Technical leadership
I build and grow engineering departments. I set technical standards, run interviews, mentor leads, and keep releases on track.
- Tech strategy
- Mentoring
- Hiring
- Delivery
Ivan Murashka
Head of Technology · Unity Technical Lead
Currently at Super Banana Studios
I build the engineering team, the platform we use to make and ship our games, and the games themselves.
- Years in game dev
- 14+
- Games shipped
- 32
- Studios
- 7
- Open-source projects
- 10
01
About
I have worked in game development since 2011, from small startups to big studios like IGG and Playtika. I started as a Unity developer and later led engineering departments.
I enjoy building the systems behind games: the tools, pipelines, and shared code a whole team can build on. I'd rather build one system that ships ten games than make each game by hand. Unity, C#, and .NET have been at the center of it all.
As Head of Technology, my focus is people and direction. I hire and grow engineering teams, set our technical standards, and plan how the studio works and ships. Most of all, I want to help strong engineers do their best work.
- Born in
- Minsk, Belarus
- Based in
- Warsaw, Poland
- Languages
- English · Russian
- Education
- B.Sc., Belarusian National Technical University
- 2011 Unity Developer
- 2014 Lead Developer
- 2020 Head of Department
- Now Head of Technology
02
Expertise
Software architecture
I design game architecture that is modular and easy to test. I use dependency injection (DI) and SOLID principles, keep core logic separate from Unity APIs, and build the networking layers.
- System design
- DI / IoC
- Modularity
- C# / .NET
Game engineering
14+ years with Unity and C#: core gameplay frameworks, metagame systems, custom editor tools, performance and memory profiling, and algorithm optimization.
- Gameplay
- Profiling
- Optimization
- Editor tools
Workflow automation
I automate the setup work so teams can spend their time on the game, not on configuration. I build CI/CD systems, custom template engines, and shared libraries that get a new game running in days.
- CI/CD
- Fastlane
- GitHub Actions
- Shared libs
AI-assisted development
I use AI models and agents to work faster, both for myself and the team. I build AI-driven workflows, teach developers how to write good prompts, and bring tools like Claude and Gemini into daily work to ship better code.
- AI workflows
- Claude
- Gemini
- Prompt design
03
Work Experience
I have been at Super Banana from the start, building its technology and the platform its games run on.
- Set the technical direction: build the first game as a testbed, grow it into a shared platform, and ship each new game on top of it.
- The first game took about four months to release. The next one shipped in about two months on the platform, and the games after it are planned to ship faster.
- Built the engineering team from zero: hired the engineers, set our technical standards, and put the development processes in place.
- Brought automation and AI into the whole studio, not only engineering, and trained the engineering, art, and level-design teams to use AI in their daily work.
Games
Travel Sort: Match Puzzle
A relaxing sorting puzzle with a travel and holiday theme. You sort and pack goods onto the right shelves to clear each level. Bright, calm, and easy to pick up.
ArchitectTeam LeadDeveloperRelease Engineer
Arrow Mania!
An arrow puzzle and brain game. You sort arrows and match colors to clear the board, and the cleared board reveals a piece of pixel art.
ArchitectTeam LeadRelease Engineer
Casual Puzzle Game
Upcoming casual puzzle game.
ArchitectTeam LeadRelease Engineer
Casual Party Game
Upcoming casual party game.
ArchitectTeam LeadDeveloperRelease Engineer
Infrastructure & Systems
Shared Framework
Modular C# framework that every game is built on: a shared architecture with app bootstrap, a unified game flow, and built-in layers for monetization, storage, and analytics.
ArchitectDeveloper
Studio CI/CD Platform
Build pipeline that ships every game to Firebase for testing and to the app stores for release.
ArchitectDeveloper
I looked after one of Playtika's top casual games on two sides: the teams building it and the health of the project itself.
Working with the teams
- Led three feature teams and kept up code quality across them.
- Helped the developers grow and ran feature planning with them.
- Stayed in the full feature cycle, from the first briefing through development to live support after release.
Working across the studio
- Made the project itself fast to work in. I reworked the project structure and cut domain reload from minutes to tens of seconds.
- Sped up CI: reworked the test pipeline to run about twice as fast.
