About Me
Bio
Born and raised on a sheep ranch in northern California, I grew up playing video games, building Lego contraptions, and making little stop-motion videos with Play-Doh.
After graduating from UC Davis with a degree in Ethnomusicology - I took a break from music to pursue a career in software. I got into this career because I realized I can program all day every day and be very, very happy. I worked for various companies making websites and apps. I was even part of the prototyping and innovations team at Blue Shield of California and helped them create an internal service for training their engineers. I grew into management and led the web and software department for a marketing firm in northern California, helping businesses and non-profits around the world realize their technical goals.
But; while the end result of the programming I would do as a day job was important and beneficial to people and businesses around the world, it wasn’t my passion.
In my heart I care so much about the stories and experiences that shape us as humans. Video games have always been an important part of my life, and have shaped me and my personality in so many ways. So every night after work, I started to explore and learn how to make games.
My whole life I’ve actually dabbled in drawing, animating, making game assets and even trying to code my own games. Looking back at my childhood, I think it’s funny that I kept pulling myself away from games for some reason. I remember trying to make top down Zelda games using the original version of Game Maker Studio in the backseat of my parents car on a road trip across the US. I remember inventing new kinds of playing card games with my friends in middle school. I remember trying to code custom NPC’s in Minecraft in high school. It has taken me a while to realize that I have been naturally drawn to all of the topics required to make games, and now it's all coming together.
My dream is to create a repertoire of games that are both enjoyable and emotionally impactful. Games that innovate on current standards and explore what games could be as an art form.
Now, I’m pursuing a Masters in Game Development and applying to programs all around the world so that I can learn from masters in the trade. I’m so excited for this journey I’m on, and I am so lucky to have so many people around me who are supporting me as I learn and grow.