Gonzalo Ceciliano de la Peña Lead game programmer

I build rendering pipelines, shaders and gameplay systems. Most recently I led development of the BAFTA-nominated Paper Trail, shipped on nine platforms at 60fps on low-end phones.

Email me Download CV GitHub LinkedIn

Selected work

Paper Trail

Lead developer, Newfangled Games, 2024. A top-down puzzle adventure set in a foldable paper world. See it on Steam.

  • Runtime mesh generation and custom triangulation algorithms behind the paper-folding mechanic.
  • Bespoke Unity render pipelines with custom passes, batching, culling and post-processing.
  • CPU and GPU profiling with RenderDoc and NVIDIA Nsight to hold 60fps on low-end devices.
  • HLSL compute and pixel shaders, plus ShaderLab and Shader Graph, consistent across every platform.
  • Ported to PlayStation, Xbox, Nintendo Switch, iOS and Android, sim-shipping on 9 platforms.
  • Led a small programming team, planning features and schedules with art and design.
BAFTANominee, British Game 2025
70+awards and accolades
81OpenCritic
95%positive on Steam
4.8/5on iOS
9platforms, launched together

Behind the fold

A scene from Paper Trail in the Unity editor with my debug view switched on. As the page folds, the mesh is cut and re-triangulated at runtime: the numbers are vertex indices and the coloured lines are the fold edges being rebuilt each frame.

  1. Unannounced AA 3D action-adventure

    Lead developer at Newfangled Games, Norwich.

  2. Táctico

    Lead developer at Farda Games, Mexico City. A turn-based mobile strategy game extending the Dragonbond IP, which raised over $1.5m on Kickstarter. I designed the core architecture and combat, and built data-driven systems for units, abilities, AI and encounters.

  3. G.R.E.E.N. The Life Algorithm

    Graphics programmer at Estación Pi, Mexico City. Shaders and VFX for Xbox One, PlayStation 4, Nintendo Switch and PC.

Engines I've written

EmptyEngine

C++20 and Vulkan

A lightweight, modular game and rendering engine. The renderer sits behind a graphics-API abstraction layer and is driven by a render graph, giving fine-grained control over passes and resources.

EmptySource

C++ and OpenGL

A 3D engine built as my university final project, covering rendering, engine architecture, event systems, maths and animation. I made a local-multiplayer prop-hunt shooter on it to prove it out.

What I work with

Languages
C++, C#, HLSL, ShaderLab
Engines and graphics APIs
Unity and its Scriptable Render Pipeline, Unreal Engine, Vulkan, OpenGL, my own C++ engines
Rendering and performance
Render passes, batching, culling, post-processing, shader optimisation, compute shaders, CPU and GPU profiling with RenderDoc and NVIDIA Nsight
Gameplay and systems
Runtime mesh generation, triangulation, data-driven architecture, combat systems, AI behaviours
Platforms
PC and Steam, Xbox, PlayStation, Nintendo Switch, iOS, Android

Recognition for Paper Trail

Plus more than 70 further awards and accolades.

Get in touch

I'm based in Norwich and open to lead and senior programming roles, especially in rendering and graphics. I'm on a UK Skilled Worker visa and will be eligible for ILR in 2028.

gonzaloceciliano@gmail.com Download CV