About Me
I am a game designer. I am an experience designer. I am a person whose trajectory in games has been the road less traveled. And, honestly? That in itself has allowed me to think about interactions, designs, and frameworks in a way that’s a little more playful. Now, you may (or may not) be asking, “how is a game designer also an interaction designer ?” That is an excellent question!
I have had the pleasure of creating socially impactful games and apps for health interventions. I move between interaction design and game design every other day and have come to the conclusion that game design is just a hyper-specialized version of interaction design. Games are built around mechanics, microinteractions a player has with a rule-based system. These interactions combine to create in-game actions and behaviors to which a player will have an affective response.
Interactions happens at a variety of scales. At its smallest scales, I focus on microinteractions. As we change scales, these microinteractions move from simple tasks to activities to large-interconnected services (macrointeractions). However, devices are continuously evolving: desktops, laptops, smartphones, virtual reality, augmented reality, and now the internet of things. The world becomes our interface, a possibility space for interactions not only with content, but environments, and other individuals. It is from this space I draw my inspirations.
As a game designer I have a passion for creating play-centric experiences while telling deep and meaningful stories about the human condition. I chose this career path due to the nature of the medium being highly immersive and interactive. Developing engaging game mechanics and interactions is what I do best.
I am currently the Assistant Director of the Weston Game Lab at the University of Chicago and Creative Director at Sunflake Studios.