Skills
I have experience of developing Unity projects for academic research and stakeholders over the past decade.
I've built for WEBGL, 2D, 3D and Virtual Reality. And am fairly familiar with what Unity has to offer at core level, although there's always room to learn, and I tend to learn something new on a monthly basis!
Experience in working with JavaScript and Typescript, which extends to the many available frameworks
- PixiJS & Phaser
- Node.js, Firebase, SocketIO
- Express.JS & EJS
- React
- MongoDB
- Bootstrap
To satisfy my creative side of the brain 🧠, I use several creative apps from Adobe. I've been using Photoshop for upward of 5 years and have picked up others as hobbies
- Illustrator - Primarily for Vector Art
- Photoshop - Photo Retouching, Digital Art
- XD - UI/UX and Wireframing
- Premier Pro - My goto video-editing software
I have experience in the following languages:
- Python
- JavaScript
- TypeScript
- C#
For an deeper insight into my programming, see the project portfolio further down =)
Alongside the typical hobbies, I dabble in a diverse range of technologies and applications; some of which include:
- Git - Version Control through BitBucket / Azure DevOps / GitHub / Jira
- Blender - For low-poly modelling and animation rigging
- FL Studio/Audacity - Music Production and Sound Editing
- PsychoPy - Building Python-based paradigms
Resume
Summary
Juris Savostijanovs
An Edge Hill scholar, author, and a graduate with a Bachelor's in Psychology (BSc)
Education
BSc (Hons) Psychology
2019 - 2022
Edge Hill University, Ormskirk, Lancashire
- First Class Honours
ST WILFRID’S C OF E ACADEMY (SIXTH FORM)
2017 - 2019
St. Wilfrid's Church of England Academy, Blackburn, Lancashire
- Extended Project Qualification: A
- Psychology: B
- Computer Science: B
- Business Studies: B
ST WILFRID’S C OF E ACADEMY
2012 - 2017
St. Wilfrid's Church of England, Blackburn, Lancashire
GCSE A - C: 8
Professional Experience
Lead Interactive Developer
2024 - Present
Koffeecup, London, England, United Kingdom · Remote
As a Lead Developer, I am responsible for driving the development of new features. I ensure that the features meet technical requirements and align with project goals. Additionally, I conduct thorough code reviews and advocate for adopting best practices and design patterns to enhance our codebase.Senior Interactive Developer
2024 - 2024
Koffeecup, London, England, United Kingdom · Remote
As a Senior Developer, I strove to elevate the company's projects and team. In that role, I assumed a leadership position with expanded responsibilities, driving innovation and efficiency across multiple areas of development.Interactive Developer
2023 - 2024
Koffeecup, London, England, United Kingdom · Remote
Led an immersive project by conceptualising, designing, and developing a captivating virtual reality (VR) world brimming with intricately crafted mini-games and exciting prizes for the Horizon Worlds platform with over 200,000 concurrent users!Junior Games Developer
2022 - 2023
Live 5 Limited, London, United Kingdom
Thriving in a fast-paced environment, I contributed to developing commercially successful cabinet and web-based games at Live 5 Ltd. During my time there, I collaborated with programmers, designers, and testers to bring game concepts to life, contributing to projects that earned over £800 million internationally.Previous Roles
Portfolio
A top-secret initiative aimed at developing redacted. Due to the sensitive nature of the work, details remain confidential. However, I can assure you that I'm trilled with whats to come!
In this team-driven, fast-paced VR game, you are part of Boomer Industries. A force tasked with meticulously cleaning up the retro-futuristic houses of Boomerica, using the latest Boomer Industries technology!
Welcome to the Wild West Saloon, a VR experience in which you challenge your friends to a quick-draw shoot-out, blast your way into the TOP 10 at the chicken shooting range, hurl sheriff's badges at the wall, practice your mixology skills by making the perfect robot soda-pop and maybe even discover a secret or two.
The Galactic Arcade features a neon-lit, retro-cool venue in outer space for darts, air hockey, and more. It was created as a space to play and hang out with up to six players, with one player crowned the winner. Bonus plays included bashing the glitchy vending machine and shooting mega-darts at the neighbouring planet, making intergalactic destruction feel exhilarating!
Divided Islands is a fun and immersive math game for KS3 students developed for the BBC. It aligns with UK curriculums and focuses on fractions, percentages, and ratios.
Eye of Horus is an well-established slot game series featuring popular Egyptian artefacts capable of being upgraded in the different game-modes!
