Our Story
Team Activate is aiming to support IGNITE to inspire and encourage young women who are interested in politics to become the next generation of political leaders. We are developing a web/browser-based visual novel game that helps users to know their level of engagement during the gameplay experience and recommend them to the programs offered by IGNITE. We hope the players may find interest in based on the choices and results made in our story and help achieve their better selves.
Teams
Joy is a producer with time/task management and communication skills, also a game designer with 2d/3d art, composition and visual scripting skills.
Joy(Jingyi) Liu
Producer/Artist
Tyler Thompson is a game programmer currently working towards a Master of Entertainment Technology at the Entertainment Technology Center (ETC), Carnegie Mellon University. He is a passionate life-long gamer with a strong interest in gameplay programming and design. It is this passion that drives him to work in the game industry.
Tyler Thompson
Programmer
Beck is an experience and game designer who looks to combine her love of design and engineering background to make fun and magical experiences.
Rebecca (Beck) Wolfinger
Game designer
Shanshan is a UI/UX designer who focuses on user experience and problem solving. She hopes to continue to create meaningful experiences for people and bring greater value to the world through her skills and exploration.
Shanshan Yuan
UI/UX designer
Xinxiu is looking forward to demonstrating her skills and passion in user experience and interaction design. She has UX and interaction design experience in iOS apps, responsive websites, mobile games, as well as non-traditional platforms including VR and AR. She’s also experienced in 3D modeling and advertising design.
Xinxiu Zhong
UX/UI designer
Meet Our Lead Instructors
Scott Stevens
Scott Stevens is senior systems scientist in the Human-Computer Interaction Institute as well as faculty in the Entertainment Technology Center. His research interest’s lie in the emerging, complex field of multimedia. Most applications fail to take full advantage of the information bandwidth, much less the capabilities of a multimedia, digital video and audio environment. To achieve, in part, a new model of multimedia systems, Scott’s research includes interface designs that consider the complexity of multimedia objects, create high-fidelity environments, and incorporate an understanding of cinema and of digital video’s temporal, spatial, and psychological nature. Scott’s work also aspires to take the captivating power of story and fantasy, and combine it with motivating design, for applications ranging from learning and entertainment to information access and scientific visualization.
Heather Kelley
Heather’s extensive career in the games industry has included design and production of AAA next-gen console games, interactive smart toys, handheld games, research games, and web communities for girls. In 2008, she was Kraus Visiting Assistant Professor of Art, and Adjunct Faculty at the Entertainment Technology Center, at Carnegie Mellon University, where she organized The Art of Play symposium and art game arcade. Her biographical sex game concept with Erin Robinson, entitled “Our First Times,” won the 2009 GDC Game Design Challenge, and her game concept “Lapis” based on female orgasm won the 2006 MIGS Game Design Challenge. Her newest sex-related piece is the OhMiBod iPhone application, which uses the iPhone touch screen to control a connected OhMiBod brand vibrator.