Project Portfolio
Combat Kitchen
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Combat Kitchen is a web app for cooking up monster fights in the world's most well-known roleplaying game.
The primary audience for Combat Kitchen includes Game Masters who are designing monster encounters. Several online tools exist to support GMs in this regard. My main inspiration here is Kobold Fight Club, though KFC lacks a convenient “monster viewer” (such as the pages found at Open5e). The app's front end uses HTML, CSS, and Javascript at its core, including the jQuery and Boostrap frameworks. The back end is written in Python, using the Flask web app framework and a PostgresSQL database. More information about the project can be found at the Combat Kitchen GitHub repository. |
Chronicles of the Everflame Collective
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Chronicles of the Everflame Collective is my original rules-light roleplaying game (RPG) designed for running short adventures with younger players and beginners of all ages.
I designed and play-tested the new game, then wrote and typeset its 24-page rule booklet. To raise money for a print run of the booklet, I completed a successful crowdfunding campaign, and fulfilled backer rewards ahead of schedule. Throughout the process, I coordinated with two artists and the print shop to create digital and print versions of the rules booklet and a poster-sized map. |
Arithmetiquities
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The Arithmetiquities is my mathematical fantasy adventure story featuring a quirky band of heroes undertakes a quest to recover a collection of powerful mathemagical artifacts. The story is told through a sequence of 36 mathematical puzzles.
I researched and curated a collection of appropriate puzzles, then reframed each puzzle to fit the plot and overall context of the adventure story. I typeset the chapters using LaTeX, and released the collection online. I also coordinated with an illustrator to create character artwork for the website and spot illustrations for each chapter. This project was the focus of an article in the Spring 2022 issue of Math Circular, a publication of the Math Circle Network (a project of the American Institute of Mathematics): Rethinking Story Problems to Engage Students’ Mathematical Curiosity.
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Quests of Epic Proportions
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The Quests of Epic Proportions are my choose-your-own-adventure games that have been built with young people's social-emotional learning (SEL) in mind. The fictional challenges are engaging while presenting "real enough" situations that deep SEL conversations can arise around skills like active listening, perspective-taking, disagreeing agreeably, and tolerating ambiguity and frustration.
I wrote and programmed the stories using Twine, an open-source tool for telling interactive stories. I also coordinated with an artist to create custom game cards to represent supplies and treasures. Play through a sample chapter: Mausoleum of the Murmuring Mummies, Chapter 3 The funny thing is that [my students] have not even caught on to this being SEL. They are stating sentences like, "Our group is using active listening, and it works." [and] "I feel like our group overpowers people's opinions. How can we change that?" |
