Porto Alegre, Brazil. Open to remote work.
Anderson Gonçalves
Gameplay Programmer · Unreal Engine 5/C++ & Unity/C# · Game AI, gameplay systems and multiplayer
Gameplay programmer and Game AI researcher building modular, data-driven systems in Unity/C# and Unreal Engine 5/C++. MSc candidate at UFRGS researching adaptive NPC behaviour with reinforcement learning, HTN and GOAP. Four-plus years of professional software engineering — Python, FastAPI, Java, PostgreSQL, Redis, RabbitMQ, Docker, automated testing and CI/CD — shape how I write gameplay code: clear ownership, maintainable architecture, reliable integrations and performance awareness.
Based in Porto Alegre, Brazil (UTC−3). Open to remote contracts and relocation, targeting gameplay programmer and Game AI roles.
Experience
- Mar 2026 – present Porto Alegre, BR · Remote
Game AI Researcher — gameplay AI & NPC behaviour
Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Sul Fixed term
- Research and implement adaptive NPC decision-making with reinforcement learning, hierarchical task networks and goal-oriented action planning.
- Design hybrid architectures where HTN handles strategic decomposition, GOAP handles contextual goal selection and multi-objective RL improves execution policies.
- Build simulated environments and controlled experiments measuring responsiveness, adaptability, computational cost, scalability and behavioural interpretability.
- Translate research into modular architectures and implementation patterns fit for commercial engines.
Reinforcement LearningHTNGOAPMulti-agentPython - Nov 2025 – present Remote
Solo Gameplay Programmer
Vertex Shift Self-employed
- Ship independent game projects under the Vertex Shift label, from prototype to playable release.
- Implement enemy behaviour, state machines, progression, inventory, combat, wave spawning and dynamic difficulty.
- Run the whole pipeline solo: design, architecture, testing, version control, builds, documentation and portfolio presentation.
UnityC#Game ArchitectureData-driven Design - Nov 2025 – present Remote
Full Stack Developer
econtrole — waste management software Freelance
- Engineer a production platform for environmental compliance, tax, financial and logistics operations.
- Restructure a complex business platform with DDD and a modular-monolith-first strategy — bounded contexts and stable contracts that keep service extraction an option rather than a rewrite.
- Design event-driven workflows with transactional consistency, idempotency, retry policies and the transactional outbox pattern.
- Maintain 1,000+ passing automated tests across domain rules, use cases, APIs, persistence, workers and integrations.
- Built the observability stack — Grafana dashboards, Jaeger tracing and correlation IDs that follow a request across asynchronous flows.
PythonFastAPIAngularPostgreSQLRedisRabbitMQDockerGrafanaJaeger - Apr 2025 – Apr 2026 Goiânia, BR · Remote
Mid Level Backend Software Engineer
Centro de Excelência em Inteligência Artificial (CEIA) Full time
- Engineered asynchronous REST APIs and backend services for AI-driven platforms.
- Applied DDD, hexagonal architecture and strict separation between domain, application and infrastructure.
- Wrote automated tests across domain rules, use cases, API contracts, persistence and integration scenarios.
- Turned AI research and product requirements into reliable production software with multidisciplinary teams.
PythonFastAPIPostgreSQLDockerHexagonal ArchitectureTDD - Nov 2024 – Apr 2025 Goiânia, BR · Hybrid
Mid Level Fullstack Developer
TOTVS Brasil Central Full time
- Built an internal RAG assistant indexing 10+ GitLab repositories into a MongoDB-backed vector database, for code discovery and onboarding.
- Automated Jira time-entry synchronisation and recurring reporting with n8n, cutting manual work.
- Developed licence-management tools and internal integrations across engineering and business operations.
PythonJavaTypeScriptAngularReactSpring BootMongoDBn8n - Nov 2023 – Nov 2024 Goiânia, BR
Game Developer — Unreal Engine / C++
LabTIME / UFG
- Wrote gameplay systems in C++/Unreal Engine 5, including a plugin built for modularity and reuse across projects.
- Took part in architecture, debugging, technical documentation and code review with a multidisciplinary team.
Unreal Engine 5C++Plugins - Oct 2021 – Aug 2023 Goiânia, BR
Full Stack Software Engineering Intern
TOTVS
- Maintained and evolved ERP modules on a legacy-heavy stack.
- Built ETLs, optimised algorithms, documented legacy systems and automated pipelines with GCP, Terraform and Azure DevOps.
JavaSpring BootAngularSQL ServerPythonNode.jsGCPTerraform
Teaching
- 2026 Porto Alegre, BR
Instructor — Systems Programmer course
Senac RS
- Database unit (UC2): 19 sessions authored from scratch, published as open HTML slides.
- 2021 (×2) and 2023–2024 Goiânia, BR
Teaching Assistant — three terms
Universidade Federal de Goiás (UFG)
- Twelve weekly hours per term, including a volunteer term teaching Introduction to Computing for Electrical Engineering.
- Supported students one to one — including learners with disabilities — and backed the supervising professor through Moodle and Teams.
Education
- Feb 2026 – Mar 2028 Porto Alegre, BR
Master's degree — Artificial Intelligence
Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Sul (UFRGS)
- Institute of Informatics, track: Planning, Multi-Agent Systems and Robotics, supervised by Prof. Lucas N. Alegre.
- Research: reinforcement learning combined with GOAP and HTN for believable NPC behaviour and modular gameplay architectures.
- Feb 2020 – Jun 2025 Goiânia, BR
BSc in Information Systems
Universidade Federal de Goiás (UFG)
- 3,000-hour interdisciplinary degree across computer science, management and IT: requirements engineering, software architecture, databases, security and human-computer interaction.
- Includes a practical residency project and complementary activities. Final average 8.5.
Recommendations
Written on LinkedIn, in Portuguese; translated here.I had the pleasure of working directly with Anderson at CEIA during 2025, and my recommendation is absolute. He is the kind of developer who raises the level of the team. Beyond his excellent command of the technologies we used (Python and FastAPI), what really sets him apart is his initiative and his commitment to good architecture and clean code. He is proactive, communicative, and was constantly looking for ways to actively improve the structure of our codebase. He is a professional who cares about product quality in the long run. I strongly recommend him.
I strongly recommend Anderson, with whom I had the pleasure of working at TOTVS Brasil Central. As a full stack developer he showed impressive technical versatility and a solid ability to solve complex problems, moving nimbly between backend and frontend technologies. His skill stood out especially when he implemented an internal chatbot with RAG and LLM, a project that demonstrated his ability to create innovative, high-impact solutions. Anderson is a high-potential, collaborative professional who without a doubt adds immense value to any team.
Skills
- Games
- UnityUnreal Engine 5C#C++Gameplay Ability SystemState MachinesData-driven Design
- Game AI
- HTNGOAPBehavior TreesReinforcement LearningMulti-agentPathfinding
- Backend
- PythonFastAPIJavaSpring BootREST APIsRabbitMQRedis
- Frontend
- TypeScriptAngularReact
- Data
- PostgreSQLSQL ServerMongoDB
- Architecture
- DDDClean ArchitectureHexagonalSOLIDEvent-drivenTDD
- DevOps
- GitDockerCI/CDGCPAzure DevOpsTerraformGrafanaJaeger
Certifications
- Game Design and Development 1: 2D Shooter — Michigan State University (May 2026)
- Advanced Topics on Software Testing and Quality Assurance — UFG (Aug 2024)
Languages
- Portuguese — native
- English — advanced (C1, professional use)