Hi, I’m Karim, co-founder and Creative Director at EPIC Agency. I lead a team of talented designers and collaborate closely with skilled developers at EPIC to craft nice looking and user friendly websites.
I’m closely involved in UX/UI design, from early prototyping to the design of full digital platforms.
I also dedicate much of my time to crafting game concepts and 3D models for activation games and immersive experiences.
By night, you’ll often find me coding games or experimenting with shaders, still chasing that spark of play and creativity that started it all.
Highlighted projects
The Cursed Library
The Cursed Library is a passion project that blends my lifelong love for children’s books, classic tales, and dark, immersive atmospheres. I designed six unsettling worlds inspired by well-known stories, modeled entirely in Blender 3D.
Powered by Three.js and custom shaders, the experience unfolds as a journey through a haunted library, where hidden portals transport visitors into different dimensions.
Sound is at the heart of the experience. Every whisper, melody, and echo shapes the mood. The amazing Steve Jones and Jules Maxwell crafted the haunting soundtracks, recorded the voices, and coded the intricate audio transitions.
Captain Goosebumps
Every year at EPIC, we dedicate our time and expertise to support a cause that reflects our values. This year, we chose to raise awareness for Live in Color, a Belgian organization that promotes the inclusion of refugees through education.
To do so, we created a playful web game featuring a skiing goose that brings color back to the world. While the core development was led by my colleague Théo Gil Cerqueira, I was responsible for the art direction, illustration, and shader coding of the trail.
Red Bull Sand Scramble
Red Bull is a client we collaborate with regularly. I’ve been involved in several game projects for them, but my favorite is Red Bull Sand Scramble, a fast-paced racing game where I developed a simple yet efficient physics engine, along with the 3D modeling and gameplay design.
I worked closely with Shamil Altamirov who developed the interface, and my associate Thierry Michel, who coded the whole gameplay and transformed a rough prototype into an energetic, adrenaline-filled experience that perfectly captures the spirit of Red Bull.
Tiny Experiments
I’ve always had a soft spot for small-scale projects. I enjoy crafting bite-sized experiences that explore simple mechanics and techniques in playful ways. I spend a lot of time experimenting on CodePen, where I can focus on the tiny details and polish every interaction.
Here are a few of those experiments.
See the Pen
Skating bunny by Karim Maaloul (@Yakudoo)
on CodePen.
Skating Bunny is a small minimalist game I built as a playful reward for people who contact us through our website. It was a perfect excuse to experiment with the frame buffer technique used to draw the skate marks and to craft custom shaders for the smooth, blurred floor reflections.
See the Pen
Infinite Portals by Karim Maaloul (@Yakudoo)
on CodePen.
Two worlds are interconnected, sharing the same camera view but existing in different spatial dimensions. This experiment is another take on the portal effects I previously explored in The Cursed Library.
See the Pen
Chill the lion by Karim Maaloul (@Yakudoo)
on CodePen.
Chill the Lion was the Codepen that got me the most attention, I made it during a heat wave, and somehow, it went viral.
It was also one of my very first experiments with Three.js, where I built a lion entirely out of cube primitives.
Back then, I had no 3D modeling experience at all. Learning Blender 3D later on completely transformed how I design and bring interactive characters to life.
About me
I began my career nearly two decades ago as a children’s book illustrator before transitioning into web design. I then joined several agencies as a Flash developer, creating rich interactive experiences. When Flash met its end, I dove into Three.js, exploring new ways to bring interactivity to the web through 3D experiences and games.
What I love most is blending my illustration, design, and coding skills to craft short, playful experiences.
I enjoy infusing my own art direction into the code and constantly learning new techniques to better express my creative vision.
These days, I’m most excited about Godot, an open-source, lightweight alternative to the big game engines.
I’m also curious to see how AI will shape and expand the creative process.
And of course, I’m still interested in Three.js, especially TSL, a node-based shading language that simplifies the creation of shaders.
Tools
I use Blender3D, Figma, Photoshop, and After Effects daily to shape the design of my experiences. On the coding side, I rely on Three.js, GSAP, and vanilla JavaScript to bring my characters to life.
Lately, with the rise of AI, I’ve been experimenting with ComfyUI, Midjourney, and VEO3.
Final Thoughts
In the end, tools are just tools.
I once saw a calligrapher write a stunningly beautiful word using only his finger and some coffee as ink. A perfect reminder that the greatest skill one can develop is a sharp eye and a rich, open-minded sense of curiosity.
Codrops illustrates this idea by showing that there’s never a single way to achieve an effect.
Mastering a technique broadens your skill set, but what truly matters is the ability to forge your own path.
Thank you for reading this spotlight!