Software engineer and independent game developer living in Salt Lake City, Utah, with nearly 9 years of experience on projects that improve our robotic capabilities in space at NASA Ames Research Center. My career is spread across different focuses in space science, computer programming, and game development.

Research Interests

I investigate how robotics and artificial intelligence can assist in the search for life throughout the universe. While with the SETI Institute working at NASA Ames Research Center I participated in experiments to improve autonomous drilling in extraterrestrial environments such as Mars and Europa.

Presently, I contribute to an open-source virtual lander testbed for Europa, and other icy worlds, called Ocean Worlds Autonomy Testbed for Exploration Research & Simulation (OceanWATERS). OceanWATERS enables researchers to develop lander autonomy to address the challenges of missions to icy worlds in our outer solar system.

In 2018, I participated in a year long idea incubator to explore novel methods of life detection that can be utilized in future NASA missions. My teams’ concept leveraged cutting edge data science with existing astrobiology databases to detect patterns that uniquely indicate life.

Game Design Philosophy

Games are an entire universe of artistic expression that traditional board games and even modern computer games have only just begun to scratch the surface of. My game designs draw heavily from the physical sciences because those are ripe with intricate rules and emergent behaviors that readily adapt as novel gameplay mechanics. I seek to provide my players with other-worldly experiences that can only be achieved through computer simulation. I believe that when we encounter novel forms of interaction it is a form of scientific exploration in and of itself.

Educational Outreach

I have been intimately involved with the local Salt Lake Valley game development scene. Organized through the SLC Game Devs Discord server, I have delivered 2 presentations on technical game development topics and 1 live demonstration about building a 3D game in Godot.

• Talk on Buidling a Simple 2D Fluid Simulation in Godot
  • Presentation Slides
  • GitHub Repository
• Demonstration of a 3D Godot Game: Flappy Goat
  • Itch.io Page
  • GitHub Repository
• Talk on Finite State Machines (online version of presentation still to come)

Follow Me

Be sure to stay tuned for updates on my game projects by following this blog and my Mastodon @Starry@mastodon.gamedev.place