- Cut the time for a pull request to merge into main from a few hours to 15-20 minutes.
Games
Solitaire Grand Harvest
A free TriPeaks solitaire card game with a farm theme. You clear card boards level by level and grow your farm as you play. One of the top-grossing titles in the genre.
70M+ downloads~1.2M monthly playersestimated
Tech LeadRelease Engineer
My department had grown enough to run on its own, so I moved from building it to leading it and the technology behind our games.
- Grew the Unity department to 20+ people: company engineers, tech artists, and outsourced developers, split into several teams with their own leads.
- Moved from coding the first games to architecture and technical leadership as the team grew. Together they shipped over 20 casual games on the platform.
- Kept building the shared core framework and CI/CD, and added more shared systems over time as the games grew from simple to more complex.
- Set the direction for the Unity side of Magify, the company's monetization SDK. Magify later became its own studio.
I was hired to start APPSULOVE's Unity department and build the first casual games hands-on.
- Built the first team of Unity developers and was the team and tech lead on several projects.
- Shipped the studio's first three games with the team: LAVA, Fold Master, and Castle Rush.
- Built the first version of the shared core framework so new games start from a common base.
- Set up CI/CD on GitHub Actions and helped build the internal SDK for ads, purchases, and remote config.
First games
The studio's first Unity games. I built these hands-on as the lead.
LAVA - Merge Number Blocks
A number puzzle built around a fresh merge mechanic. You combine number blocks that slide and stack together, with simple rules and a calm, relaxing feel.
Team LeadDeveloperRelease Engineer
Fold Master - Folding Paper
A paper-folding puzzle inspired by origami. You fold sheets step by step to form pictures and art pieces. Simple, tactile, and relaxing.
Team LeadDeveloperRelease Engineer
Castle Rush - Tower Defense
A merge tower-defense game. You merge units and defend your castle and towers against waves of dragons and enemies, mixing merge mechanics with classic tower defense.
Team LeadDeveloperRelease Engineer
Platform games
As the studio scaled, I led these as tech lead and focused on the core and CI, while still coding on some myself.
Farm Jam: Animal Parking Games
A parking-jam puzzle set on a farm. You move animals and vehicles out of the way to clear the traffic and solve each board.
25M+ downloads~350K monthly playersestimated
Tech LeadDeveloper
Sweet Sort: Color Sorting Game
A color-sorting puzzle with a sweets and cake theme. You sort colored items into matching groups until every stack is in order.
2M+ downloads~120K monthly playersestimated
Tech Lead
Bubble Jam - Block Match Games
A block and bubble matching puzzle. It mixes block-match and match-3 mechanics, with 3D items to line up and clear.
3M+ downloads~570K monthly playersestimated
Tech Lead
SpookVille - Matching Puzzle
A matching puzzle with a friendly ghost theme. You match items across levels to help the spirits, wrapped in a light mystery-adventure story.
Tech Lead
Word or Not - Guess the Word
A word-guessing puzzle. You use context clues to find the right word across levels, part word search and part vocabulary game.
Tech Lead
Sushi Sort: Color Sorting Game
A color-sorting puzzle with a sushi theme. You sort a steady stream of sushi pieces into matching groups, easy to start and slowly more challenging.
Tech Lead
Plane Rush - Sorting Game
A sorting puzzle with an airline theme. You sort passengers and seats to clear the boarding chaos, blending sorting mechanics with 3D scenes.
Tech Lead
Number Bloom - Number Match
A number-matching puzzle. You pair and clear matching numbers across levels on a bright, logic-based board.
Tech Lead
Easy Puzzle - Jigsaw Puzzles
A jigsaw puzzle game with hundreds of calm, picture-based levels. You slide and place pieces to complete each image. Made to be simple and relaxing.
Tech Lead
Big City Lines - Connect Lines
A connect-the-lines puzzle with a city-building theme. You connect dots and draw lines to build houses and grow a city across levels.
Tech Lead
3D Match: Triple Matching Game
A triple-matching puzzle with 3D items. You find and match sets of three objects to clear the board, with levels that test memory and focus.
Tech Lead
2448: Number Match Block Games
A number block puzzle in the 2048 family. You merge number blocks to reach higher values and keep the board clear.
