My artistic practice makes heavy use of UX/UI Design and Interactive Technologies and specializes in creating sophisticated physical and digital experiences. I have designed various interactive media projects, including video games, user interfaces, and interactive art. I am also well known for my Games For Social Change research, which various institutions regularly request I discuss with students. I regularly do consulting for the design, production, and training of interactive applications, as well as create technical presentations and design documents. As stated in my Educator section, I also teach interactive media and games as an Educator and Professor.
This section of my portfolio features samples of my best interactive works. I offer services in UX/UI Design, Game Design, Interactive Design, Technical Consulting, UX Writing, and Project Management. Additionally, I develop several interactive projects through my independent studio, Shining Spark Entertainment Ltd.
Civic Story
Civic Story is a 3D Visual Novel Game For Social Change by Shining Spark Entertainment Ltd (SSE), my independent multimedia studio. Payers embark on a lighthearted 8-chapter point & click story experience where they learn the various ways politics affects us all. Through politically engaging satire, colourful characters, and rich interactive storyline, we hope Civic Story will inspire greater Civic Engagement and Voting across Canada and the world.
I led Civic Story’s development as the Director, Producer, UX Designer, Animator, 2D Artist, Character Designer, and Voice Actor alongside my diverse, hand-picked team from 2021 – 2023. We did considerable research, testing, and consulting to create an informative narrative experience that acts as an accessible, relatable, and non-partisan introduction to Canadian Civics for youth and adults. Civic Story was partially funded by the Canada Media Fund, Pixelles, and Ontario Creates. Game Trailer by Aaron Demeter.
Civic Story was released on July 28, 2023 for PC on Steam and Itch.io. Civic Story has been featured by the Mayworks Festival, Dreamhack Beyond, Game Devs of Colour 2024, Civic Tech Toronto, and Civic Tech Waterloo. It has also been covered by The Loddge Podcast, LLAG Media, Excelon Magazine, Authority Magazine, the Beats & Bleeps Podcast (featuring our Composer), and the Civic Tech Field Guide. We are looking into partnering with institutions to promote civic education and potentially make a French-language update in the future.
Interested players can buy Civic Story on Steam and Itch.io or directly through our website with the Promo Code SPARK20 to get 20% off their purchase.
An/Other
An/Other is a short interactive Game for Social Change that explores issues in society, challenges players’ perspectives on the matter, and attempts to change how people think about games. Released on August 31, 2015, An/Other is based on extensive research and was developed to complete a Master of Arts in Media Production. An/Other lasts 10 – 20 minutes and it is recommended to play the game, without spoilers or context, before reading anything about this project.
An/Other was my major research thesis project on Games For Social Change to complete my Master of Arts in the Media Production program at Ryerson University in 2015. Since it’s release, An/Other has been exhibited at Media Mix 2015, the Hand-Eye Society’s Game Curious 2016 – Identity, Game Furious, and TCAF 2016 Comics Vs. Games Exhibition events, Mayworks Festival, and Vector Festival 2020. An/Other has also been featured by the Torontoist, The Toronto Star, Metro News, and CityNews Toronto and Mediation Station. Sheridan College/University of Toronto Mississauga has invited me as a Guest Lecturer to speak about An/Other and my Games For Social Change research every semester since January 2017.
FEST Platform – Online Festival Development
FEST (Festival Engagement Software Template) is an interactive Twine-based online event platform and framework I invented and developed alongside my team at the Hand Eye Society, including Brendan Lehman, Len Predko and Aaron Demeter.
As the new Director of Technology at the Hand Eye Society in 2020, my first priority addressing our loss of event space in light of the COVID-19 pandemic shutting down public venues. I pitched the concept of designing interactive virtual festival events based on the structure of the web-based Twine game engine and designed the framework for what would become FEST. Under my direction, my team and I further developed this framework into a platform that supported robust online festivals, including with new features such as Shopify purchasing integration, embedded videos and live Twitch Streams, browser-based networking games, faster work pipelines, and more. I also would direct and organize each festival event alongside many other stakeholders, alongside producing and directing a live Twitch broadcast viewable alongside the event. At a time when the pandemic threatened to cancel many valuable exhibition opportunities for creatives around the world, FEST allowed for hundreds of Canadian and international creatives and vendors to showcase and sell their work in online festivals that are seen by thousands of remote patrons around the world.
FEST has been used for Virtual Canzine 2020, Long Winter 2021 (1 & 2), Toronto Comic Arts Festival (TCAF) 2021, Spring Canzine 2021, Comics X Games 2021, Wordplay 2021, and Super FESTival 2022, and Super FESTival 2023. FEST has proven itself as an engaging and versatile platform for online events and is responsible for over $150,000 in event product sales at events with online marketplaces. For more information about FEST, please contact myself or the Hand Eye Society.
