user experience is everything

Jake Rose

Jake Rose



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About

I'm a gameplay and systems engineer with 5+ years of Unreal Engine and C++ experience across multiplayer, VR, AI, performance optimization, and deployment infrastructure.

I've shipped commercial titles on PC, PS5, Quest, and cloud-streamed platforms, including a Quest Store Top Seller and a Game Awards VR Game of the Year nominee. I'm known for scalable, designer-friendly systems, from prototype to release.

Outside of studio work I run bytejake llc, where I ship audio tools and build LED hardware projects for in-person events.

I hold a B.S. in Game Programming from Champlain College (2017 to 2021), where I tutored programming and made the Dean's List three times.

Open to Work!

Reach out at hello@jakerose.dev to discuss further!

Experience

Unannounced Indie Horror Game

Unannounced Indie Horror Game

Oxblud LLC

Contract engineering role under an established independent horror designer, on a project signed with a publisher during the greenlight phase.

UE5
C++
State Trees

Gameplay Engineer [Contract]
Apr 2026 - Oct 2026

Sole dedicated engineer during the prototype phase. Built the core player equipment, weapons, inventory, quest, and interaction systems, then owned NPC behavior and tech design as those systems became intertwined.

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Persona Platform (Bella Bot)

Persona Platform (Bella Bot)

Core team through acquisition by Luma AI

Persona AI

Working with industry game veterans and leading AI experts on a cutting-edge conversational audio/visual agent. Rapid AI state navigation with a deeply animated avatar, all to make it organic and natural to engage with. Rendering was pixel streamed to devices using AWS GPU Linux boxes, all seamless to the user.

UE5
C++
Python
AWS
Pixel Streaming
LLMs

Unreal / DevOps Engineer [Contract]
Nov 2024 - Jan 2026

One of three Unreal engineers on the project. Led the charge on critical features such as pixel streaming, devops, automation, deployment, and embedded chromium. Played critical roles in turn-based behavioral networking systems, UI, audio processing, lipsync, and iterating on agent alignment.
Helped lead the team from the first investor demos through to the company's acquisition by Luma AI.

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Alien: Rogue Incursion

Alien: Rogue Incursion

Game Awards | VR Game of the Year Nominee

Survios

Alien: Rogue Incursion is a VR and flatscreen single-player action-horror game that puts players in the world of Alien. Utilizing advanced combative xenomorphs and immersive player interactions, step into the shoes of ex-Colonial Marine Zula Hendricks as she works to expose Weyland-Yutani's blacksite experiments.

Shipped Title
UE5
C++
Quest 3/3S
PSVR2
PCVR

Gameplay Engineer [Contract]
Apr 2024 - Nov 2024

Rejoined the team from early production through the game going gold. Added a pause-world system, worked on quest systems, VO/audio systems, gameplay objects/interactables, adaptive trigger support, and fixed large bugs in the final stages.

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Cancelled AAA FPS Title

Cancelled AAA FPS Title

Deviation Games

Sci-Fi Multiplayer FPS with AAA quality led by ex-Treyarch Zombies team. In partnership with PlayStation.

AAA
UE5
C++
PS5
PC
Multiplayer

Gameplay Engineer
Sept 2022 - Mar 2024

Worked on the weapons and player mechanics team during our CCC hardening up to vertical slice with our pod carrying a large amount of production momentum. Prior to that worked on metagame UI systems, as well as R&D enemy AI technology.
Went down with the company closure.

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Creed: Rise to Glory - Championship Edition

Creed: Rise to Glory - Championship Edition

Quest Store Top Seller

Survios

A port of one of the most played VR games of all time. Train under Rocky Balboa, boxing up the ranks to establish your legacy.
Now on Quest 2/3/Pro, PSVR2, and PCVR.

Shipped Title
UE5
C++
Quest 2/3/Pro
PSVR2
PCVR

Associate Software Engineer
Feb 2022 - Sept 2022

Ported original game from heavily modified UE4 to UE5, including switching physics engines from PhysX to Chaos. Worked on the updated statistics system.

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Alien: Rogue Incursion

Alien: Rogue Incursion

Game Awards | VR Game of the Year Nominee

Survios

Associate Software Engineer
Jun 2021 - Feb 2022

Worked in pre-production on foundation VR Interaction systems such as hand magnetism, hand animations, grab points, aim-assist, and player/NPC synced animations; all made it in game. Then moved onto the Creed: Rise to Glory - Championship Edition engine upgrade.

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These are my large-team, Steam-released college projects.

Junkpunk Arena

Junkpunk Arena

Champlain College

Create the robot of destruction you have been dreaming about, then throw it in the destruction arena. Build it up, tear it down!

Steam Release
Student Project
Unity
C#
Mirror Networking

Lead Engineer / Network Engineer
Oct 2020 - May 2021

Made game network stable from it being non-networked as we entered production. Managed three other programmers while maintaining our netcode stability and overall handling large chunks of gameplay implementation. Handled Steamworks webpage and uploading game using SteamTools.

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Five-Finger Gunslinger

Five-Finger Gunslinger

Champlain College

A third-person, online, arena-battle game where players compete against their friends to become the most popular kid in the west. Battle evil cactus-bandits and pelt your opponents with water balloons as you struggle for suburban supremacy!

Steam Release
Student Project
Unity
C#
Photon Networking

Lead Engineer / Network Engineer
Feb 2020 - Aug 2020

Ensured that we had very consistent and stable netcode as well as working on much of the gameplay and core systems. One of two engineers, acted as Lead. Handled Steamworks webpage and uploading game using SteamTools.

