About me

Martin Danihel, 2D game developer in Europe, based in Trnava, Slovakia

Hi! My name is Martin Danihel and I’m a developer with extensive experience in game development. I mainly focus on core game mechanics, UI, combat, smooth gameplay, and great visuals — especially in 2D. I also have experience with backends, networking, Kubernetes, Google Cloud, real-time balancing, Steam cooperative P2P, and networking in general.

Currently, I’m working full-time on the MMORPG Soulbound: Online, where I’ve gained a lot of hands-on experience with multiplayer architecture and backend systems, even though my primary focus is on the front-end.

I’m a big fan of Game Maker and Godot — mostly for their snappy workflow, great results, and user interfaces I feel very comfortable with. Working in a team is never an issue for me; I’ve always gotten along well with people and I consider myself very flexible.

I’ve been developing games professionally for over 5 years, and as a hobby for more than 15. Yep, I started as an 11-year-old kid! (It probably doesn’t belong in a serious portfolio, but just for fun (please, have mercy — don’t click that).)

I’m based in Trnava, Slovakia and available for remote work across Europe. If you need someone to create a 2D game in Game Maker or Godot — from a prototype to a Steam release — that’s what I do.

I’m looking forward to any future collaboration!

Open CV
Game Maker Godot GDScript C# SteamWorks Steam P2P Networking TCP UDP Dedicated servers Docker Kubernetes Google Cloud Postgres php sql Google Play Services Git Linear Blender Spine 2D Performance UI programming AI Friendly Claude Cursor MCP AI agents Sentry Automation English (Intermediate)

Recent Games

Soulbound Online gameplay

Soulbound: Online

Over the past 3+ years, I served as a core developer on Soulbound: Online, contributing to the game’s most critical systems. My work spanned core gameplay mechanics, dungeon design, all combat and abilities logic, visuals, UI, smooth gameplay experience, performance, and networking optimizations. Through this project, I gained extensive experience with GML and backend architecture designed for MMORPGs.

Visit on Steam

Knowledge I gained

Work on Soulbound boosted my experience at an incredible speed. An online MMORPG is a different cup of coffee — how these systems actually fit together: networking, communication between client and services, backend, and game-code architecture for fully server-authoritative multiplayer. I’m immensely proud of that, and of what the project left in me.

I’m determined to pass on my experience and know-how, and to keep working through the next obstacles and challenges I’ll have to solve.

Fish & Chill

End-to-End Solo Development: Responsible for 100% of the game’s production, including game design, programming, UI/UX, art direction, audio integration, music and custom desktop overlay architecture. Project made in Godot.

Visit on Steam

Backend & Web Game Tools

Game admin panel and backend tools

Backend Balance Administration for Games

For the backend, I use a variety of tools to keep things flexible and practical. In short: VPS, Kubernetes, Retool, Postgres, and Adminer.

With an game admin panel and balancing tools, designers can tweak game parameters in real-time without bothering the devs or requiring a new build. Everything is accessible and simple to use.

These tools can also be used to manage individual pods, whether for hosting multiplayer game servers or other purposes.

Fish & Chill crash reports admin 2 photos

Web & VPS

You can see part of my backend experience on this site — it runs on my VPS, which powers this page and fishandchill.eu.

That VPS is used for more than hosting — administration for my games and the APIs behind them, for example:

  • Crash Reports — player crashes and priority
  • Demo Access — Steam demo without a build
  • Statistics — live player numbers
  • Steam sales — revenue tracking

How it looks and works is in the screenshots beside this.

Visit fishandchill.eu

Past Projects

Planetary Strike gameplay

Planetary Strike

A project I worked on at a Slovak studio. I contributed as lead programmer — combat, new visuals, backend, the storyline system, and various other VFX and UI. I also worked on a minmax algorithm for the AI — the same kind of approach used in chess.

Vampire’s Butler gameplay

Vampire’s Buttler

An older project from several years ago, made with my friends. Unfinished — but the functionality demo is here. I handled the entire coding, visual effects, and animations.

