The human behind the code.

I’m Sarthak Sachdeva, or Pixxel online - a game developer and technical artist. I graduated from the University of Staffordshire with a first-class B.Sc. (Hons) in Computer Games Development, and I now work full-time as a Game Developer at AriseMedia, building ability VFX, UI and asset pipelines for Superhero Arena on Roblox.

I’ll probably build a tool for that

If I’m placing every pebble by hand, I’m already thinking about a scatter tool. Inspired by John Romero’s approach to tooling, I like building things that take repetitive work out of the development pipeline.

What I work with

• Unreal Engine 5: Control Rig, Blueprints, Niagara, Geometry Script, materials and shaders
• Code: C++ and C#
• Engines and content: Unity, Roblox Studio (including EditableMesh), Blender, Substance Designer and Painter, Photoshop
• Production: profiling, technical documentation, asset integration, and handing tools over to artists and designers

Outside work

These days, it’s Minecraft, Valorant, Overwatch, and usually another app idea. My current side goal: learning to build my own programming language.

How I got hereFrom Discord bots to game development+

A friend was working on a Discord bot during a call, and I wanted to know how it worked. A few months of teaching myself later, I was building my own: a MyAnimeList-style tracking system, a Kakegurui-inspired casino bot, and an idle game inspired by Stardew Valley. Making something people could interact with was what hooked me on programming.

That curiosity took me to Unity, which was confusing at first but eventually clicked. I decided to pursue game development and moved to the UK to study at the University of Staffordshire. Before the degree, I spent a few months getting comfortable with Unreal Engine; the projects in this portfolio came together during my time at university.