Work History
Champlain College Emergent Media Center
(Feb 2017 - May 2018)
Job Title: Game Programmer/VR Programmer
The EMC is a creative studio under Champlain College that gives students an environment to work and learn. Clients for projects are found by the dedicated EMC staff and students are selected from a traditional job application process. From there, the staff usually manages and oversees the students while they complete most (if not all) of the work that is done for the project. This gives us the opportunity to start working professionally while in school and learn how manage ourselves in the workplace.
You can learn more about the EMC here:
https://www.champlain.edu/centers-of-excellence/emergent-media-center
The summer '17 EMC employees
Projects
Field practice is a large problem for student surgeons. When they would like to practice a surgical procedure the only real option they have is to perform it on an expensive cadaver which they can't always afford. The only thing keeping them from going into surgery completely unprepared is the short instruction period during the first few real surgeries they do where they work alongside experienced surgeons and observe what they do. This leaves a lot of room for error when the new surgeon finally performs a surgery on their own since one mistake could cause injury to the patient. VARISES is a project that aims to help new and student surgeons prepare themselves for surgeries without the need of a cadaver or a living person, instead going the route of virtual reality.
Our client, Brian, trying an early version of the prototype
Our client, Brian Huber, MD, requested a prototype version of VARISES that he could use in order to get the project off the ground and get the interest of investors. As the only programmer on the project it fell to me to implement all of the systems we needed. This was a great opportunity for me since I had not worked with Unity VR previously and was also working on another VR project for one of my classes at the time.
Sawing pieces off of the bone while measuring the depth of the saw
VARISES
Breakaway Mobile
​Breakaway is a project with a longstanding legacy at the EMC. According to an excerpt from their site about the original:
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"BREAKAWAY is a free, web-hosted, interactive video game containing a narrative that uses soccer as a global language to educate boys and girls worldwide about Violence Against Women and Girls (VAWG), gender equality, and respect. The game was designed for the United Nations Population Fund as part of the UNiTE Campaign to End Violence Against Women.
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Since its debut during the 2010 FIFA World Cup, the game has been played in 180 countries and translated into 4 languages. An accompanying facilitator’s guide contains group activities, activity sheets and discussion topics that encourage dialogue regarding the sensitive issues that are brought to light in the video game.
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An educational camp model that combines the video game and facilitators guide was developed and implemented in Hebron, Palestine in 2012 and Sonsonate, El Salvador in 2013 and 2014. A 2013 research study proves BREAKAWAY to be an effective, transformative tool to address this rampant problem."
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In order to keep up with the times, and also give the game a well needed upgrade, the EMC decided to recreate the game from the ground up for mobile by switching to a new engine, adding new art and revamping the storyline. This was the project I was brought on to work on and when I joined the team it had already been in development for some time.
Breakaway is a narrative based soccer game that uses the Sabido methodology, in which characters are used to incite positive change in the player, in order to discourage discrimination against women. The game it marketed towards young boys and follows the player's character a member of a youth soccer team. During the game the player's team receives a new member, a girl named Raina, which prompts different reactions from their teammates, some accepting her with open arms and others rejecting her because they don't believe she belongs. It's up to the player to decide who they side with and whether Raina feels comfortable on her new team or not.
Zak and Tal, the angel & demon on your shoulders
Handling Minigame
Character Creation
For more on my contribution to the project you can check out the breakaway mobile page in my portfolio section here!
VT Teddy Bear Concepts
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QA on the paper prototype kiosk controls
Our clients for this project were the people over at VT Teddy Bear, a stuffed teddy bear shop with a long legacy. Their request was for us to figure out a way to encourage customers to stay at their shop for longer periods and come back to it more often as well. We split the team in two and each began a conception process for separate ideas, one being an AR scavenger hunt, the other, the one I worked on, being an interactive "Design-a-Bear" kiosk (we were unable to use the word "build" due to risk of legal action). The process consisted of a lot of brainstorming, paper prototyping, and cost, risk and benefit analysis and at the end of it all we pitched it to some VT Teddy Bear executives. Afterwards the executives had nothing but positive things to say about our team and how well our pitches went.
Overall, I didn't get many chances to program on this project, besides the prototype I made of the design a bear mode on the kiosk. Still, in the end I learned some efficient ways to concept an idea and how to bring it from that concept to the pitch, and got a chance to do some .
Screenshots from the DaB prototype
