Pulkit Parashar

Game Producer.

 “LiveOps is the best thing for Players and Studios”.

ABOUT ME

Currently studying Masters Game studies and Engineering at the University of Klagenfurt, Austria with focusing my Master thesis on the topic  “Monetization in LiveOps”.

A quick learner and a self-motivated team player.  I’ve been programming since school. Experience of nearly 6 years now in the Gaming Industry, currently working as a Producer. Formerly worked as game programmer and designer. I am always looking for challenges that help me grow.

Over these years I’ve added the following skills and tools to my skill tree:

  • Analytics: Firebase, Excel.
  • Project Management: JIRA, Trello, Asana.
  • Collabration: Miro
  • Development Methodologies: Waterfall, Feature-Driven Development, Agile, Scrum.
  • Design: Figma,  AdobeXD.
  • Engines: Unreal Engine 4, Unreal Engine 5, Unity.
  • Version Control: Git, SVN, BitBucket.
  • Other software: Photoshop, WordPress, Adobe After Effects.

Apart from the technical stuff, I’ve been actively guiding students in order to how to get into the gaming industry. From my personal experience, I feel it can be a difficult place for freshers to enter, hence I never miss out on an opportunity to counsel them. I also enjoy presenting at conferences. I am fluent in Hindi, English, and German. I have successfully completed a course on drama from the Nation School of Drama in India. I’ve played football for my school team. I’ve also been a race official in Formula 1 race and ever since I’ve been a member of the Buddh International Circuit team. I’ve been appreciated for my work at Indian Auto Expo. 

PROJECTS

Dakar Desert Rally

Launched on October 4, 2023 on multiple platforms. 

As I joined, this was already in Beta and submissions were being made to platform owners before launch. Worked with the programming team, community manager, and QA to establish a pipeline for post-launch support. Created multiple Jira Dashboards to streamline information flow. 

DistresseD

Subotron 2021 Finalist

Developed as part of Issues in Game Studies: Cyberpunk class at AAU.  Developed on Unreal Engine, the game reflects the dystopian cyberpunk future using elements like authoritarian capitalism.

I worked majorly as a producer on this project but took on roles of Designer, User Researcher, Programmer whenever the project demanded. My responsibilities included defining deadlines and scope, planning sprints, conducting play-tests, designing 3D levels, balancing the game mechanics and programming.

Arcademia

Developed a digital prototype called Arcademia for my course Interactive systems at AAU. During this course, we were supposed to come up with an idea and then transform that idea into a digital prototype. The concept of Arcademia was to playfully condense knowledgeable but hard-to-read academic texts to their essential ideas.

Initially prototyped on AdobeXD but later moved on to Figma due to limitations in XD. The core idea was to create an app that gives the user a pleasurable experience. I was responsible for the UI/UX and informational architecture of the app. I also conducted some playtest at various stages in order to ensure that the core gameplay and game in its entirety aren’t confusing to the users. 

Devil Amongst US

Devils Amongst Us is a real-time online multiplayer game played with 4-12 players in different maps where Sillies have to identify the Devils.

As a Unity Programmer, I developed in-game mini-games and worked on various parts of the gameplay including UI and Design elements.

The Last Raccoon (in Space)

Developed as part of game jam and for two courses at AAU. Flying through the universe, humankind is rifling through the ship for filling their stomachs. Unfortunately, a nice little raccoon is the only thing left before turning to cannibalism. But you, the raccoon, need to escape.

I was working as a producer, defining scope, deadlines, coordinating between people, checking progress. I conducted a few playtests.  I also worked as a designer, balancing gameplay and fixing issues with the level design and as a programmer to implement some parts of code. 

SuperParty was a social gaming platform developed by SuperGaming. It consisted of games coupled with elements of social media such as messaging and calling. 

I worked as a Unity developer on SuperParty, creating a lot of games for the platform. I worked with design and art teams to integrating mechanics, art, and sound assets for the games. I was also responsible for size optimizations because each game had a specific size budget, some of these games were even under 1MB. 

SuperTanks was my first project at SuperGaming. It was a recreation of the Battle Tanks game on NES. It included various new elements such as a map of the day and a currency system to buy power-ups to built upon the old game.

I worked as a core gameplay programmer coding movement for the tanks, power-up mechanism, implementing UI, integrating assets for sounds and art.

AR/Vr Experiences

At Anibrain I worked as a Producer, to deliver experiences on the latest technologies including Virtual Reality, Augmented Reality, Mixed Reality, and Leap motion. Understanding the client requirements, working with different teams to plan for project deliverables and deadlines to ship the project on time, were some of my responsibilities.  

Curriculum Vitae (CV)

Aug 2022 - Present

Saber Interactive, Porto
Producer

Worked on Dakar Dessert Rally and unannounced game to manage Pipeline Processes and Production for Design and Art teams. My responsibilites:

- Established pipelines and created workflows using Jira to increase team productivity.
- Improved comunication effectiveness and frequency across all departments.
- Implemented Agile Practices. Focussed on Sprint planning, monitored sprints by Scrums, analyzed by Sprint Reviews, and improved using Retrospectives.
- Owned and managed the design and art roadmap which included scheduling and tracking updates across all feature.
- Milestone planning and Task prioritization to mitigate the risks and conflicts of delivery goals to publisher.
- Understood the impact of scope changes and their ramifications are communicated.
- Coordinate the day-to-day work of various teams, including conveying production and roadmap data to steer the production schedules and plans.
- Contributed to developing and refining our production processes to increase studio efficiency and quality, by introducing automations.
- Work closely with the Production teams and development leadership to drive prompt decision making.
- Achievement and localization set up on stores for Steamworks and Epic Game Services.
- Post-launch, took charge of QA and Community reports to turn it into actionable for the production team.
- Worked as a production mentor and provide leadership, information, and mentoring for others.

