codeSpark Academy is happy to announce its newest Hour of Code activity: Snoopy Snow Brawl! Kid-coders around the world will be able to participate in this free coding activity for Code.org’s annual Hour of Code event! Snoopy Snow Brawl allows kids to explore the world of coding with recognizable and lovable Peanuts characters on the […]
I teamed up once again with Alex McDowell and the talented teams from Wondros, Intel, USC, and Unity3D to help recreate the Leviathan project for an exhibit at Sundance 2016. I created an augmented reality (AR) mobile app that allows the guest to take selfies with 3D virtual characters from the Leviathan world. The app […]
As part of CSEdWeek in December 2015, I attended the first ever White House Tech Jam, hosted by the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy. The focus was improving computer science education in K-12, a subject that I’m very passionate about. The event was attended by educators, technologists, designers, students, policy makers, and […]
Foo Studio is an large expansion to The Foos – created at the ed-tech startup I co-founded, codeSpark. In Foo Studio, kids aged 5 and up design and program their own games. The goal is to allow kids to practice the programming skills they learned in the original Foos puzzle levels. Starting with a side-scrolling […]
codeSpark is the world’s most innovative system for teaching young kids about computer science. The world is digital but schools are still analog. 9 out of 10 schools do not teach computer science. We’re developing a self-directed iPad game and learning platform for kids aged 5-8 to learn the ABC’s of computer science. codeSpark is […]
Intel and USC World Building Media Lab bring you an experiment in storytelling that shatters the membrane between audience and content. Leviathan creates an immersive world in which audiences can engage, explore and physically experience virtual environments and fantastic characters. On January 6th, at the Intel Pre-Conference Keynote at CES in Las Vegas, for the […]
Storm the Gates is a unique turn-based tactical combat game and a digital Collectible Card Game built for mobile and cross-platform play on web. Players pit their fantasy armies against each other in 1v1 skirmishes or large scale team battles! Players can work together to conquer territory, increase their resource advantage, and ultimately destroy the […]
Dungeon Rampage was a multiplayer dungeon dive inspired by games such as Gauntlet, Diablo, and Castle Crashers. The game was released in 2012 on multiple platforms, has had over 12 million players world wide, and garnered critical and popular acclaim. I served as product director, designer, and gameplay programmer on Dungeon Rampage from the original […]
I developed the Dungeon Rampage level editor in Flash as an Adobe AIR application used internally by our game designers. The editor allows designers to hand-craft small chunks of dungeons that the server randomly stitches together, or to create full, completely custom dungeons. Editor Features Drag and drop placement of props, NPCs, backgrounds Intricate trigger, […]
Superstar City was an innovative Facebook hangout for young women that centered on friends, music, and fashion. Players could customize and clothe their own avatar using micropayments, play fun minigames, and meet up with friends in 3D chat rooms. The game was built as part of Hangout.net, a small startup headquartered in Boston. We built […]
DisneyXD.com is a game portal and community site for the Disney television channel aimed at young males. My role as Creative Director for Disney Online was to ensure a seamless experience from broadcast television to online, select or build casual games that fit the brand, and create an engaging meta-game structure across the site. I worked with […]
Pirates of the Caribbean Online is a massively multiplayer online game set in the world of Disney’s popular movies and theme park attractions. The game features extensive naval ship combat, land combat, quests, PVP, voodoo, and more. The game is free to play and supported with a premium subscription payment model. I led the game […]
Pixie Hollow is an online virtual world where players can create their own fairy, meet their friends, interact with Tinkerbell and her friends, and play minigames. As Creative Director for the publishing side of Disney Online, I worked with internal and external developers to integrate the web, community, and marketing needs with the same aesthetic […]
I was Creative Director when Disney Online was charged with building out several “Franchise” websites – universal destinations where guests could find all information and activities relating to a particular brand, movie, or world. For Disney Princesses, I worked with very talented artists internally and an external animation team to create animated talking princesses in […]
Based on the Disney Pixar Cars franchise, the World of Cars was a web-based virtual world released as as a sneak preview in 2009 and live in 2010. My role on the project was to create and deliver the original game pitch, lead the early game design, avatar creator, preview web site, and community team. […]
Disney’s Toontown Online is one of the first 3D massively multiplayer games built just for kids. We created Toontown and released a beta in 2001 as part of Disney Imagineering and later found a permanent home for the product at Disney Online, officially launching in 2003. My early work on Toontown focused on game design […]
The Toontown Level Editor was created in-engine using the Panda3D game engine. It allows designers to easily create and view entire Toontown neighborhoods and edit every detail from the doors, windows, and even intricate lettering on each building sign. The editor allows editing of AI path information for the NPC actors. One of the primary […]
Panda3D is a general purpose 3D game engine created at Disney and now maintained at Carnegie Melon University. Panda3D is open source and written in C++ and Python. The engine has been used for online games, virtual reality, theme park rides, simulation, in both commercial applications and academia. I worked primarily on the original Python […]
DisneyQuest is an indoor, interactive theme park located inside Downtown Disney in Florida. While at Imagineering, I worked as a designer and game programmer on three attractions for DisneyQuest as well as general research and development for external vendors. For the projects, our game logic was written in Scheme, running on top of SGI’s OpenGL […]
Before ever building the physical attraction, we built a 3D computer simulation of the entire Pooh’s Hunny Hunt experience for Tokyo Disneyland. Working closely with the attraction team, I imported CAD models, textures, and animation into our Panda3D engine to create an immersive interactive visualization of the key scenes in the ride. This allowed designers, engineers, […]