Hi, I’m Jake Sensiba—Game Developer

I’m 23 years old, finishing my degree at George Mason University, and shaping my career around systems thinking and creative coordination. I use AI regularly—not as a shortcut, but as a medium. I believe it’s becoming inseparable from the way humans build, think, and create at scale.

I work best where systems design meets team communication—developing tools, refining mechanics, and keeping production agile. I’m drawn to games that are structurally interesting and thoughtfully made, and I want to contribute to projects where iteration is fast, ideas flow clearly, and the design process is respected as a living system.

Thank you for visiting my portfolio site.

Major Project Showcase

Terminality

Team Size: 7 | Project Duration: 10 months | Release: December 2025

Terminality is a 3D/2D hybrid roguelike deckbuilder that casts players as a disgraced former esports star, now clawing their way through a corporate-run card tournament.

Built in Unity from the ground up, it features procedural node maps, stylized card-based combat, and branching dialogue with rival contestants and digital bosses.

Players begin each run in a 3D apartment hub before entering a chaotic arena of card battles and narrative encounters. The game's modular architecture enables scalable encounter steps, symbolic card effects, and layered audiovisual feedback for every interaction.

Campus Cook-Off

Team Size: 35 | Project Duration: 3 months | Release: December 2024

Campus Cook-Off is a couch co-op cooking game where you and up to 3 other friends play as GMU students looking to make the biggest pizza possible in a short amount of time! Across 3 different levels, work alongside your fellow hungry college classmates to complete fun cooking-based minigames that allow you to prepare any and every ingredient you have at your disposal to make the ultimate pizza.

Wanna put bacon on your pizza? Sounds yummy!

How about some pineapple? Sure, if that’s your preference!

Are you opposed to mustard? Hopefully you aren’t, because your friends are definitely putting mustard on the pizza!

Project Responsibilities

Main Role: Producer

  • Created a 3-month vertical slice plan and led weekly sprints through to SGEX @ GMU

  • Directed team production as the sole producer/programmer across all milestones

  • Spearheaded the development cycle, maintaining scope and pacing for a multidisciplinary team

  • Preparing long-term roadmap and feedback synthesis for post-VS development

Secondary Role: Systems Designer

  • Core roguelike gameplay loop used in most genre titles—combat, dialogue, and metaprogression

  • Developed a modular card system built to support over 200 cards with unique effects

  • Created authoring tools for encounters and dialogue that allow designers to inject new experiences

  • Built scalable, data-driven tools for cards, effects, and rewards to support rapid iteration.

  • Facilitated playtests and integrated findings to shape tutorial and onboarding flow.

Project Responsibilities

Main Role: Producer

  • Coordinated production across a 30+ person studio course using shared Google Sheets, Office docs, and Git-based Unity workflows.

  • Led weekly sprint retrospectives and classroom-wide updates, compiling slide decks to highlight progress and direct iteration.

  • Defined team roles and gameplay direction by synthesizing early discussion into a structured development plan.

  • Monitored task velocity and reallocated responsibilities based on team reliability and output quality.

  • Identified gaps in player onboarding and implemented a color-coded arrow system to guide in-game actions and objectives.

  • Collaborated directly with artists to resolve Unity import issues and maintain consistent asset sizing across contributors.

  • Maintained team momentum through regular rituals, feedback loops, and creative discussions across weekly design and lead meetings.

Skills

Leadership & Systems Thinking

As the producer of multiple large-scale student games, I’ve led diverse creative teams through complex production pipelines—from sprint planning to retrospectives. I value systems thinking, pattern recognition, and deep team awareness. My goal is to remove ambiguity and build processes where creativity flows without confusion. I take pride in creating development environments where trust, clarity, and collaboration thrive.

Production Skills

  • Sprint Planning & Retrospectives

  • Task Delegation & Milestone Forecasting

  • Google Sheets for Live Tracking

  • Feature Prioritization & Scope Control

  • Risk Mitigation & Bottleneck Recovery

  • Leading Classroom-Wide Standups

  • Weekly Presentation & Team Communication

Programming Languages:

Creative Engineering

As both a designer and programmer, I approach problem-solving with an eye for playful structure. My creative instincts are rooted in design systems—how rulesets can be expressive, symbolic, or emergent. I’m most excited by strange hybrid projects, where storytelling and mechanics collide. I often develop tools that let others iterate faster, because good systems empower bold ideas.

Design Skills

  • Game Systems Architecture

  • Modular Game Mechanic Tooling

  • Core Gameplay Loop Design

  • UI/UX for Player Comprehension

  • Player Guidance (Onboarding, Tutorials)

  • Iterative Playtesting & Feedback Analysis

Software & Additional Skills

  • Unity (C# + DOTween + Editor Tools)

  • Git + GitHub for Source Control

  • Google Suite + Microsoft Office

  • OBS + Photoshop + Figma for Docs & Visuals

  • Trello, Notion, Confluence

  • Team Collaboration (Discord, Zoom, etc.)

  • Audio Editing in Reaper or Audacity

  • 3D/2D Asset Pipeline Communication (Max, Blendr, Krita)

C Family - Python - Java[Script] - HTML/CSS - ShaderLab - Bash - Markdown - SQL - JSON - Go