Games

​Return to Monkey Island (2022) – Terrible Toybox

My roles: Gameplay Programmer and Additional Writing
​Return to Monkey Island is an unexpected, thrilling return of series creator Ron Gilbert that continues the story of the legendary adventure games The Secret of Monkey Island and Monkey Island 2: LeChuck’s Revenge, developed in collaboration with Lucasfilm Games.
​My contribution highlights:
  • Built 1/3 of the rooms in the game
  • Wrote dialog for Guybrush and other characters
  • Our game earned "very positive" reviews on Steam.
  • Technology: Proprietary engine, for Windows, macOS, Linux, Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X/S, iOS, Android

​Voice Games for Alexa and Google Assistant (2019) – Creativity, Incorporated

My role: Senior Software Engineer
We created exciting entertainment experiences for Alexa and Google Home, for properties including:
  • Stranger Things
  • Disney Music
  • The Wiggles
  • American Idol
  • Lost In Space
  • Coachella
My contribution highlights:
  • ​I built a cross-platform pipeline for voice games, allowing designers to script in Excel and ship on Google or Alexa.
  • Technology: Javascript, node.js, Alexa, Google Assistant

​Shaq Sky Slam (2014) – Crater House, One Spear Entertainment

My roles: Cofounder, Creative Director, Technical Lead, and Lead Game Writer
In this over-the-top extreme sport for iOS and Android, Shaq and friends sky dive out of airplanes, plunge downward to pick up speed, then do mid-air trick combos to create earth-shattering slam dunks on landmarks around the world!
Game Design Writeup:
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The player steers their skydiving character by tilting the device. They can also press and hold the screen to dash and gain speed but cannot steer while dashing. A faster skydive is harder to control, but yields a dunk worth a higher star rating.

We designed interacting systems to create progressive gameplay.
  • Players earn XP by completing Dares, such as completing particular tricks, reaching certain speeds, or even colliding with wayward seagulls.
  • As a player gains XP and levels up, they unlock new maps and playable characters.
  • Some playable characters are only available for purchase.
  • The player can collect or purchase coins, which can be spent to level up their players' stats or purchase single-use combinable powerups including a jetpack, coin magnet, and Super Shaq cape.
  • Free play is limited by the energy of each playable character, which replenishes with time. So, players who have unlocked more characters are rewarded with more overall play time.
​
This metagame progression elevates the bite-sized skydiving experience into a highly replayable game.
My contribution highlights:
  • Led our studio in conceptualizing, pitching, building, and launching this game.
  • ​Technology: Unity for iOS and Android, Unity C#

Shaquille O'Neal's Announcement of Shaq Sky Slam – Crater House, One Spear Entertainment

My roles: Writer, Editor

I wrote and edited Shaquille O'Neal's video presentation unveiling Shaq Sky Slam at the Global Mobile Internet Conference in Beijing.

Unity Games (2011-2013) – Crater House

My roles: Cofounder, Creative Director, Technical Lead, and Lead Game Writer
We developed a variety of Unity games with clients and partners including Shaquille O'Neal, Kraken Rum, the Israel Antiquities Authority, and the California Indian Museum and Cultural Center.
  • Technology: Unity (Windows, macOS, iOS, and Android), C#

​Leafcutters, my MFA thesis game (2011) – USC Games

My roles: MFA candidate, Game Designer, Producer
The player teaches a colony of leaf cutter ants to thrive in this game adapted from natural creatures and systems,
For my MFA thesis, I established a design challenge: How could I create an experience of playing with an ant colony in way that brought understanding and connection with these creatures?
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I determined that allowing direct control of the ants would negate the sense of them as living creatures. Instead, I designed a system of indirect control, where the player teaches the ants what urges toward certain actions they should have in reaction to various situations.