ChatIt is a web-based chat application utilising Web Sockets that allows random users to chat with each other.
BoatIt is a competitive boating game where you are tasked with picking up a limited amount of trash from a body of water.
PowerIt is a take on a typical wave-based tower defence game. The player juggles a 'power cube' to either power their defences or collect coins
HauntIt follows the tale of a grave-keeping wizard! Use an array of spells to ward off unwanted spirits and keep your graveyard safe
Visual Perspective Taking (VPT) is a part of a more extensive set of applications I developed during my undergraduate study at EHU.
The application was designed to examine Theory of Mind in Virtual Reality, both 2D and VR versions were created with live data tracking of the participant's inputs
Balloon Analogue Risk Task, or B.A.R.T is a collaborative project involving Edge Hill University, Tohoku University and the Central European University.
It was designed to serve as an online-hosted measure of risk taking behaviours when individuals are in a co-operative, or competitive position.
Once Upon a Town: Ormskirk was a commissioned project in which I was tasked with developing a
virtual museum to host the memories and experiences of those living in and surrounding Ormskirk
during the Covid-19 Pandemic.
It was designed to be a safe-space for individuals to share their stories and experiences during the pandemic, full of interactive elements and a range of media to explore.
The Virtual Reality drumming application was designed to explore the effects of synchronous drumming on an individual's ability to carry out Theory of Mind with the agent they entrained with.
It features the ability to alter the degree of accuracy of competing agents, and can be adjusted to work with a range of avatars and songs!
The following was my attempt at building a simple virtual chatbot/assistant capable of tracking the user's position, emotions and speech!
Certifications
- All
- Photography 📷
- Design
- Photography Foundations: Exposure
- Photography Foundations: Lenses
- Portrait Photography
- Introduction to Photography
- Lightroom CC
- Lightroom: Portraits
- Adobe XD Essential Training: Design
- Photoshop 2021 Essential Training: The Basics
- After Effects 2021 Essential Training: The Basics
- Illustrator 2021 Essential Training
- Illustrator Info-graphics
Awards
Edge Hill University's (EHU) Excellence Scholarships reward those who demonstrate commitment, determination and achievement beyond the scope of their studies. I was fortunate to receive the award for my works spanning the technical field of Virtual Reality (VR) development and Theory of Mind (ToM) research in Psychology as well as professional collaborations with the Tohoku and Central European Universities. Alongside the research, I represented EHU at the British Psychological Society (BPS) annual Cyberpsychology Conference and presented several WiP projects concerned with gendered violence in video games and theory of mind in virtual reality Outside my academic research I elected to become a Psychology Student Representative and work as a Support Worker, providing care to those with disabilities
The Student Opportunity Fund provided by Edge Hill University (EHU) helps individuals take part in endeavours that enhance their employability, build confidence, and develop transferable skills. I was fortunate to receive the Student Opportunity Fund Award to fund me presenting my academic works at the British Psychological Society (BPS) annual Cyberpsychology Conference. I was one of the few undergraduates students who had an in-press publication and presented several in-progress papers to the academic and highly talented audience. I would not have had this opportunity if it wasn’t for the help of the educational team at EHU and my supervisors, Dr Gray Atherton and Dr Liam Cross, who always went the extra mile to promote my academic achievements and provide me with opportunities to broaden my abilities and knowledge, for which I am truly grateful.
Alongside the support of Dr Gray Atherton and Dr Liam Cross, I was successful in receiving the ISR Pump Prime grant from Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC) to fund my first-year undergraduate projects exploring how virtual realities can become safe and enriching spaces for those with disabilities to learn, explore and develop competencies. The spaces were co-designed with stakeholders to understand what type of virtual environments are most appealing to individuals with specific autism and intellectual disability.
Publications
Gendered violence and sexualized representations in video games
Cross, L., Kaye, L. K., Savostijanovs, J., McLatchie, N., Johnston, M., Whiteman, L., Mooney, R., & Atherton, G. (2022).
New Media & Society.
GrooVR: An open access virtual reality drumming application to improve prosociality using synchronous movement
Cross, L., Nixon, W., Smith, J., Tseng, C.-h., Kitamura, Y., Isamu, E., Savostijanavos, J., & Atherton, G. (2025*).
To Be ConfirmedContact
If you are looking to get in touch, the simplest way are the social media links. Alternatively, you can contact me via email: juris.savos@hotmail.com