
Ruben Caliandro
Technical Art Director | Senior Unity Engineer and Generalist
- Date of Birth
- June 7, 1990
- ruben.caliandro@gmail.com
- Phone
- (+39) 333 736 8333
- Location
- Turin, Italy | Remote only
Creative and technically versatile Technical Art Director with 8+ years in the game industry and 15+ years of programming experience.
Expert in Unity, game programming (C#), real-time rendering, shader programming, lighting, post-processing, and GPU/CPU optimization. Proven ability to bridge artistic vision and technical execution while coordinating small to mid-sized teams of artists and programmers.
Currently leading the technical art pipeline for the five-year production of the upcoming ARPG The Lonesome Guild (PC, PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X/S), combining Unity’s capabilities with custom tools and production-friendly workflows. Former full-stack web developer with a strong foundation in software engineering.
Turin, Italy
Sep, 2020 — Present
4 years 10 months
Technical Art Director at Tiny Bull Studios:
Technical Art Direction, Creative Direction, Technical Game Design, UX/UI
- Led the Technical Art Direction of The Lonesome Guild, a fantasy action RPG in development for PC, PS5, Xbox Series X/S, published by Don't Nod Entertainment, and releasing on Fall 2025
- Designed and maintained optimized shaders, VFX, lighting/rendering setup, and art production workflows
- Developed custom Unity tools to support artists and reduce iteration times for crafting environments, characters, cutscenes, cameras, gameplay props and others
- Developed shaders and tools for Substance Painter/Designer to allow artists to author and preview custom texture layouts for environments and characters
- Mentored junior technical/VFX/lighting artists and collaborated on a daily base across programming and art departments
- Actively contributed to Creative Direction alongside a 4-person creative leadership group for The Lonesome Guild and upcoming projects
- Contributed as Technical Game Designer, authoring production-ready technical design documents and occasionally proposing creative, feasible alternatives to address complex or production-expensive gameplay challenges
- Led the UX/UI team during critical development phases, ensuring sustainable workflows, driving feature design, and implementing high-fidelity UI assets and motion design
- Main Technologies: Unity, C#, CG/HLSL/GLSL, Shaderlab, Amplify Shader Editor, Substance Painter/Designer, Xbox/PS5/Nintendo Switch, Photoshop, Figma, UIToolkit
Turin, Italy
Dec, 2016 — Aug, 2020
3 years 8 months
Graphics Programmer at Tiny Bull Studios:
Shaders/VFX, Stereoscopic Rendering and Game Programming
- Developed custom shaders, post-processing, and VFX across multiple Unity projects using HDRP, URP and Built-in rendering pipelines
- Engineered stereoscopic-safe rendering techniques and VFX for VR, addressing issues where traditional effects break due to depth perception in head-mounted displays
- Designed and implemented tailored solutions to address core VR challenges, including motion sickness mitigation and cinematic presentation
- Contributed to the development of a fully custom rendering and lighting system based on echolocation for the game Blind, a VR-exclusive title released on Oculus Rift, HTC Vive, and PlayStation VR
- Worked as both Graphics and Gameplay Programmer across a wide range of applications including mobile games, physics simulations, e-learning platforms, AR/VR product showcases, and real-time adaptations of 3D animated shorts
- Performed targeted CPU and GPU optimizations for PC, mobile, and console platforms, ensuring stable performance under strict hardware constraints
- Main Technologies: Unity, C#, ShaderLab, CG/HLSL/GLSL, Oculus, Vive, PlayStation 4
Turin / Sunnyvale, CA
Apr, 2010 — Sep, 2017
7 years 5 months
Full-stack Web Developer at Various companies (Italy & USA):
Full-stack Web Development
- While outside game industry, provided a strong foundation in software architecture and project management
- Worked solo or in small to mid-sized teams
- Developed some open-source repositories and contributed to many others
- Main technologies: Node/Express, Ruby/Rails, Angular, AWS, Docker, Databases, PHP
- See LinkedIn and GitHub to know more
Sep, 2009 — Jun, 2013
3 years 9 months
Film Projectionist, Cinema Teatro Cuore:
35mm Film Projections.
Jan, 2013 — Oct, 2017
Università degli studi di Torino - Computer Science Department
Master of Science: Computer Science (Virtual Reality and Multimedia)
Thesis: Visual Effects for Real-Time Stereoscopic Rendering
Score: 110/110 cum laude
Sep, 2009 — Dec, 2012
Università degli studi di Torino - Computer Science Department
Bachelor of Science: Computer Science (Networks)
Score: 110/110 cum laude
Sep, 2004 — Jul, 2009
High School P. Gobetti
High School: Science
Thesis: Mathematics applied to 3D Computer Graphics Programming
Sep, 2020 — Present
The Lonesome Guild — Action RPG | PC, PS5, Xbox Series X/S
A vibrant and heartfelt action RPG that explores the power of togetherness in a world struggling with loneliness
- Technical Art Direction, Creative Direction, Art production pipelines, Technical Game Design, UI/UX, Tools Programming
Dec, 2019 — Jan, 2020
Underwater VR — Oculus VR Experience
A VR showcase in which you cruise aboard an underwater vehicle to explore some of Italy's largest energy company's facilities.
- Unity, C#, HLSL, Volumetric lighting, Stereoscopic VFX
Nov, 2018 — Mar, 2019
Skill Steal — Prototype (Unreleased) | PC
A distopic multiplayer battle royale where opponents can steal each other's skills.
- HDRP, 500+ realtime lights in a closed arena at 60+ fps
Dec, 2016 — Oct, 2017
Visual Effects for Real-Time Stereoscopic Rendering — Master of Science Thesis
Some VFX are not suitable for VR because they alter the correct perception of depth. The thesis shows a possible solution for a kind of distortion VFX applied to 3D models.
Dec, 2016 — Sep, 2018
Blind — Oculus, Steam VR, PSVR
Blind is a narrative-driven psychological thriller for virtual reality where the player is blind and must explore their surroundings using echolocation.
- Unity, C#, VR, fully custom lighting system
- Italian
- Native speaker
- English
- Professional working proficiency