EA OCCO: Jelly Pirates in Space

Team Legato & ThunderEgg (Collectively The Vanguards)

Collaborators: Sudhanshu Aggarwal, Chih-Wei (Jerry) Chen, Chong Hu, Christian Karrs, Michael Lee, Rahul Nagarkar, Xin (Zinc) Ning, Xinyu (Lillian) Qian, Akshay Ramesh, Jimin Song, Goksu Ugur, Meng-Hua (Julia) Wu, Wanyan (Aurora) Zheng

Timeframe: January 2015 – May 2015

As my final semester project at the Entertainment Technology Center, I worked with Electonic Arts’ Office of the Chief Creative Officer under the direction of Richard Hilleman. Working as two remote teams, we created a cooperative, a-synchronous, shoot-em-up for players who don’t fall in the category of “core gamers”. Using simple mechanics that allow for an easy-to-learn and fun experience, we designed the game to appeal to children ages 8-12, as well as their parents. Through this approach we created a game that offers fun for the whole family! For more information, please visit our website.

Roles: Game Designer, Sound Designer, Producer

My contributions:
– Designed game with 3 others (including creation and maintenance of design documents)
– Design document can be viewed HERE
– Composed original soundtrack
– Created and curated all sound effects
– Integrated all audio assets into Unity3D using Audiokinetic Wwise™
– Production, e.g., tasking, scheduling, support, communications (internal/external), etc.
– Remote team management
– Wrote and published weekly newsletters, as well as maintained a team blog
– Created promotional video content
– Created and maintained project website
Advertisement

CMU ETC: Music in Motion

Team Skylight
Collaborators: Hwang Youn Kim, Prajwal Manjunath, Ziyu (Judy) Zhu

Timeframe: October 2014 – December 2014

Music in Motion is a game designed to help middle school students practice identifying and interpreting note symbols when positioned on a staff. The game tasks players with identifying notes that stream towards them, and matching them with their corresponding letter names. The letters appear on little monsters who eat notes that they correspond to.. For more information, please visit our website.

Roles: Creative Director, Producer, Sound Designer

 
My contributions:
– Designed game and wrote design documentation
– Project management, e.g., goal-setting, deadlines, communications (internal/external), etc.
– Directed art style
– Created cover variants of popular songs for in-game play
– Wrote and published weekly newsletters
– Created and maintained project website

CMU ETC: Natural Rhythm

Team Skylight
Collaborators: Hwang Youn Kim, Prajwal Manjunath, Ziyu (Judy) Zhu

Timeframe: October 2014 – December 2014

Natural Rhythm is a game designed to help lower school students practice identifying the following note symbols: eighth notes, quarter notes, half notes, and whole notes. The game tasks each player with identifying multiple instances of these symbols and producing sounds that correspond to each note’s beat length. For more information, please visit our website.

Roles: Creative Director, Producer, Sound Designer

 
My contributions:
– Designed game and wrote design documentation
– Project management, e.g., goal-setting, deadlines, communications (internal/external), etc.
– Directed art style
– Created music for in-game play
– Wrote and published weekly newsletters
– Created and maintained project website

CMU ETC: TF-CBT Triangle of Life

Team Transcendence
Collaborators: Eric Chang, Seungsuk Cho, Vivek Kotecha, Bing Liu, Hannah Turner & Yan Zhang
Role: Creative Director
Timeframe: January – May 2014
Traumatic experiences often leave negative after-effects in children. This can cause recurring negative thoughts, feelings, and behaviors. Our client, the Allegheny Singer Research Institute/Disruptive Health Technology Institute, takes these children through a program called TF-CBT, Trauma-Focused Cognitive Behavioral Therapy, to inform and help them recover.Team Transcendence assisted the TF-CBT treatment process by creating a game to augment the therapy. TF-CBT: Triangle of Life (formerly Project Savannah) is a mobile game that teaches traumatized children about the Cognitive Triangle of thoughts, feelings, and behaviors, as well as how to replace their negative thoughts with positive ones. For more information, please visit our website.
My contributions:
– Wrote the story and all game text/dialogue
– Composed original soundtrack
– Created and curated all sound effects
– Directed art style
– Wrote and published weekly newsletters
– Created all project videos
– Created and maintained project website

CMU ETC: Building Virtual Worlds – Trinity Tower Defense

As part of Carnegie Mellon University’s Master of Entertainment Technology first-semester curriculum, Building Virtual Worlds is a course where students work in interdisciplinary teams to create interactive worlds every two to three weeks.