​This game features interplaying systems of ant training and colony creation:
  • The player shapes the urges of the ants in response to situational experiences (near food, outside nest, holding leaves, etc.), and the ants act accordingly.
  • The player thereby teaches the ants to harvest and mulch leaves, tend the fungus farm, and gather food from the fungus, and feed the larvae and queen.
  • The colony must expand underground to provide space for larve, fungus gardens, and detritus.
My contribution:
  • I conceptualized and designed this game, formed and led a team to build it, and wrote the corresponding MFA thesis paper
  • Technology: Unity (macOS, Windows, web)

​Tlaloc's Book: A Game of Fraction Math (2010) – USC Games, UCLA CRESST

My roles: Educational Game Designer, Software Engineer
Tlaloc’s Book is an educational fraction math game designed to help struggling students. In this puzzle platforming game, players collect and use whole numbers, fractions, and mathematical operators to change the heights of platforms.
Our team of four game designers at the USC Games EA Game Innovation Lab collaborated with the UCLA’s Psychology Department to build and assess the educational impact of this game. It was a subset of a project led by the UCLA’s Center for Advanced Technology in Schools.

​The player collects and uses integers, fractions, and operators to change the height of platforms in the game. Because the player can jump or fall up to one unit, it is sometimes possible to pass the level with an inexact solution, but only exact solutions yield treasure.

​​We continually playtested our prototypes with grade schoolers to ensure that the game was challenging and fun for our target audience. We collaborated with education theorists to validate that the game adhered to the latest theories of learning.
  • My contribution: With our team, I conceptualized and built this game and administered playtesting with a class of 6th graders.
  • Technology: ActionScript for Windows

Interactive Prototypes

Ant Paint

My role: Designer

The player paints ant scent trails to lead the colony toward food. The player's limited trail scent supply is replenished as ants return food to the nest.
  • ​Technology: Unity for web

Digital Puppetry Glove – USC Games

My role: Designer

​The user puppets the face on the screen using a lightweight glove. The user's fingers open and close the mouth and control its two sides, allowing for a variety of expressions.
  • Technology: Processing, Arduino

Selective Memory – USC Games

My role: Designer

​The user prods an exposed brain with electrodes, causing a video of the brain’s memories to replay. Each quadrant of the brain is tied to a specific personality trait, and the video only plays scenes reflecting that trait, altering the thematic experience of the narrative.

The video reveals a darkly comedic fictional story of how the brain and movie came to be.
  • Technology: Arduino, ActionScript, digital video, physical materials
  • Created with Logan Olson

Multitouch Clay – USC Games

My role: Designer

Users mold virtual clay by touching, poking, and dragging. They can spin the ball by swiping with a hand. Resetting the clay ball requires teamwork with another user.
  • Technology: Unity

Comedy Livestreams

Mostly Walking (2014 – present), on Day[9]tv

My role: cohost (improv comedy)

Since 2014, we've entertained hundreds of thousands of viewers with over 800 hours of live improv comedy hosting.

Celebrating 10 years! In this long-running, hilarious weekly livestream with cohosts Sean "Day[9]" Plott, and Sean Bouchard, I play and lovingly roast point-and-click adventure games old and new.

Nugget Club (2022 – present)

My roles: Creator, Host (improv comedy)

On Nugget Club, I improv riff public domain movies I've never seen before.

Blue, California (2022 – 2023)

My roles: Creator, Producer, Host

​I GMed this actual-play TTRPG show with cohosts Sean Bouchard, Jamie Antonisse, and Kyla Furey 

MetaDating (2011) –
​Day[9]tv, Geek and Sundry

My roles: Cohost (improv comedy)

On this show presented by Geek and Sundry, Sean "Day[9]" Plott, Sean Bouchard, and I played romance themed games, from visual novels to the Sims 4: Nightlife.

Comedy Film and Video

Steven's Demon (2009) – 3 mins runtime

My roles: Writer, Director, Producer, Editor

When Steven accidentally lights his occult candles instead of his first date candles, the evening is crashed by a weird intruder.

The Strange Tale of the Crystal Penguin (2005) ​–
​45 mins runtime

My roles: Writer, Director, Producer, Editor

​Three friends lacking direction in their lives are pulled into a search for long lost pirate treasure, with clues winding throughout their city. Could the treasure be real? And who is the omninous white suited man following them?