modeled after real fast-food soda stations.

Two-flag state (cup-in-hand, cup-filled) drives the flow — simpler than a full state machine since the sequence is linear
Trash-can button added after playtesting as a recovery path for wrong drink selections
Timed coroutines fake cup/lid animation by sequencing static sprite swaps

// Data-Driven Design

Extended Plate & Tray System

Swapped the single-item plate prefab for a full serving tray, adding drink cups and fries as valid plate ingredients on top of the existing burger-stacking logic.

New ingredient types plugged into the existing show/hide visual-mapping pattern with no new code
Added a one-drink-per-plate cap so trays can't visually overlap multiple cups
Fully data-driven — new valid ingredients configured via ScriptableObject, not hardcoded

// Animation

Layered Character Animation

Replaced the default character with a Synty asset and built two-layer, avatar-masked animation blending so the player can hold a tray steady while still running.

Avatar-masked lower-body layer adds run-cycle leg motion on top of a locked upper-body holding pose
Base layer covers 5 states (idle, single-item, plate variants); the masked layer mirrors 3 of them for sync
Both layers driven off the same 3 animator bools instead of Unity's built-in layer sync

// Screenshots — click any to expand

HUNTING SIMULATOR

Forest · Hunting · Shooter · Strategy · Survival

First-person hunting sim with 2 distinct animal AIs, a full persistent economy loop, and randomized animal placement for replayability — built across a dense forest environment.

EngineUnreal Engine 5

ToolsBlueprint, C++, Blender

Year2024

PlatformPC

AI Designer Systems Designer Solo Developer

Play on Itch.io ↗ Trailer ↗

⤢ CLICK TO EXPAND

// Mechanics

GAME SYSTEMS

// Economy Loop

Hunt

Track & shoot deer or tiger

Skin

Collect hides via animation

Sell

Trade skins at store

Upgrade

Buy better weapons

Save

Persistent progress

// Animal AI — Deer

Deer Behavior Tree

Peaceful grazing animal that becomes highly responsive to player presence — sight and sound detection triggers realistic flight behavior.

Graze Wander Alert Flee

Sound (footsteps) → Alert
Sight (player visible) → Flee to random location
NavMesh for natural movement

⤢ CLICK TO EXPAND

// Animal AI — Tiger

Tiger Behavior Tree

Apex predator that actively stalks, chases, and attacks the player when spotted — creating a two-directional threat in the environment.

Sleep Prowl Stalk Chase Attack

AI Perception (sight + hearing)
Escalating aggression by player distance

⤢ CLICK TO EXPAND

// Economy System

Shop & Skin Economy

A full persistent economy loop drives long-term player engagement — hunt animals, collect skins, sell for cash, then spend on ammo and weapon upgrades. Each animal type yields a different skin value, creating strategic hunting decisions.

Animal	Skin	Sell Value	Difficulty
Female Deer	Doe Hide	$	EASY
Male Deer	Buck Hide	$$	MEDIUM
Tiger	Tiger Pelt	$$$	HIGH RISK

Hunt Animal → Collect Skin → Sell at Shop → Buy Upgrades

Tiger pelt yields highest cash — but tiger actively hunts you back
Shop sells ammo refills and weapon upgrades gated behind economy
Persistent save system preserves cash & upgrades across sessions
Risk/reward loop: high-value targets require better gear to hunt safely

⤢ CLICK TO EXPAND

// World

Procedural Environment

Randomized placement for animals, items, and spawn points ensures each session feels unique. Dynamic lighting for time-of-day atmosphere.

Randomized animal spawn locations per session
Environmental props: rivers, birds, ambient sounds
Dynamic lighting for immersive atmosphere

⤢ CLICK TO EXPAND

WRONG WAY

Casual · Mobile · Endless Runner · Driving

Mobile endless runner — ride against traffic, dodge oncoming vehicles, collect coins, and outrun cops. Fully procedural track generation optimized for short-session mobile engagement and escalating difficulty.

EngineUnreal Engine 5

ToolsBlueprint, C++, Blender

Year2024

PlatformMobile / PC

Systems Designer Procedural Design Solo Developer

Play on Itch.io ↗

⤢ CLICK TO EXPAND

// Mechanics

GAME SYSTEMS

// Core

Procedural Track Generation

Fully procedural track with dynamic obstacle spawning and efficient off-screen cleanup — consistent performance across extended play.

Traffic vehicles spawn with randomized lane & spacing
Off-screen chunks despawned for memory performance
Coin & power-up placement randomized each run

⤢ CLICK TO EXPAND

// AI

Cop Car AI & Chase

Police vehicles detect and pursue the player with escalating aggression the longer you survive.

Patrol Spotted Pursue Ram

Proximity trigger → pursuit begins
Time alive → aggression multiplier increases

⤢ CLICK TO EXPAND

// Power-ups

Power-Up System

Two power-ups that change moment-to-moment strategy during high-speed play.

Magnet — attracts nearby coins automatically
Ramp — briefly jump over obstacles
Coin collection gated behind power-up strategy

⤢ CLICK TO EXPAND

// Design

Mobile-First Loop Design

Every system designed for short-session engagement — instant start, escalating difficulty, satisfying feedback loops, persistent highscore motivation.

