Unity Technical Lead & Creative Technologist
Aswin
Mani
I build games, interactive installations and realtime 3D systems, from first prototype to on‑site deployment. A decade of Unity, wired into hardware, computer vision and AI.
Selected
Work
Installations, games and interactive systems. Each one shipped, on a wall, a table, a cube or a headset.
This is just a glimpse of my work and experience.
All projects on the Reel page ↗Unity
Engine
Over a decade hands-on with gameplay systems, custom editor tooling, shaders, performance and production builds.
Gameplay & Architecture
- Gameplay systems & state machines
- Component design & SOLID-based patterns
- Save/load, serialization & persistence
- Input System (new & old), multi-device controls
- Custom animation system powered by DOTween
Editor Tooling
- Custom inspectors, property drawers & EditorWindows
- Utilities to automate repetitive tasks
- Scene & gizmo overlays for fast debugging
- Custom runtime editor tools
Graphics & Shaders
- Built-in, URP & HDRP render pipelines
- Shader Graph authoring
- VFX Graph for realtime effects
- Post-processing, lighting & baked GI
- Stylized & PBR materials
Animation & Physics
- Mecanim, Animator controllers & blend trees
- Timeline & Cinemachine
- IK, root motion & procedural animation
- Rigidbody & character controller physics
- Cloth, ragdolls & joints
XR · AR · VR
- XR Interaction Toolkit & OpenXR
- Meta Quest, Oculus integration
- AR Foundation (ARKit & ARCore)
- Hand tracking, gestures & spatial UI
UI & UX
- TextMeshPro & dynamic typography
- Responsive layouts & safe areas
- Localization & input prompts
- Accessibility & controller-friendly UI
- Dynamic animation powered by DOTween
Multiplayer & Networking
- Mirror Networking
- Client-server & authoritative architectures
- Custom TCP/UDP networking layers
- Realtime data & WebSocket integration
- Lobbies, matchmaking & session flow
Cross-App & Device Interop
- Unity ↔ Unreal Engine bridges
- Unity ↔ TouchDesigner pipelines
- Unity ↔ Kinect, Arduino & external hardware
- Custom UDP/TCP socket layers for live data
- Spout texture sharing · OSC, MIDI & serial
Tools &
Expertise
From embedded prototypes to realtime 3D and cloud-based production deployments.
AI / ML Integration
Working across GenAI, LLMs and machine learning. From conversational interfaces and content generation to applied ML, shipped into real products and experiences.
Computer Vision
Kinect SDK for motion tracking, gesture recognition and object detection. CV-powered installations using depth sensing, raw camera pipelines and realtime processing.
IoT & Hardware
Sensors and embedded systems, sometimes driven by computer vision. Multi-device communication, realtime data sync and physical-digital interface design.
Gamification
Reward systems and engaging experiences that drive behaviour change, built for sustainability initiatives and technology adoption.
Core Programming
- C# / .NET
- Blueprints
- Python
- JavaScript / TypeScript
- Async & realtime systems
- Profiling & performance optimization
Realtime 3D / XR
- Unity
- Unreal Engine
- TouchDesigner
- Resolume
- WebGL / Three.js
- AR Foundation
- VR SDKs / OpenXR / Oculus
- Shaders & realtime rendering
APIs & Data
- REST APIs / WebSockets
- GraphQL (integration)
- SQL / NoSQL (MongoDB)
- Realtime pipelines (Kafka)
- Data modeling & ETL
- JSON / XML serialization
- Message queuing & event-driven architecture
LLMs & AI
- OpenAI APIs
- ComfyUI, Stable Diffusion, MidJourney
- Voice AI (STT/TTS, Whisper)
- Multi-modal integration
- Conversational AI & memory management
- Responsible AI / safety & content filtering
Computer Vision
- OpenCV pipelines & image processing
- YOLO / RetinaNet detection & classification
- Kinect SDK, depth sensing & 3D perception
- Gesture, motion & multi-object tracking
- Pose estimation (MediaPipe, OpenPose)
- AR overlays & vision-based interaction
Hardware & IoT
- Arduino / ESP32 / Raspberry Pi
- Sensor & actuator integration
- UART, SPI, I2C serial comms
- RFID / NFC systems
- Wi-Fi, Bluetooth & BLE
- Firmware development & debugging
Automation & Delivery
- n8n & Make.com workflows
- Webhooks & cross-system automation
- AWS, Azure, Hetzner, Digital Ocean
- Docker & Kubernetes basics
- CI/CD & GitHub Actions
- Git, Perforce
…and more
- Rapid prototyping, most projects ship within days or a week
- Creative coding & experimental development
- AI-assisted learning to take on challenges beyond the current toolkit, fast
About
Me
I'm a Unity Technical Lead,
Unreal Developer and an Interactive Systems Engineer.