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These are some of my core publicly released and documented homebrew engineering projects.

Projects here are not small experiments on my GitHub; these are shipped products actively accessible for you to try today, all of which offer free usage.

samplore

samplore

bytejake llc

The sample explorer, as a standalone app and a VST3 plugin.
A new way to organize and search your sample library. Visualize, preview, and try out new sounds with ease and speed.
See website for full feature set and sales pitch!

C++
JUCE
VST3
Audio
Agentic Development

Nov 2025 - July 2026

Revitalized app with agentic workflows. Fully realized all critical systems. Developed app into a finished state, with it being a polished, bug-free, smooth experience. Created optional premium purchase feature set.

May 2019 - Dec 2019

Created full JUCE MVP version, with custom waveform rendering and much of the overall framework established. Tag and searching also working.

May 2018 - Aug 2018

Developed core prototype and main inspiration over summer break freshman year.

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daplore

daplore

bytejake llc

The digital audio project explorer.
A nice companion to samplore! Supports all the major DAWs, gives a nice breakdown of each project and various audio track names to help dig through large project stacks more easily.

HTML + CSS
React
Tauri
Audio
Agentic Development

Apr 2026 - July 2026

Brought back concept, revitalized with AI and gave support to all major DAWs.

Jun 2019 - Aug 2019

Developed core breakdown tool for Ableton files. Developed prototype to prove out concept.

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bytejake storefront

bytejake storefront

bytejake llc

Self launch of my new company website and storefront! Full self-made storefront option with a focus on portability, being lightweight, and ensuring user experience and safety. Made to support the launch of my new app samplore as well as future apps.
Visit bytejake.com to check out more!

HTML + CSS
React
NodeJS
Agentic Development

Jan 2026 - Now

Sole developer with a keep-it-simple-stupid mindset to avoid security exposures and ensure user data is minimal and secured. Developed core site architecture and design, including admin site accessibility alongside strong security measures, with easy ability to host app downloads, publish new builds across multiple platforms, and handle user purchases with Stripe. AI-assisted with React.

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Eclipse OS

Eclipse OS

Open Source, Clean Code for Addressable LED Patterns

A lighting framework to bring a shader designer ecosystem into microcontrollers using a keyframe and generator based system design. Iterated and expanded code while developing devices for multiple events.

C++
Arduino
LED Animation
IO
Screen

Oct 2024 - May 2025

v2, built for The Jacket v2. Second pass on the library that took it to what I consider complete: 2D LED mapping, IO-agnostic patterns, and a generalized state machine with blended transitions.

Jan 2024 - May 2024

v1, built alongside The Pendant. Developed the foundational procedural color framework with a focus on flexibility in performance choices (these are RP2040 chips) while still covering the critical features of LED pattern creation: layer blending, generators, state machines, and clean interfaces for custom logic to sit on top of.

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Personal Website

Personal Website

Yes... this site. A modularly built, data driven website that uses static site generation to allow me to keep this page updated consistently with minimal work from myself.

HTML + CSS
JavaScript
Eleventy

Mar 2023 - Now

Developed core 11ty structure and initial deployment of website. Made to have a flexible content pipeline so I could deploy without needing to type paragraphs and long term markdown context in a HTML format.

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Skyscraper

Skyscraper

A custom zombies map for Black Ops 3 Zombies.
Skyscraper was a three-month project using Radiant, the Call of Duty Development Tools.
With over 1800 visitors and 600 downloads on zero advertising, I say it was a successful first map release!

Radiant
GSC
Steam Workshop

Aug 2016 - Apr 2017

Developed entire map in a three-month burst utilizing many community made scripts and expansions past the stock Black Ops toolset, then shipped post-release updates through spring 2017.

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One of my larger hobbies has been working on hardware made for art festivals.

Unique LED patterns, experiences, and interactive pieces. Many portable and shockingly... power efficient!

As many of these projects were made to look like they're from another world, I took to calling them relics.

All these projects utilize Eclipse OS or are precursors made in the spirit of Eclipse OS.

The Jacket v2

The Jacket v2

The full vision of Eclipse OS

An upgraded jacket for Neotropolis. A significant upgrade to the library to allow the patterns to be 2D mapped and finish the Eclipse OS library.

C++
Arduino
LED Animation
Screen

Oct 2024 - Apr 2025

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The Pendant

The Pendant

The hardware side of Eclipse OS v1

A generalist device used on multiple cosplay events. A centralized device with simple IO to allow easy navigation of a pattern state machine.
Used in The Staff and The Jacket v1.

C++
Arduino
LED Animation
Screen

Oct 2023 - May 2024

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The Scanner

The Scanner

An escape room experience, completely portable

A homebrew digital scavenger hunt game made to work at an outdoor camping trip. Modular gameplay system for future events and generalized compatibility. A great detail on creating a seamless LED sequence for a dynamically and uniquely themed scanning state machine.

Python
Linux + Raspberry Pi
NFC Reader
LED Animation
Audio Playback

Aug 2023 - Nov 2023

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The Totem

The Totem

A lighting structure designed to be a beacon for friends at large festivals and events. Created with WS2812B and written in C++. Seamless palette blending/cycling. 8+ hour battery. Lasted four events.

C++
Arduino
LED Animation
FastLED

Jan 2022 - May 2022

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The Window

The Window

A lighting exhibit connected to SignalRGB. 2D LED patterns with dynamic effects.

C++
Arduino
LED Animation
SignalRGB

Nov 2021 - Feb 2022

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