Lengthdir Calculator tool

Lengthdir Calculator

A personal project I made to help myself and other developers working in Game Maker with the lengthdir_x and lengthdir_y functions. It’s basically a tool that visualizes how these functions work and can generate output code ready to paste directly into Game Maker.

Visit itch.io
Dialogue Manager graph editor 3 photos

Dialogue Manager

An internal tool I built for writing and wiring game dialogue. In one editor I manage NPCs, conversation graphs, variables, progress, quest stats, flags, and multiple languages.

When the work is ready, it can export a GameMaker library or a Godot package, so the same dialogue drops into the game.

I’m planning a public release of this program.

World Map — selected country boundary 2 photos

World Map

A project where I took country boundaries and data from 1939 to the present. Individual zones can change in real time.

It can serve as a foundation for a management or strategy game. I built it for educational purposes.

Game Jams and Experiments

Chlastala Vista gameplay

Chlastala Vista

A Slovak-themed game with funny Slovak voiceovers, made in 48 hours during the Trnava Game Jam. The goal is to steal a specific bottle of alcohol and deliver it to a coachman, who then brings it to the bar. The game is endless, with each round getting harder and featuring more obstacles. It also includes a leaderboard for top players.

Visit itch.io

The Last Generation

Another 48-hour game made during a game jam.
Your goal is to survive three tough waves and defend your base. A boss was waiting for you at the end!

Visit itch.io

River Crosser

And once again, another game made in 48 hours. This time, we took inspiration from a funny video and combined it with the classic River Crosser.

It’s not exactly the most graceful thing for a portfolio, but game-jam games are part of who I am, and I like the challenges they bring — that’s the only reason I’m sharing this here.

Visit itch.io
Horror lighting experiment
Croc Remake
RPS Lama ICQ Remake
RPS Lama ICQ Remake
Kula World Remake

slot machine

A small slot-game experience.

Client
  • Draws the cabinet and reels
  • Plays the spin the server sent
  • Sound, win veil, input
  • Does not pick the win
Server
  • Holds the credits
  • Rolls the RNG
  • Picks stops and the payout
  • Answers /api/slot/spin
TypeScript

Client game and types

PixiJS 8

WebGL cabinet and reels

Flask

Authoritative spin and credits

Vite

Builds the client

Bun

Runs the tests

Web Audio

Clicks and reel stops

Canvas

Win shade

Past Experiences

  1. 2023 — 2026

    Spiderware

    Engineer — work on Soulbound: Online.

  2. 2021 — 2023

    Digifox s.r.o.

    Junior Game Developer.

    Online tutoring for children

    Side job — one-to-one online tutoring for children.

  3. 2019 — 2021

    Stellantis

    Maintenance — automation engineer and robotics. Siemens PLC, STEP 7, TIA Portal, fault analysis and troubleshooting.

  4. 2017 — 2019

    Stellantis

    Production technical monitor — operating ABB and Fanuc robotics and automated cells.

  5. 2014 — 2017

    Secondary school (school-leaving exam)

    Electrical technician specializing in automation technology.

Reviews

Game-dev commissions and tutoring.

Simoneta Z. ★★★★★

Martin is great. My son looks forward to every lesson. He is exceptionally helpful and reliable. He never arrives late, never cancels, and they often stay longer than the paid time. You can tell he enjoys it — they lose track of time. His approach is so friendly that my son doesn’t even see it as studying, just as fun. I recommend him without hesitation.

Mária L. ★★★★★

We are very happy with Martin’s tutoring. My son likes the way he explains things, and most of all he really enjoys it. He also stays beyond the agreed time. I appreciate the excellent, fast communication and his accommodating approach. I would definitely recommend Martin as a tutor.

HoneySweet ★★★★★

Just finished hiring Martin. He is very attentive and considerate with what you want coded. He’s quick to respond and easy to talk to, and very professional with money. He’ll even walk you through how to set up his work. All in all, I would hire him again.

Flaick

I asked him to add a feature to my project. Very fast delivery, and professional.