Tech Lead
CELLS - Tile Link Puzzle Games
A tile-link matching puzzle. You connect and clear matching tiles across levels, a calm game built around memory and attention.
Tech Lead
Jiggle Cards - Solitaire
A classic solitaire card game. You clear the table deal by deal in a clean, traditional card-game format.
Tech Lead
Cards & Spells
A solitaire card game with a magic and fantasy theme. You clear card levels set in a world of witches, spells, and artifacts.
Tech Lead
Ace Empire - Solitaire
A solitaire card game with a medieval-fantasy theme. You clear card levels through a story of kings, knights, and dragons.
Tech Lead
UNICORN 2: Color My Dreams
A color-by-number coloring game. You fill pixel-art pictures by picking colors and tapping numbered areas until the art appears.
Tech Lead
Gacha Go - Claw Machine Games
A claw-machine and gacha collecting game inspired by Japanese gachapon. You open capsules, collect toys, and trade for rarer items.
Tech Lead
Catapolis - Tile Match & Decor
A tile-match game with a mansion-renovation theme. You clear tile-link levels to earn coins and restore and decorate a cat-filled mansion.
4M+ downloadsestimated
Tech Lead
Outsourced games
Built by an outsourced team on our core framework. I led the tech and the overall direction.
Tamadog - Virtual AR Puppy
An augmented-reality virtual pet game. You raise and care for a puppy: feed it, play with it, and watch it grow through small adventures.
20M+ downloads~140K monthly playersestimated
Tech Lead
My Cat - Virtual Pet Games
An augmented-reality virtual pet game with a kitten. You feed, care for, and raise your cat, with mini-games along the way.
90M+ downloads~1.6M monthly playersestimated
Tech Lead
Infrastructure & Systems
Magify SDK
In-app campaign and monetization SDK.
ArchitectTech LeadDeveloper
Core Framework
Modular C# framework that every game is built on: shared architecture with bootstrap and config, and built-in layers for monetization, purchases, analytics, and notifications.
ArchitectTech LeadDeveloper
CI/CD Platform
Build pipeline on GitHub Actions and Fastlane that ships every game to Firebase for testing and to the stores for release.
ArchitectTech LeadDeveloper
Game Template
Project template the teams start a new game from, wired to the core framework.
ArchitectTech Lead
I worked on a social slots game, where I built the platform for its meta-games and automated the whole release pipeline.
- Built the platform for the game's meta-games: a separate project that plugged extra mini-games into the main slots app. I worked on it hands-on and had two developers reporting to me.
- Owned the release pipeline. It used to take 1-2 hours of manual work plus 2-3 hours of waiting; I automated it so the whole game shipped in about an hour from a single button.
- Helped on the core slots game itself too, though that was a smaller part of my work.
Games
Hard Rock Neverland Casino
A free social casino game with a large library of Vegas-style slot machines. Players spin the slots, collect bonuses, and play meta-games layered on top of the core casino. It first launched as Neverland Casino.
4M+ downloadsestimated
Team LeadDeveloperRelease Engineer
After a year I became lead of the client team, then of both client and server teams, while still building core systems myself.
- Led the project's engineering organisation, around 30 engineers across the client and server teams and the company's Chinese office, with senior engineers leading the sub-teams under me.
- Split my time between writing core code and leading the teams: planning, coordination, code quality, and hiring.
- Extended the game engine so the team could customize the game.
- Prepared the game for release on Android and iOS: benchmarking, optimization, and third-party SDKs.
I joined as a senior developer on a large-scale 3D mobile strategy game and designed much of its core.
- Designed the game's code architecture and prototyped the 3D strategy gameplay.
- Built the network layer and client-server protocol over C# .NET sockets. The dedicated server came later, so I wrote a small server myself, and the whole client already ran over the network from early on.
- Wrote a C# library for hexagonal math and built procedural map generation on a tile map.
- Built a visual editor for large hexagonal maps and optimized performance.
Games
Iron Conquest
A large-scale 3D mobile strategy game set in World War II, in the Lords Mobile mold. Players build and upgrade bases, train armies, and battle other players across a shared world map.
ArchitectTeam LeadDeveloper
I was the technical lead of a startup, and took our match-3 game from prototype to release on iOS, Android, and PC.
