Me

About Me

My name is Nathan Gooneratne, and I love making videogames.

Playing them is amazing too, don’t get me wrong, but I find myself quite at home plugging away at the backend of whatever project I’m grinding out. Game mechanics programming, technical art, and tools development are my passions within my passion, and I strive to find chances to develop my skills for them whenever I can!

When I’m not programming, I’m a hobby artist and writer. Few things bring greater joy than bringing characters and stories to life through drawing, modeling, animating, the works. Rigging NPCs in-engine constantly reminds me why I’m so gravitated towards this craft, and it never gets old.

This website has some highlighted projects I’ve made (or am making) the past few years, be it personal, academic, or industry. If you're interested in seeing more, please visit my itch page!

Projects

Oil City

Github

July 2024 - August 2024

C# Unity Released

Historical 2D factory-sim about the Polish oil industry

  • Bespoke game tick distribution system and pipe mechanics
  • Complex placement-validation algorithm based on QA feedback
  • 10-person studio over 1 month with Agile/Scrum and industry consult
  • Tabled at GamesCom and DevsCom 2024

    • Clayground

    September 2024 - December 2024

    C# Unity VR Online Internship

    Online 3D physics-based multiplayer VR chatroom

  • Tools programming for debugging of network and game systems
  • Implemented core game systems for player minigame HUDs and statuses
  • Utilized Photon Fusion 2 to create performant, synced networked objects
  • Developed networked solutions for syncing particle sims and ownership resolution

    • What Remains of Me

    Github

    September 2023 - December 2023

    C# Unity WIP Demo Released University

    2D narrative platformer focusing on resource-based navigational puzzles

  • Editor tools programming for facilitating level decoration
  • Abstracted core puzzle systems for extensibility and easy level design
  • Used Jira and Agile/Scrum workflows in a 40-student studio environment
  • Performed QA and interdisciplinary communication to finalize levels

    • Project Dall-E

    Github

    March 2023 - April 2023

    C# Unity Demo Released

    3D simple first-person puzzle game about matching prompts to images

  • Solo-developed passion project to create a polished game demo
  • Custom dialogue-system with animations, world events, and shape-key integration
  • Custom asset importer to facilitate art integration
  • Optimized Navmesh agent usage for performance and collision avoidance

    • Robotanist

    January 2025 - April 2025

    C# Unity Demo Released University

    2D cozy puzzle simulation game about growing flowers

  • Led and bugfixed pipeline for art integration with programmed systems
  • Developed UI/UX in accordance to playtest feedback
  • Managed tasks with Trello, GDD, and Agile/Scrum
  • Custom post-processing shader solution for UI and unique progression-based gradient effect

    • Capstone Game

    Github

    September 2025 - Present

    C# Unity WIP University

    2D puzzle-combat turn-based RPG

  • Primary backend programmer and game design lead
  • MVC-adherent design for extensible and approachable codebase
  • Coroutine-based code flow for simplicity and extensibility
  • Intra and interdisciplinary collaboration

    • Contact and Socials

    mailing

    nathan.gooneratne@gmail.com

    Git

    Skyloh

    Discord

    @liemons

    LinkedIn

    Nathan Gooneratne

     ItchIO

    skyloh