Hello Oculus Launchpad Team! This is a unique link for you regarding my 2020 OLP application.

Hi! I’m extremely humbled to be applying to this years Oculus Launchpad Program! In 2018 was part of a OLP-winning project, vCoder. Ever since, I’ve worked to improve my skills to one day apply to OLP as an individual with my own ideas.

After working on vCoder, I went on to develop a suite of XR enterprise solutions at XPOLogistics.

I have recently been part of a team that took home the Grand Prize for Best of AR and Best of Tools at the 2020 MIT Reality Hack.

I have submitted the app “RE:WIND” as a working project build for your review. This application is a meditative game created in 36 hours for a game jam under the theme “REWIND”.

Wanting to differentiate from the rest of the game jam participants, I purposefully avoided concepts around turning back time and focused on the word “WIND” that is within the word, “REWIND”.

Using C# and Unity, I ended up building a project that uses the microphone on an Oculus Rift or Quest to create wind currents to move a leaf from platform to platform. I am currently working on an update to this project which incorporates hand-tacking.

Controls: Blow into the microphone of your VR headset to move the leaf from one platform to another.

RE:WIND has been submitted under my Oculus Developer Dashboard and is currently under review.

Download and Play the latest 1.1.0 update, published on August 20, 2020, which includes a tutorial and extra levels.

Learn more about my other experimental projects.

To me, the opportunity to defy reality is about creating and sharing an idea that is so personal and unique that it becomes almost impossible to convey the type of emotional variety through any other medium. Defying reality isn’t limited by the size of a virtual world or by a financial budget. Instead, it’s about giving audiences a part to play in the presentation of personal ideas.

I want to create a VR experience that dives into the practice of shark finning. This cruel but complex issue involves catching a shark, cutting off its fins, and then pushing the sharks’ live carcass overboard. The market for fin meat, however, financially supports many families. I can imagine telling the personal story of how the player, a shark finner, eventually befriends a shark and comes to terms with how humans give and take from the environment. By presenting the human issues of poverty and familial obligations, the experience can dilute traditional ‘black-and-white’ thinking and portray the true grayscale morality of this shark finning practice. The way this experience can break the mold of what is visually and emotionally accessible to audiences truly defies reality.

After watching The Incredibles for my 10th birthday, my group of friends and I disbanded for the evening full of candy and chocolate cake. But while everyone else went back to their lives, I couldn’t stop smiling from how The Incredibles surpassed my expectations of what a movie could be. It was a masterclass full of wit, humor, and a narrative that challenged how society rewards mediocrity. At the time, I didn’t quite understand everything the film had to offer, but it made my 10-year-old self curious about the amount of raw effort and talent needed to make someone smile with awe.

Cinematic experiences like The Incredibles put me on a path to learn more about directing and cinematography when I was young, as well as inspire me to make movies, compose music, and code games with the goal of making someone else smile as I had when I first discovered the wonders of media. Today, I pride myself on developing experiences that make lasting impressions on others and am obsessed with building projects that inspire the next generation of creators.

I am very comfortable with emerging-tech and have found success in exploring the fullest extent these technologies have to offer.

In the summer of 2018, I joined Beach Day Studios, a team that participated in the 2018 Oculus Launchpad program with the VR product, vCoder. While studying programming and game design, I became the core VR gameplay and interactions developer. Our team was recognized as one of the grant recipients for the 2018 Oculus Launchpad Program, and this experience taught me how to develop a winning product and also understand how to identify real market needs for emerging technologies.

Pushing my skills further, I joined XPOLogistics in 2019 to help build a suite of enterprise XR products, many of which are used today in international conferences and events. I also became familiar with developing AR experiences, a skill that helped me and my hackathon team receive the Grand Prize for Best of AR at the 2020 MIT Reality Hack.

Treading water with new technologies is always nerve-racking, but I am comfortable in my ability to learn quickly and put 110% into every opportunity.

My top 3 areas of expertise are C# Unity development, environmental design, and UX design.

As a self-taught C# Unity developer, I have 2+ years of professional XR development experience, with strengths in gameplay and interaction development. In building small and large products, I have learned that compelling XR experiences need more than strong technical skills, and have pushed myself out of my comfort zone to learn about the more design-related areas of production.

I have learned to use environmental design as a way of silently communicating with audiences while optimizing the experience for end devices. Whether it’s creating a feeling of dread in The Fish Eater (PCVR), or creating a zen atmosphere in RE:WIND (Quest), I try to focus on the overall, in-the-moment emotional tone while delivering smooth technical performance.

My talents as a UX designer accelerated through professional courses, and I am now comfortable in creating storyboards, user flows, and analyzing feedback to generate feature requests. By emphasizing users during production, I am much more understanding and aware of the work involved in meeting user needs.

My skills make me a well-rounded member of any team.

Yes, I have. In 2018 I was part of the Beach Day Studios team, and we received the Oculus Launchpad Scholarship for our work on vCoder, an educational experience that taught kids coding fundamentals in VR. I was the gameplay and interaction developer on the project. While at Beach Day Studios, our team also applied to SXSW, the Indie Mega Booth, and several investor-driven educational programs.