These days I lead the tech behind immersive installations and interactive experiences in Dubai. The kind of work where software has to meet walls, tables, sensors and screens, and run flawlessly in front of live audiences and high-profile guests.
I work heavily across Unity, Unreal and a long list of other software, and just as much with hardware. I code embedded systems, wire them into experiences and help steer the technical direction of every project I touch.
Programming is programming. If it needs programming, I program it.
Before that I shipped games across the spectrum. Narrative titles in Unreal, multiplayer survival, Smart TV games on embedded hardware and social worlds in Unity. Ten years in Unity, five in Unreal, six of them professionally.
Lately the work leans heavily into AI. GenAI and LLM integration, agentic workflows and replacing traditional pipelines with custom-built AI systems.
Off the clock I tinker. PC builds, car projects, mechatronics, DIY. Same instinct either way. Take a thing apart, understand it, and build it back better.
Work
Experience
-
Unity Technical Lead & Interactive Systems Engineer
PurpleGlo Experiential Agency · Dubai, UAE
- Technical lead for immersive installations, interactive experiences and branded activations, from concept through deployment.
- Led and mentored developers with technical direction and architectural guidance across project delivery.
- Reusable tooling frameworks cut project startup time by 70% and lifted team productivity by 40%.
- Conversational AI with context-aware responses, memory management and custom prompt architectures for immersive environments.
- Generative AI & LLM workflows producing production-ready text, image, audio and interactive assets for realtime experiences.
- RAG pipelines with LLMs, vector databases and custom knowledge sources for accurate, context-aware AI interaction.
- Runtime tools and deployment workflows reduced on-site troubleshooting effort by 90%.
- Led software/hardware integration across Unity, Unreal and embedded systems, covering interfaces, protocols and architecture.
-
Senior Unreal Developer
Sudden Studio · Remote
- Core gameplay mechanics and UI systems for Walk With Me, a narrative indie title on Unreal Engine.
- Branching interaction systems driving the game's key story moments and player choices.
- Aligned gameplay, narrative beats and visual direction with writers and artists.
-
Senior Unity Engineer
Alpha 212 · Remote
- Shipped Smart TV games on a custom Unity-based engine for constrained embedded hardware.
- UI and input systems designed around remote-control navigation and TV gameplay constraints.
- Optimized performance and deployment across multiple embedded device profiles.
-
Unity Developer
DBS Team (Decentralized Bone Society) · Remote
- Shipped The Tavern in Unity, a gamified social hub for NFT holders in a DeFi ecosystem.
- Interactive UI systems for the social and transactional experience.
- Gameplay mechanics linking holder engagement to on-platform activity and events.
-
Content Creation & Training Intern
Missan IT Solutions · Dubai, UAE
- Training content and tutorials across photography, video and motion graphics.
- Onboarding visual materials for culinary and office staff.
- Top performance review with 5/5 in four categories and 4/5 in one.
-
Senior Unity Developer
Superflow Studio · Remote
- VFX, UI and core gameplay systems for Dracco, a top-down survival title.
- Payment services integration for in-game purchases.
- Gameplay balance and enemy behaviour tuning with the core team.
-
Unreal Developer
Feralis · Remote
- Movement, animation, AI and player-interaction systems in Unreal for an online multiplayer survival title.
- UI and roleplay-oriented gameplay systems across the multiplayer experience.
Let's
Connect
Liked the work here? Reach out. Happy to connect, collaborate, or talk ideas and opportunities.