Hi. My name’s Matt.

I build game systems that create meaningful experiences for players, developers, and artists.

I’m a technical leader with a creative heart, blending programming amd design expertise with critical artistry and narrative flair.

I believe games are a medium for artistic expression, and I work to support those who feel the same.

Want to collaborate? matt@matthew-r-stevens.ca

Who am I?

About Me:

I'm a senior game developer and founder with experience in programming, game design, critical art, and creative leadership.

  • Founder of a successful learning games studio.
  • Technical Lead for startups and indie studios.
  • Systems Architect for mobile and PC titles.
  • Creative Director on narrative-driven independent projects.
  • Educator and public speaker on game development internationally.

I believe game development lives at the intersection of business and art, and that great teams need to understand both to thrive.

I've built games with celebrated indie studios and for clients like the Red Cross, the United Nations, and the Canadian Government.

Technical Skills:

  • C# // C++ // Git //
  • Unity // Unreal // Godot //
  • systems architecture //
  • asset management //
  • build pipelines //
  • GOAP AI // multiplayer //
  • rapid prototyping //
  • production-level code //
  • Agile + Scrum PM //

Creative Skills:

  • game design // pitching //
  • funder relations //
  • business development //
  • teamwork // communication //
  • public speaking //
  • training delivery //
  • qual & quant research //
  • creative writing //
  • grantwriting //

Recent Commercial Projects

Prove You're Human

An AI dares to dream she is human. You've been hired to put her in her place.

Convinced GPUs to simulate JPEG compression, taught silver balls to roll, choreographed flocking groups of screens, and other wacky stuff. Note: no actual AI was used in the creation of the simulated AI.

Criss Cross Castle

Rebuilt a prototype into a scalable release-ready app. Secured mobile platform approvals and managed build release pipelines. Led decisions on architecture, security, UI/UX polish, and "game feel" upgrades. Contributed to project management and design.

Learned to spell naughty words, then sadly added them to the prohibited word list.

Viridia

  • Unrleased CRPG Prototype - PC
  • Senior Programmer @ Rogue Harbour
  • Nov 2022 - Mar 2023
  • Unity // C# // Lua

Led architecture development, built core systems, selected and implemented third-party narrative scripting tools, designed Lua scripting extensions alongside art and narrative teams.

Passionate ally of queer humans and robots alike.

See more gameplay and concept art from Creative Director Eva Toker.

Disaster Town Tycoon

Architected core gameplay, analytics tools, and content pipelines for an early access-to-launch F2P title.

Taught rockets to target various kaijus via visually pleasing trajectories.

Airport BillionAir

Maintained live ops, managed releases, and developed modular systems to support feature growth.

Strongly encouraged liberal comic reference to the Dune universe.

Hempire

Refactored legacy code, optimized memory usage, and modernized asset loading pipelines. Supported A/B test implementations. Implemented a new minigame including backend, art, and animations.

You can imagine it was a creative work environment!

Highlighted Personal Projects

Until the Last Breath

In the year 205X, the buildup of heavy toxic gases in the atmosphere has rendered it unbreathable. Humanity clings to life in tiny pockets of oxygen. Life in the bubble has become the only way of life.

Bandits and madmen fight amongst the ashes of humankind to harvest a dying breath. For those who seek peace, rumours of a last city in the clouds dispel the mists of despair. Do you have what it takes to bubble up and rise above?

The 1% - Enter The Contest

  • Narrative Roguelike
  • Dec 2024 - present
  • Source Code
  • Godot 4.4 // C#

In dystopian near future, the only vehicle for social mobility is no-holds-barred deathmatch combat. Do you have what it takes to join the 1%? A retrofuturist twin-stick roguelite shooter inspired by Smash TV and Noita, with a Hades-like meta-game.

Once Upon A Time In The West

Library for point-and-click adventure games. Core module includes branching dialogue, inventory, multiple click types, pathfinding, puzzle minigames. Liberal use of frightening programmer art.

Elysian Engine

  • 2D Game Engine
  • Oct 2023 - Feb 2024
  • Source code
  • C++ // SDL2

Experimental implementation of 2D game engine using C++ and SDL2. Educational project to sharpen architecture, memory management, and rendering systems. Who knew smart pointers could be this much fun?

Evasive Thoughts

Your brain is full of ideas, but not every idea is a good one. Grab the good thoughts, evade the bad before they wreck your day, your job prospects, and your chance at romance.

Employment

sunset visitor 斜陽過客 - Senior Programmer

In 2025, I was invited to join sunset visitor 斜陽過客, an award-winning arthouse studio based in Vancouver, Canada. Known for 1000xResist, at ssv we tell meaningful stories about the world through the lens of speculative fiction.

As a senior programmer, I work closely with a small team of remarkable designers, artists, and the narrative team to implement technical art and gameplay systems. Together, we work to validate games as a revolutionary new medium for artistic creation by telling unique stories and generating resonant emotional experiences.

A small sample of tasks I have taken on: I have written custom shaders in HLSL using the new Scriptable Render Pipeline in Unity 6.3, implemented tight first-person controllers, worked extensively with the open-source narrative tool Yarn, and handled group NPC behaviours to bring the simulated world of Prove You're Human to life.

Simply Sweet Games - Tech Lead

In 2024, I joined indie superstars Carina Kom and Tina Merry in their startup adventure, Simply Sweet Games as Tech Lead.

At SSG, I am updating a basic prototype to be release-ready and helping building the foundations of a new brand. I oversee all project architecture, core systems, release pipelines, app security, gameplay implementation, etc.

LBC Studios - Programmer

At LBC Studios I modernized of a legacy codebase, building modular packages to help accelerate for product re-skin pipelines.