- Hired and led the team myself, set task priorities, and reviewed the team's code.
- Built the core match-3 gameplay: an adaptive difficulty system that tunes the game to each player's skill, plus bots that play-tested the balance.
- Wrote most of the client and server code: a C# Photon backend, a PostgreSQL database, and shared code used by both sides.
- Ran releases end to end: build optimization, per-device build variants, and publishing to iOS, Android, and PC.
Games
Recipes Passion
A match-3 puzzle game about sweets and baking. You swap and match treats to clear boards and finish recipes across the levels.
Team LeadDeveloperRelease Engineer
In my third year I became lead programmer on a 2D time-management game, an early version of Cooking Fever for Nordcurrent that later passed 450 million downloads.
- Led and mentored a small team of junior developers, my first time leading a team.
- Designed the game architecture and built most of the game logic.
- Built and expanded a 2D engine over Unity's 2D system, and extended the Unity editor so designers could build levels and objectives.
- Built the UI system, dynamic localization, and downloadable game content on top of that engine.
I joined as a junior developer and worked across several of the studio's projects, taking on a wide range of game programming tasks.
- Ported a PC game to iOS by working inside its custom C++ engine, where I learned how game engines work at a low level.
- Built the multiplayer for an action game on my own, even though it was not built for online play. The networking code I wrote was reused on later projects.
- Did a lot of animation work, and moved the Chromosapiens project to Unity's new Mecanim animation system.
- Built anti-hack profile systems for safe saving and loading across projects.
Games
I, Gladiator
A third-person action game where you play a gladiator who rebels against a mad Emperor. You fight in real-time melee combat, dodge and block, and collect many weapons and sets of armor. It mixes arena fights, boss battles, and a story campaign.
2M+ downloadsestimated
Post Apocalyptic Mayhem
A vehicular combat game set in a post-apocalyptic world. You drive armed vehicles around arenas and use mounted weapons and special abilities to wreck the other drivers. The focus is on fast multiplayer battles.
Developer
04
Open source
Unity packages and GitHub Actions I build and maintain. I use some of them at work too.
Unity packages
Union
A C# union type for Unity. One struct holds one of several types.
C#BinaryPrefs
Fast, persistent, thread-safe binary storage.
C#UniLogger
A small, flexible logger for Unity.
C#Tessera
2D grid geometry for Unity: square and hex grids.
C#iOS-ATT-Localization
Localizations for the iOS App Tracking Transparency prompt.
C#GitHub Actions
build-number-action
Gives each CI build a unique, growing number.
TypeScriptunity-version-action
Detects the Unity version a project needs.
TypeScriptverify-keystore-action
Verifies an Android keystore before a build.
TypeScriptgit-context-action
Collects git branch and commit info for a build.
TypeScript06
Words from colleagues
Ivan demonstrated very positive qualities… he always tries to find the best solutions. If I were to describe an ideal colleague, Ivan would easily fit that description - the heart of the company. I highly recommend him both as a person and as a specialist: top-notch code.
An exceptional game engineer… well organized and thrived under adversity. In many instances I placed Ivan in situations only he could succeed in, and he never let me down. His biggest strength was the ability to make everyone around him a better engineer.
An experienced, detail-oriented and highly professional hiring manager. As Head of the Unity Department he evaluated candidates and their code and ran technical interviews - his expertise and charisma were important selling points for many strong candidates we hired.
An outstanding professional with a unique combination of analytical mind, resourcefulness and broad-mindedness. His ability to listen, support colleagues and always find time to help creates an atmosphere of trust. A highly skilled specialist and a fantastic person.
An experienced developer, a competent leader, and just a good person capable of rationally managing time and resources to achieve the best result. A reliable professional who can realize the most difficult areas of work - in programming and in team management.
A high-level developer, good team leader and absolutely great person - one of the key people on the project. Ivan can handle any issue and offer interesting solutions, and lift the team's mood at difficult moments. If Ivan is in charge of a task, you can be sure it'll be done well and in time.
Ivan is a skilled developer with a good feeling for software architecture. As a team lead, he is a responsible manager who can lead a team.
A superb specialist who knows his craft perfectly. He prefers hard tasks over easy ones.