Ian Hackman

About

Unreal Engine 5 gameplay/systems developer who led major core features for the Early Access Steam city builder Geopogo Cities: Windsor Detroit, including an end-to-end building placement system tightly integrated with economy, AI pedestrians (Mass AI/Zone Graph/State Trees), and procedural city block generation. Also built a third-person exploration layer with character customization, stamina, and animation retargeting on top of the City Sample Crowd framework, plus shipped player-driven UX improvements based on live Early Access feedback.

Experience

Education

Key Strengths

• Owned end-to-end development of a complex building placement system on a shipped city builder (concept → prototype → polish → economy/AI integration)
• Deep Unreal Engine systems integration across gameplay, UI, economy, AI navigation, and procedural tools
• Performance-driven AI redesign: migrated pedestrian AI from Blueprint AI Controller to Mass AI/State Trees in C++ to support hundreds of NPCs without freezing
• Strong debugging methodology using instrumentation (debug prints, line traces, visual debug actors) to diagnose and ship camera fixes
• Ability to work around third-party asset constraints by generating/testing custom collision for problematic meshes
• Built robust player-facing feedback loops (economy transactions, energy widgets, revenue/tax effects reflected in world population/traffic)
• Thorough combinatorial testing across many asset permutations (character customization) and multiple camera modes (stamina system)
• Incorporates internal and external feedback (manager/intern testers + Steam Early Access players) to simplify and improve usability of complex systems
• Mentored and leveraged a small intern team for QA and UX feedback