I contributed to liveops server administration and database management, and implemented an A/B test systems. I migrated core gameplay systems from pre-loaded asset bundles to asynchronously loading remote addressables to reduce download sizes and improve memory optimization.

Rogue Harbour - Intermediate Programmer

At Rogue Harbour Game Studio I contributed to projects from pre-production to release and live-ops.

I independently managed projects and contributed to architecture planning. I worked with designers to implement new core gameplay systems, design tools, and UI. I built modular packages for internal libraries. I proactively participated in a small team, quickly taking on increasing responsibilities and different tasks, and learning new skills as needed.

LLST - Founder and Director

In 2017, I founded a learning game development startup called Lessons Learned Simulations and Training, serving international humanitarian clients from 2018 to 2022.

I designed more than 15 learning games with clients around the world, including Europe, the Middle East, and Africa.

I carried out research on the global effectiveness of learning games and delivered courses on learning game design for humanitarian educators around the world.

Project Archive

Eyes of the Precursor

  • Project Type: Introspective top-down postcolonial experience
  • Game Jam: Global Game Jam 2026
  • Date: Jan 2026
  • Play on Itch.io
  • Source code: GitHub
  • Engine: Unity
  • Language: C#

You are a Deity embodied into a mask, initially created for protection and later used for ceremony.

Experience how the world around you has changed each time you are worn. Learn about how your Dedicants feel about you and their role within the Clan that built you.

A game jam project with a heart of gold, we disregarded the ancient wisdom to "never make a narrative game in a weekend". As such, please enjoy 1.5 playable chapters (out of 5 total planned)

Frantic Antics

In the world of ants, chaos reigns supreme! Two ant queens go head to head, commanding their workers to search for tasks such as gathering resources and battling threats. Grow your horde fastest or be wiped out. Frantic Antics is a couch multiplayer game built in Unity over an intense three days, prompted by the theme "stronger together".

RoboBlast2077

  • Project Type: Game Prototype
  • Date: June 2022
  • Play online: Itch.io
  • Source code: GitHub
  • Engine: Unity
  • Language: C#

A rapid prototype built to explore a procedurally generated cave, using cellular automata and marching squares. Built in Unity using C#.

RPG Adventure

  • Project Type: Game Prototype
  • Date: Aug - Nov 2020
  • Play online: Itch.io
  • Source code: GitHub
  • Engine: Unity
  • Language: C#

A vertical slice of a basic 3D action-RPG game, demonstrating the ability to design, organize, and implement larger and more complicated projects. Built in Unity using C#.

Asteroids_Pwnt

  • Project Type: Game
  • Date: Sept 2021
  • Play online: Itch.io
  • Source code: GitHub
  • Engine: Godot 3
  • Language: GDScript

A high-paced clone of Asteroids, built in Godot with GScript, a scripting language based on Python.

Rescue Tank!

  • Project Type: Game
  • Date: April 2022
  • Download: Itch.io
  • Source code: GitHub
  • Language: C++
  • Libraries: SDL2

A retro-style humanitarian learning game inspired by Atari and DOS classics, developed to learn SDL2 and basic principles of engine development in C++.

Hexmap Widget

  • Project Type: Tool
  • Date: June 2021
  • Play online: Itch.io
  • Source code: GitHub
  • Engine: Unity
  • Language: C#

A basic tool to for the dynamic construction and modification of a hexmap, for use in a turn-based strategy game.

Select Educational Projects

The Community-Based Simulation Development Project

An eight-month training course on learning game design for humanitarian educators in Jordan. The training was offered in English and Arabic, and created with CRISP Berlin and Save the Children.

This project was funded by a grant from the Fund for Innovation and Transformation, the Inter-Council Network, and Global Affairs Canada.

Douglas College Program Advisory Council Chair

  • Project Type: Degree Program Curriculum Development
  • Date: Feb 2025 - present
  • Program Details

I currently serve as chair of the Computer Science Program Advisory Council at Doulgas College.

We are tasked with supporting the College in developing new curriculum for their growing game development program.

I am also a regular participant in student-centered events at Douglas, such as business networking sessions and giving talks about the industry to first-year game development students.

VFS Instructor - Game Development Programming Stream

Part-time instructor, helping to prepare students for their first programming jobs in the games industry. Balancing the real challenges of "breaking in" with keeping hope alive can be difficult.

Courses for 2025 include:
  • Introduction to C#
  • Data Structures
  • Rapid Prototyping in Unity
  • Portfolios for Programmers

My FCAP Journey

A game that teaches rural communities in Rwanda to design and monitor FCAP economic development microgrants. Designed to be played by people who are new to board games.

The client was provided with 20 sketch game proposals, of which 4 were selected for full game design documents. This game was selected by committee to be developed into a complete training tool.

The Pyramid

  • Project Type: Educational Boardgame
  • Date: Mar 2021 - present
  • Play Online: Tabletopia

A game based on Maslow’s Pyramid of Needs, which teaches about the priorities and goals of different stakeholders in humanitarian crises. The game focuses on how conflict can arise between humanitarian actors, local governments, and the people they hope to serve.

Developed in collaboration with Untold Play.

Humanitarian User Research: Serious Games

  • Project Type: Research Report
  • Date: Jan - May 2020
  • Report
  • Webinar

An international research project on the effectiveness of learning games in the humanitarian sector, based on game-based learning workshops in Amman, Jordan and Nairobi, Kenya.

Sponsored by Save the Children. Findings presented in Geneva and Montreal.

The Day My Life Froze

  • Project Type: Educational "MegaGame"
  • Date: Mar - Sept 2018
  • Info Page

A simultaneous-action educational “MegaGame” for up 25 in-person participants, built to teach humanitarian workers the underlying systems of ethical urban refugee response. Developed as part of an in-person workshop, delivered to multicultural audiences on four continents.