Unity Expertise
Years of Experience: 10+
Specialties: Animation Systems, Navigation, UI Architecture, Simulation Engineering
Engines / Pipelines: Unity (legacy → modern LTS), URP, HDRP (evaluation), custom trainer frameworks
Overview
I have over a decade of experience building complex systems in Unity across multiple industries, including defense simulation, VR training, and commercial game development. My work spans Unity’s evolution from early 3.x/4.x releases through modern LTS versions, and I’ve consistently been the engineer trusted to solve the “hard problems” — animation systems, navigation logic, UI frameworks, state machines, and custom tooling.
My Unity experience is broad by necessity. I’m often the engineer teams rely on when a problem spans multiple subsystems or requires coordination across animation, UI, navigation, input, and procedural logic. This breadth has made me effective in both R&D and production environments, especially on projects with strict accuracy requirements and complex user workflows.
Core Strengths in Unity
Animation Systems
- Designed animator controllers for complex human movement
- Built procedural animation logic (walking, strafing, turning blends)
- Integrated animation with navigation, state machines, and user input
- Created prototype animation systems using primitive characters for rapid iteration
Navigation & Movement
- Extensive experience with Unity’s NavMesh system
- Dynamic obstacle avoidance and multi‑character coordination
- Deterministic movement logic for multi‑client simulation environments
- R&D prototyping for navigation behavior (Pac‑Man maze testing, collision avoidance)
UI Architecture
- Built custom data‑driven UI frameworks
- Recreated entire WinForms interfaces inside Unity using original data
- Designed hybrid 2D/3D UI systems for simulation trainers
- Implemented touchscreen projection onto 3D surfaces
State Machines & Procedural Logic
- Designed deterministic state machines for safety‑critical procedures
- Implemented complex abort/recovery logic for multi‑trainee systems
- Integrated state machines with animation, navigation, and speech recognition
- Ensured reliability across multiple client stations
Speech & Input Systems
- Integrated Microsoft Speech API via Unity’s wrapper
- Designed procedural logic around recognition constraints
- Experience with Unity’s new Input System (Waysun)
- Built audible call‑out systems for synthetic personnel
Rendering & Pipelines
- Experience with URP in production
- HDRP evaluation for performance tuning (Quest 2)
- Day/night lighting systems for simulation environments
- Texture modulation workflows (white → tinted UI assets)
Tooling & Editor Extensions
- Built internal tools to map and visualize legacy UI controls
- Built Unity components with debug wireframe rendering for in‑editor visualization
- Implemented complex custom properties (tree structures) requiring custom serialization and deserialization
- Created custom property drawers, including searchable/sortable dropdowns and editable visual logic trees
- Created debugging tools for navigation and animation systems
- Developed R&D prototypes to validate system feasibility before production
- Mentored engineers in Unity workflows and best practices
Asset Integration
- Integrated custom art assets, textures, audio, and UI elements
- Created graphics assets (LED displays, Department of the Navy seal, UI overlays)
- Coordinated with artists to ensure accuracy in simulation environments
- Captured reference photography for real‑world equipment
Unity Versions & Pipelines
While I don’t recall specific version numbers from older projects, my experience spans:
- Unity 3.x / 4.x (legacy trainer work)
- Unity 5.x / 2017.x era (major trainer rewrites and hybrid systems)
- Modern LTS releases (Waysun VR development)
- URP (primary pipeline at Waysun)
- HDRP (evaluated for performance tuning)
This range has given me a strong understanding of Unity’s evolution — what changed, what improved, and how to adapt older systems to newer workflows.
Breadth of Experience
I’ve worked across nearly every major Unity subsystem:
- Animation
- Navigation
- UI (2D, 3D, hybrid)
- Input systems
- Speech integration
- AI (controlling synthetic personnel and NPCs)
- Rendering pipelines
- Scene management
- Physics (light usage in trainers; more in game prototypes)
- Audio (asset creation, design, and implementation)
- Tooling
- Profiling and optimization
- Networking (multi‑client synchronization in trainers over HTTP and UDP)
This breadth is the result of being the engineer teams rely on when a problem spans multiple systems or requires a custom solution.
Philosophy
My Unity philosophy is simple:
Build systems that are deterministic, maintainable, and easy for other engineers to extend.
This approach has allowed junior engineers to build confidently on top of my work, and has kept complex simulation trainers stable under demanding procedural and multi‑trainee conditions.
Projects Using Unity
- EMALS Ops and Maintenance Trainer
- 688i Weapons Launch Console Trainer
- Virginia Torpedo Room Block III Trainer
- Olly Power Play (Quest 2, URP, new Input System)
- Commercial Game Prototypes (internal Waysun projects for Android, iOS, and Quest 2)
© 2026 John Sensebe — Gameplay & Simulation Engineer