Collaborators: Jimit Bhalani, Gabriel Burgess, Prajwal Manjunath & Hannah Turner

Given 3 weeks and a 5-person team, we created a 3-player tower defense game that tasks guests with defending the portal to Heaven from the demons that have escaped from Hell by exorcising them. We created the game using the Cave Automatic Virtual Environment platform consisting of 3 screens forming an open box, and a pneumatic floor that could rise, fall, and tilt.

My contributions:
– Compiled and edited all SFX and VOX using Audacity and Adobe Audition
– Recorded narrations using Pro Tools, edited in Audacity
– Created opening and closing (win & loss cases) screens using Adobe Photoshop & Premiere

Timeframe: November – December 2013
– SFX completed over a period of 1.5 weeks
– NPC (non-player character) VOX completed over a period of 2 hours
– Narration VOX completed over a period of 2 hours
– Respective Title, Credits and Losing screens completed over a period of 1.5 hours

CMU ETC: Building Virtual Worlds – Curiosity

As part of Carnegie Mellon University’s Master of Entertainment Technology first-semester curriculum, Building Virtual Worlds is a course where students work in interdisciplinary teams to create interactive worlds every two to three weeks.

Collaborators: Lisa Elkin, Eric Kron, Liu Kuang-Hsin & Prajwal Manjunath

Given 3 weeks and a 5-person team, we created an interactive experience where the player assumes the role of Curiosity, the NASA rover currently exploring Mars, in a story where its connection to NASA is severed and it must find a purpose for itself. This experience was created for the Cave platform, a 3-screen immersive experience with a pneumatic floor which we utilized to simulate the rover’s motion across the landscape for the player.

My contributions:
– Original soundtrack composition, original instrument recorded and edited using Adobe
   Soundbooth
– Compiled and edited all SFX using Audacity and Adobe Audition
– Narrative design

Timeframe: November 2013
– Original soundtrack pieces completed over a period of 5 hours
– SFX completed over a period of 2 hours

CMU ETC: Building Virtual Worlds – Ratman Begins

As part of Carnegie Mellon University’s Master of Entertainment Technology first-semester curriculum, Building Virtual Worlds is a course where students work in interdisciplinary teams to create interactive worlds every two to three weeks.

Collaborators: Chang Ai Li, Eric Chang, Li Xiangting, Shirley Park & Adarshkumar Pavani

Given 1 week and a 6-person team, we created a variation on the horde/firefight game modes of major game titles where the player assumes the role of Medusa and must stop the Ratmen who have come to kill her. The game utilizes the EyeGaze eye tracking system to allow the players to look at and turn the approaching enemies to stone.

My contributions:
– Original soundtrack composition using Cubase Studio
– VOX recording and voice acting using Pro Tools

Timeframe: October 2013
– Opening cutscene original composition completed over a period of 3 hours
– Gameplay original composition completed over a period of 1 hour

CMU ETC: Building Virtual Worlds – Hope vs. Fate

As part of Carnegie Mellon University’s Master of Entertainment Technology first-semester curriculum, Building Virtual Worlds is a course where students work in interdisciplinary teams to create interactive worlds every two to three weeks.

Collaborators: Sandra Camara, Gabriel Burgess, Chong Mingxun & Peng Jing

Given 2 weeks and a 5-person team, we created a memory game about a geriatric man suffering from Alzheimer’s Disease trying to remember a lullaby with his granddaughter. The game prompts the player with motions to follow; and the Kinect platform reads and checks their motions.

My contributions:
– Original soundtrack composition using GarageBand
– VOX recording and voice acting using Pro Tools, edited in Audacity
– Narrative creation

Timeframe: September 2013
– Soundtrack composition completed over a period of 10 hours
– VOX recording and voice acting completed over a period of 3 hours
– Narrative conception completed over a period of 1 hour

Grinch’s Revenge

As part of the Georgia Institute of Technology’s Computational Media undergraduate program, Intro to Computational Media is a course where students are tasked with making digital media projects every 2 weeks.

Collaborators: Kenisha Luby & Lisa Xia

Given 2 weeks and a 3-person team, we created a two-player, Christmas-themed, competitive battle game for the Atari 2600.

My contributions:
– Programming in Atari BASIC utilizing the Stella emulator for play
– Game design
– Level design

Timeframe: December 2010
– Programming completed in 2 weeks
– Game design completed in 2 hours
– Level design completed in 3 hours

Street Crossing (Frogger Remake)

As part of the Georgia Institute of Technology’s Computational Media undergraduate program, Media Device Architecture is a course where students develop a Game Boy Advance game in C and learn about computer memory structure.

Over the course of the semester I recreated the classic Frogger game that tasks players with trying to get across successively more difficult streets filled with cars crossing their path.

Timeframe: April – May 2011
– Game design completed in 1 week
– Level design completed in 1 week
– Sound design completed in 1 week