Oakbook
Oakbook is a short interactive game developed for the Hand Eye Society’s Oakwood Village Library Artist Residency program. I designed Oakbook to inspire players to explore their local library and find adventure on every shelf in this virtual recreation of the Oakwood library. Players receive a dire warning about an evil spirit trying to break free and must scour the library for books to repair the seal. This is also my first game to feature Voice Acting, as I play both major characters. Oakbook was showcased to the Oakwood Library Community on January 12, 2018, prior to its February 15, 2018 release.
During my Artist Residency, I also interacted with the local community at the library by answering questions and leading the Hand-Eye Society’s after school Game Curious program, for which I directed the curriculum, the games arcade, and the community discussion.
Who Are You?
Who Are You? is a psychological 3D video game that challenges perceptions of identity and forces players to reflect on their personality throughout a series of questions, culminating at a conclusion where players learn the meaning of their choices. Do they accept the results as who they truly are? Is there any meaning in the result or was their journey more important? That is a question only they can answer.
Who Are You? was my New Media undergraduate thesis project. Dr Jacob Hirsh acted as my Psychology Consultant. Who Are You? was released on March 20, 2014 and was exhibited at the META 2014 New Media Graduate Exhibition, the 2014 Level Up Showcase, and the Ryerson University Transmedia Zone.
Joyspark Video Game Interface
The Joyspark controllers are custom video game controller interfaces I created for gallery exhibitions featuring my video game projects. Originally developed for Who Are You?, and used for An/Other with the aid of a mouse, Joyspark controllers features a joystick and a single button to ensure an accessible experience. This simplified user interface avoids the complexities of modern controllers and keyboards to make my games easily accessible for all during exhibitions, regardless of my presence or the player’s familiarity with games.
Inside the smooth red wooden boxes lies electronics components wired/soldered to a USB-powered Makey Makey circuit board. The inner parts can be accessed via unscrewing the bottom. After designing several prototypes, these were the two final products. The Joyspark Controllers have been used as the main interface for all gallery and academic presentations of Who Are You? and An/Other across Ontario. I also use them to teach User Interface design to students. The Joyspark Controllers not only worked as a bright beacon and focal point to attract attendees in gallery spaces, but provides an easy-to-use controller through which players can discover my games in-person.
Sparky Konga
Sparky Konga is an interactive audio-visual experience featuring the Nintendo DK Bongo controllers. As a longstanding admirer of the DK Bongo controller, my goal was to hack this unique interface and repurpose its controls and sound sensor for various uses. I developed the source code in Pure Data as an open source library/framework for anybody who wished to develop games or new media applications using the DK Bongo Controllers. To demonstrate its utility, I applied the Sparky Konga library to Unity to create an interactive audio-visual installation artwork.
Sparky Konga was featured in Ryerson University’s Maximum Exposure 2013 gallery exhibition and is my first gallery exhibited work.
Novint Falcon Hacking Projects
These projects hacked the Novint Falcon, a specialized haptic video game controller, to re-invent how this powerful interface could be used for creative purposes using Processing and Max/MSP.
For the Falcon 3D Drawing project, the interface is used as an input device to allow for colourful 3D drawings in virtual space. Users can switch between different modes and save pictures of their creations for their records.
Alternatively, The Falcon Draw Project inverts Novint Falcon from an digital input device to an physical output device and drawing machine. Using the controller’s internal motors to move a marker, myself and Beverly Duong use the Novint Falcon to draw an abstraction of user gestures recieved from a drawing tablet.
PONG Drawing Machine
For a New Media Class Project, students were tasked with crafting their own controllers interfaces for the classic game PONG. For my project, I designed a PONG controller that doubles as a drawing machine.
An Arduino circuit board is wired to a mechanical slider attached to a pen. Beneath the pen is a motor attached to a plastic cover holding a circular piece of paper. While playing PONG with this controller, the motor independently spins the paper beneath the pen, drawing lines as it spins and the pen moves. The result is a unique, one-of-a-kind art piece as record of each game of PONG. Despite its crude construction, my design made it a very stable and accessible interface to use, which would only be improved with better materials.
Class presentations were followed by a class PONG tournament, with students using their controller interfaces to play against each other. The precision and stability of my PONG Drawing Machine allowed me to win the class tournament, whilst drawing a unique record of each game in the process.
The Blind Bug
The Blind Bug is a small robot that operates purely based on sound. Created with an Arduino, motors, and sound sensors and inspired by my sensitive relationship with hearing loss, the Blind Bug will roam independently around environments and dynamically react based on its proximity to what it hears. If it hears a sound far away, it will be curious and investigate. If the sound is too loud and too close, it will get scared as it turns around and runs away. In addition, mandibles, powered by small motors give personality to the Blind Bug, moving in accordance to how it feels. The result is a responsive robot that feels like a living entity as it investigates sound stimuli.