Tijn Epema
Full-stack (game) developer
I'm an experienced software engineer based in the Netherlands, specializing in game development, design and security.
About Me
Who am I?
Back in 2013, when I was just eight years old, I discovered Roblox. What started as simple experiments with Lua scripting quickly grew into a deep passion for game development and programming. Over time, I dove further into related fields such as reverse engineering, security, parsers, and web development. Along the way, I also developed a strong interest in UI/UX design — something that continues to shape how I approach projects today.
With nearly ten years of hands-on experience in Roblox development, I’ve left a notable mark on the open-source community, especially through libraries and tools aimed at standalone usage of Luau. While my roots lie in Roblox, I’ve since broadened my expertise to both frontend and backend development, mobile app development and web development. I enjoy building scalable systems and ensuring that the user experience feels logical, fast, and enjoyable.
In my work, I combine technical depth with an eye for detail. I enjoy breaking down complex challenges step by step, and I draw motivation from continuous learning, experimenting, and collaborating to create things we can be proud of.
Currently, I’m pursuing a Bachelor’s degree in Software Engineering at NHL Stenden, where I’m expected to graduate in 2027.
Experience
Software Engineering Intern at Centraal Justitieel Incassobureau (CJIB)
During my internship, I contributed to the development of a cloud-based data platform in an Agile/DevOps environment. Key activities included: - Developing a Streamlit application to simplify repetitive and error-prone tasks and support the data engineering team. - Gaining hands-on experience with databases and cloud technologies. This internship provided practical experience in modern data engineering practices while strengthening my skills in software development, teamwork, and problem-solving.
Software Engineer at 3AM Experiences
Contributed to the development and implementation of engaging new features and content for popular Roblox games, including multiple tower defense titles averaging 10,000 concurrent users. Collaborated with cross-functional teams to design innovative gameplay mechanics, optimize performance, and enhance player retention. Played a key role in developing and integrating Stealth SDK, an open-source AI framework for interactive NPCs, widely adopted across games averaging 20,000 concurrent users and interacting with over 4 million players daily. Worked on multiple mobile apps for the Apple platform using React Native and Expo, where I was responsible for the backend functionality, database management, and API development. Developed various tooling to streamline the development process and improve the overall development experience.
Programmer at Bulk Games
Developed user-facing interactive components, improved UI/UX, implemented responsive NPC controllers, and enhanced the studio's workflow by integrating a package manager, adding tools like Aftman and continuous integration, and optimizing processes.
Lead Programmer at Pillar's Edge
Led development of large-scale projects, established a developer-friendly workflow with Git and Rojo, created custom tooling to optimize processes, wrote optimized code managing thousands of entities, and designed responsive UI/UX using Fusion.
Programmer and Project Lead at Octa Studios
Managed a large team of cross-functional developers on several projects, wrote robust backend code and game optimizations, redesigned the game's interface, and re-evaluated its UX.
Projects
VFX Editor
An all-in-one VFX editor for Roblox, built with Fusion and FusionComponents. Overhauls and reimagines native features of Roblox Studio, optimizing them for efficiency and ease of use. This plugin reached over 10,000 downloads in the first month after release, with a 93% approval rating.
FusionComponents
A collection of 31 components for Fusion, using Tailwind colors, the Lucide icon set and a custom theming engine. This project took around half a year to realize, and was a great learning experience.
simpoll
A light-weight, simple bidirectional long-polling library for Roblox. Uses a TypeScript backend and connects to Roblox using a custom API, designed for stability and ease of use.
create-roblox
A CLI tool designed to simplify the creation of Roblox projects. It features an interactive setup process that installs all necessary tools and establishes a basic project structure, helping new developers understand the concept and workflow of using external editors for Roblox development.
zap-vscode
A Visual Studio Code extension that provides syntax highlighting and intellisense for the Zap IDL. Designed to mimic the Luau Language Server, it provides a seamless experience for Zap developers.
Fusion Autocomplete
Fusion Autocomplete is a Visual Studio Code extension that adds autocomplete support for Fusion, autocompleting class names, properties, functions and function parameters.
CodeSpan
codespan-lune allows you to create beautiful diagnostics for your Lune applications, based on the original library for Rust.
MDWave
MDWave is a front-end for Moonwave, a documentation parser for Luau, built with VitePress, Vue, Tailwind and JavaScript.