Davon Allen

Gameplay Programmer
Unreal C++ I Unity C#

I build gameplay systems across Unreal Engine and Unity, with a focus on gameplay systems, multiplayer-safe architecture, and designer-facing tools.

My work spans live UEFN multiplayer islands, Unreal C++ prototypes, Unity production tooling, AR/VR installations, and educational game systems.

This portfolio highlights systems I owned from prototype through production, with notes on architecture, tradeoffs, debugging, and impact.

Technical Director, Gameplay, AI Programmer

PvPvE Multiplayer Combat Prototype - UEFN / Verse

1-week Fortnite game jam where I served as Technical Director and Lead Gameplay Engineer for a 10-person team.

Implemented a Verse event bus coordinating combat, scoring, UI, player lifecycle, enemy waves, and round-state flow
Built enemy behavior orchestration on top of Fortnite creature spawners: target selection, chase, ranged attacks, retreat, boss behavior, VFX/SFX triggers, and wave reset
Owned player join/leave/death handling, team-zone respawns, PvPvE scoring data, and spawn distribution patterns for a shippable island

Gameplay Engineer, Tools Programmer

Live Multiplayer Systems Overhaul — Unreal

Revived a legacy map to support designer-authored minigames

Rebuilt legacy island architecture into modular, dynamically composable game mode framework in UEFN (Verse)
Implemented server-authoritative voting and runtime modifier injection systems supporting 16-player sessions
Stabilized replication and round-state transitions under live player traffic (235M+ lifetime minutes)

Gameplay Engineer, UI Programmer

Live PvP Bounty & Progression Systems — Unreal

Used by 50K+ players in a live Fortnite Creative environment.

Engineered multiplayer-safe customization, bounty, and vendor economy systems for launch-scale arena (84M+ lifetime minutes, 22K+ peak)
Implemented server-validated transactions and player calling card customization in Verse
Architected seasonal content pipeline without destabilizing live multiplayer state

Technical Director / Systems Engineer

Hybrid Strategy System & Tooling Architecture — Unity

Hybrid TableTop Game with Minitures and Deckbuilding Demoed at Gencon 2024

Architected data-driven deck editor in Unity with schema-validated JSON pipelines and AWS S3 asset delivery
Built 25-request throttled batching system to prevent WebGL request saturation
Reduced 500-card content production from ~1 week to 15 minutes via automated CSV to JSON to Publisher pipeline

Software Engineer, Gameplay

Educational Game Frameworks — Unity

Built engaging math and reading games for Pre-K - 2nd Grade

Built reusable gameplay template framework enabling 60+ interactive books to ship in 9 months
Introduced Unity Addressables, reducing bundle sizes from ~20MB to 5–9MB and stabilizing iPad 2 memory crashes
Reduced book production time from ~60 minutes to ~5–12 minutes via custom CSV to JSON editor tooling

Unity Engineer, Systems Architect

AR/VR & Interactive Systems — Unity

Built immersive applications and games for real-world events and commercial clients.

Engineered 20+ AR/VR installations deployed at CES & NAIAS with 12-hour continuous runtime stability
Stabilized full-scale vehicle AR tracking using multi-marker Vuforia under variable lighting
Reduced draw calls by ~50% and sustained 90 FPS VR performance in high-visibility trade show environments