Speed progression ramps challenge over time
Persistent highscore across sessions
Satisfying SFX for coins, dodges & sirens

⤢ CLICK TO EXPAND

// Screenshots

JETPACKMAN ADVENTURES

2D · Flying · Procedural · Cross-Platform

2D flying game with procedural obstacle generation, a dual-projectile weapon system, and interactive door hacking minigames — shipped cross-platform on Android and PC/WebGL.

EngineUnity

LanguageC#

Year2022

PlatformAndroid · PC · WebGL

Mechanics Designer Procedural Design Solo Developer

Play on Itch.io ↗

⤢ CLICK TO EXPAND

// Mechanics

GAME SYSTEMS

// Weapons

Dual-Projectile System

Two distinct projectile types with unique environmental interactions — creates strategic ammo management throughout each run.

Impact Bomb — destroys wooden doors on contact
Hacking Laser — triggers door hacking minigame
Context-appropriate ammo choice required to progress

⤢ CLICK TO EXPAND

// Procedural

Obstacle Generation

Dynamic height variance ensures no two runs feel the same. Obstacle density scales with progression.

Random height variance creates unpredictable paths
Density scales with progression depth

⤢ CLICK TO EXPAND

// Platform

Cross-Platform Input

Full cross-platform support with unified input abstraction — touch on Android and keyboard on PC/WebGL feel consistent.

Touch controls optimized for mobile screen sizes
Keyboard bindings for PC & WebGL
Consistent feel across both platforms

⤢ CLICK TO EXPAND

// Screenshots — click any to expand

⤢ CLICK TO EXPAND

// Capabilities

SKILLS

Game Engines

Unreal Engine 5UnityGodot

Programming

Blueprint (UE5)C++C#PythonGDScript

AI Systems

Behavior TreesBlackboardsAI PerceptionNavMesh

Game Design

Core Loop DesignLevel DesignGDD WritingPrototypingPlaytestingProcedural Systems

Tools

BlenderGitHacknPlanFigmaMiroPhotoshopDaVinci Resolve

// Work History

EXPERIENCE

AI / ML Engineer

JPMorgan Chase & Co. · AZ

Jun 2025 – Present

Engineered secure RESTful and GraphQL APIs with FastAPI and Flask for trading dashboards and external integrations, reducing frontend payload size by 37% through field-level selection
Built a Retrieval-Augmented Generation (RAG) system using LangChain and Pinecone for semantic search over legal and compliance documents, cutting query response time by 40% for internal audit teams
Developed an agentic orchestration framework with open-weight LLMs for trade reconciliation and document summarization, reducing manual operations review time by 54%
Deployed Apache Kafka streaming pipelines to ingest transaction and trade data, enabling real-time feature computation for fraud detection and credit risk models
Containerized scikit-learn and XGBoost models as FastAPI microservices with a feature store, ensuring consistent batch and real-time inference for underwriting decisions
Refactored OAuth2 and JWT authentication with centralized policy enforcement, reducing unauthorized access incidents by 92% and meeting FINRA compliance standards

Machine Learning Engineer

Infinite Infolab · India

May 2022 – Jul 2023

Designed and deployed production-grade Python APIs (Flask, Django REST) serving LLM and supervised learning models for enterprise document workflows, supporting sub-200ms latency across 1,000+ daily inference requests
Architected an end-to-end RLHF data pipeline integrating human preference labeling with automated quality gates, reducing reward model training time by 40%
Created a RAG system for internal retrieval, implementing chunking strategies and vector search logic that improved relevance scores by 28%
Streamlined distributed ML training pipelines on AWS (EC2, S3) to orchestrate parallel hyperparameter sweeps, cutting large-scale retraining cycles from 8 hours to under 3 hours
Implemented automated model validation tooling, including A/B testing frameworks and drift-detection monitors, ensuring fine-tuned models met stability criteria before production rollout

Software Engineer

VERITAS Technologies · India

Jan 2020 – Apr 2022

Automated Python-based orchestration pipelines (Django) to validate data backup and recovery workflows across distributed Linux environments, reducing manual validation effort by 70%
Maintained 60+ RESTful APIs handling 20K daily requests between core backup services and external monitoring agents, ensuring stable on-premise and cloud data exchange
Enhanced application response times by 30% through ORM query refactoring, PostgreSQL schema optimization, and MongoDB indexing for high-volume telemetry data
Launched a React-based administrative dashboard for pipeline health and job-status visualization, cutting diagnostic time for failed backup jobs by 20%

// Education

MS Computer Science

Arizona State University · Tempe, AZ

Aug 2023 – May 2025

GPA 3.9 / 4.0

BTech Computer Engineering

Vishwakarma Institute of Technology · Pune

Aug 2016 – May 2020

GPA 8.62 / 10

PALASH
GHARDE

PROJECTS

GAME SYSTEMS

ELEMENTAL SYSTEMS

LEVEL DESIGN PROCESS

GAME SYSTEMS

GAME SYSTEMS

GAME SYSTEMS

GAME SYSTEMS

SKILLS

EXPERIENCE

LET'S BUILD SOMETHING

PALASHGHARDE

PROJECTS

GAME SYSTEMS

ELEMENTAL SYSTEMS

LEVEL DESIGN PROCESS

GAME SYSTEMS

GAME SYSTEMS

GAME SYSTEMS

GAME SYSTEMS

SKILLS

EXPERIENCE

LET'S BUILD SOMETHING

PALASH
GHARDE