Feb 2021 - Feb 2022

June Gaming/SuperGaming, India
Unity Developer

Worked on Devil Amongst Us game in an agile environment.

My responsibilities included:
- Developing and Designing Mini Games.
- Working with design and art to implement UI.
- Working as Technical Artist for memory and size optimizations, coordinating with Animation and Art Team.
- Collaborating with other departments and Team members to meet the deadlines.

October 2020 - Present

University of Klagenfurt, Austria
Master of Game Studies and Engineering

After working in Industry for 4 years, I realized developing games isn't enough. We need to understand their impact in order to create a pleasurable experience for the players.
- Studied and analyzed cyberpunk culture in media such as in game Observer and in movie The Matrix.
- Worked as a producer and project lead on multiple projects for university.
- Took the hat of a designer and UI/UX for the project "Arcademia"
- Analyzed the Neuropsychology behind "The Rot" mechanic in the "Hellblade: Senua's Sacrifice" game
- Researched on the effectiveness of Brain Training Games

April 2019 - Dec 2020

June Gaming/SuperGaming, India
Unity Developer (Full-Time)

Worked on developing multiple games and creating a Social Platform(SuperParty) for gaming. Games released on Play and iOS Store during this period:
- SuperParty(consisting Meme Party, Statue)
- Haan Ya Na
- SuperTanks

My responsibilities included:
- Integrating the games developed into the SuperParty
- Working with User Research team to analyze the data generated by the gameplay events to find churn points, variants performing better in A/B testing
- Working on improving retention based on the user research analysis
- Working with design team to implement the core gameplay mechanics
- Actively being a part or conducting of play-test to understand the user behavior inside SuperParty
- Working with art team to add animations, art assets into the games

Aug, 2016 - March 2019

Anibrain Digital Technologies, India
Associate Producer

I worked on delivering experiences for various needs of our clients using Unreal and Unity. I was responsible for:
- Understand the functional and non functional requirements of clients
- Planning the scope and schedule of the project
- Working with Art, Design, Dev and Testing teams to deliver on time
- Working with UI/UX team to give a proper experience even to the first time user

Some of the requirements by our clients included:
- Cheaper, efficient and gamified training solutions for complex mechanical systems
- Showcasing vehicles and products in a digital experience
- Providing VR simulation of an inside of an apartment or a building
- Interactive learning solutions

Aug 2012 - July 2016

G.G.S. Indraprastha University, India
Bachelors of Technology, Information Technology

Provided me the window I needed to begin my journey towards Game Development. I learned Unity and Unreal engine and use them for developing personal and college projects. My major project "Be the Flash" was selected as the most innovative project from my department. Along side working as a coordinator for multiple projects and events helped me land my first job as an Associate Producer.

Speaker

Analysing Observer

As part of Issues in Game Studies: Cyberpunk class. We were supposed to analyze a cyberpunk game, and the game we chose for this was >Observer. We analyzed the Narrative, the sense of Alienation provoked by the game, and the Agency.

I majorly analyzed the Agency that the game provides which is mostly Pseudo Agency.  My part comes at around 21:03 but the entire presentation is crafted carefully to point out all the most interesting elements of Game Studies that are present in the Cyberpunk Videogame Genre.

Into the Industy

As an alumnus of Maharaja Surajmal Institute of Technology, India. I was reached out by the MSIT IEEE team to give an overview of the Gaming Industry and Culture in India and to guide current students on how to get their desired roles. 

Seminar

While working at Anibrain, I represented my department Gaming and AR/VR to showcase our work at multiple seminars at Indira College of Commerce & Science, Pune.    

Personal Projects

Jumping Jack

Developed as a part of two courses, Neuropsychology of games and Selected Topics in Game Engineering.

The game is developed on Unity engine and was a prototype. You played as a cat, who Jumped from one Rooftops to another. If you don’t land on a rooftop cat dies. Each cat has a unique name. The purpose of this prototype was to check if giving a name to the cat can affect the player in game performance. 

My first Game. It was developed on Unity engine and released on Gamejolt.com. 

Where you are an unnamed soldier who finds himself in a strange cave filled with stranger beings. You find a sword that holds mystical power to teleport you. Your aim is to get out of the cave and find your way back.

Be The Flash

This is an infinite runner that challenges you to Be The Flash. Do you have it in you to be fast like him? To jump, slide, dodge obstacles and turn corners at lightening fast speed? Gone are the days of Temple run and Subway Surfer, experience infinite runner like never before.
Be The Flash(Unreleased).

Be The Flash was my college project developed on unreal engine. It wasn’t released simply because I got better opportunities and to learn about technologies like AR and VR.

Get in Touch!

Currently at:

Klagenfurt, Austria

hey@pulkitparashar.com

LinkedIn