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Hi, I'm David Horachek, a videogame systems engineering specialist with over 25 years of hands-on experience across the gaming industry. I've contributed to games for major companies like Amazon, Meta, EA, SEGA, and Ubisoft, focusing on animation systems, gameplay programming, and technical leadership. I enjoy solving complex technical challenges and building efficient systems for game development. I also work as a professor teaching game programming and mentoring students while leading diverse teams to create innovative interactive experiences. I'm passionate about applying my engineering and neural computation background to craft immersive and optimized game and animation systems.…Hi, I'm David Horachek, a videogame systems engineering specialist with over 25 years of hands-on experience across the gaming industry. I've contributed to games for major companies like Amazon, Meta, EA, SEGA, and Ubisoft, focusing on animation systems, gameplay programming, and technical leadership. I enjoy solving complex technical challenges and building efficient systems for game development. I also work as a professor teaching game programming and mentoring students while leading diverse teams to create innovative interactive experiences. I'm passionate about applying my engineering and neural computation background to craft immersive and optimized game and animation systems.

David Horachek

Game Developer, Game Designer, Programmer, +1

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Hi, I'm David Horachek, a videogame systems engineering specialist with over 25 years of hands-on experience across the gaming industry. I've contributed to games for major companies like Amazon, Meta, EA, SEGA, and Ubisoft, focusing on animation systems, gameplay programming, and technical leadership. I enjoy solving complex technical challenges and building efficient systems for game development. I also work as a professor teaching game programming and mentoring students while leading diverse teams to create innovative interactive experiences. I'm passionate about applying my engineering and neural computation background to craft immersive and optimized game and animation systems.…Hi, I'm David Horachek, a videogame systems engineering specialist with over 25 years of hands-on experience across the gaming industry. I've contributed to games for major companies like Amazon, Meta, EA, SEGA, and Ubisoft, focusing on animation systems, gameplay programming, and technical leadership. I enjoy solving complex technical challenges and building efficient systems for game development. I also work as a professor teaching game programming and mentoring students while leading diverse teams to create innovative interactive experiences. I'm passionate about applying my engineering and neural computation background to craft immersive and optimized game and animation systems.

Available to hire

Hi, I’m David Horachek, a videogame systems engineering specialist with over 25 years of hands-on experience across the gaming industry. I’ve contributed to games for major companies like Amazon, Meta, EA, SEGA, and Ubisoft, focusing on animation systems, gameplay programming, and technical leadership. I enjoy solving complex technical challenges and building efficient systems for game development.

I also work as a professor teaching game programming and mentoring students while leading diverse teams to create innovative interactive experiences. I’m passionate about applying my engineering and neural computation background to craft immersive and optimized game and animation systems.

Skills

Experience Level

Expert

Expert

Expert

Expert

Expert

Expert

Language

English

Fluent

Work Experience

Founder, Technical Director, Lead Programmer at Arbelos Interactive

September 1, 2012 - Present

Rapid prototyping of interactive game systems for a variety of clients. Developed various white label and internal game projects including interactive party and sports experiences, eLearning corporate training games, gesture tracking R&D for consumer appliances, and MMO architecture and implementation.

Animation programming specialist at Ubisoft Toronto

September 30, 2012 - July 16, 2025

Debugging engine and core systems. Architected static mesh animation pipeline and runtime in UE3. Developed facial animation and tension map pipelines. Procedural animation splicing and automated parameter blending R&D. Managed animation coverage tools and compression R&D.

Senior Systems Engineer at Ignition Entertainment

November 30, 2010 - July 16, 2025

Architected and improved core systems for action adventure console title in UE3 including audio and streaming systems, octree collision detection, destructible object pipeline, and deferred render batching.

Partner, Project Manager, Technical Director, Team Lead, Animation Engineer, R&D Engineer at GKS Canada, startup

December 31, 2009 - July 16, 2025

Project planning, middleware cost-benefit analysis, team lead and mentoring, contract sourcing and negotiating, developed interdisciplinary team work processes for client studios and managed teams producing action adventure prototypes and shipped minigames. Programming and animation R&D for Xbox360 and PC using Gamebryo and Morpheme animation system.

Lead Programmer at A2M

May 31, 2008 - July 16, 2025

Line managed a team of 13 programmers on Ironman movie game from prototype to gold master. Developed tools and processes for artist/designer workflows, client communications, milestone scheduling, and optimized performance across multiple platforms. Engineering firefighting on PS2 version of Mercenaries 2.

Senior Programmer at Midway Amusement Games

December 31, 2006 - July 16, 2025

Developed tools and pipelines for streaming world games (PS2, Xbox, GCN). Developed art preview and design tools. Mentored junior programmers and performed optimization of critical components. Acted as Xbox platform lead and contributed to Unreal 3.0 engine refactoring and AI module development.

Senior Console Software Engineer at Essential Reality

June 30, 2003 - July 16, 2025

Developed firmware for P5 glove controller. Ported Windows drivers to PS2 console. Wrote custom device drivers and EE API. Liaison to external clients for demos. Enabled games with controller integration.

Game Programmer at Midway Amusement Games

May 31, 2002 - July 16, 2025

Wrote camera code, physics, AI, and gameplay logic for various sports games. Developed animation compression tools and runtime achieving compression ratios of 16:1.