Matthew B
- Research Program Mentor
MET at Carnegie Mellon University
Expertise
Game Development, Game Design, Modern International Music, Foreign Languages, Ethnomusicology
Bio
Hello! I'm Matthew, and I am a professional game developer. I have been making games since 2015, both professionally and academically. I've worked on many different types of games, usually in teams of people with very different skill sets from each other. You can learn about all my projects on my website: matthewbofenkamp.com Here are some projects I've worked on: (1) The Unfathomed Voyager: a three-person co-op game about piloting a submarine that is actively crashing while trying to collect a blobfish. The game uses three custom-made control panels that we built as a team. The game went on to be chosen for selection at the biggest game industry conference in the world, and was shortlisted for an Indie Games Festival Award (very big honor!!). (2) Breakers: a digital escape room I made for the US Department of Homeland Security to serve as the final round of the Presidents Cup Cybersecurity Competition. (3) BROKE: The Game: a mobile story-based game for iOS about the struggles of living in poverty in the United States (free for you to download on the App Store!) (4) The Old Manchester Place: A turn-based RPG that is currently in development by Lunarwood Studios, a company I co-founded where I am currently the lead developer on the project. (5) Jadu, an augmented reality fighting game that I worked on as a gameplay programmer at the company Jadu AR, which has been released on the App Store. I am also well known for my knowledge of foreign languages and international music due to my viral video appearances on the Youtube channel Cut, particularly in the Guess The Language Lineup videos I've starred in. I taught a class at Carnegie Mellon University about international music from every country in the world, and have a playlist on Spotify with one song each in over 800 languages, which has 12,000+ followers.Project ideas
Create Your Own Video Game in the Unity Engine
I will teach you how to design and build your own (small) game using the Unity Engine, which is free to download and used by many professional game studios. The process will include: (1) Game design (2) Preproduction and scope (3) How to use the Unity Engine (4) Testing your game as it evolves
Study of [Music Genre] across the world
For this project, choose a music genre you're interested in (pop, hip hop, rock, rap, indie, soul, r&b, folk, metal, punk, EDM, traditional, etc.) and we'll work together to learn about how musical artists in different parts of the world handle this genre differently when they make their own music.
The Modern Music Scene of [Country, Geographical/Cultural Region, Ethnic Group, etc.]
In this project, we'll focus on one part of the world, and analyze the current state of its music scene, potentially including how it compares/contrasts with other places/people groups in the world, be that wherever you're from, nearby/comparable places, etc. This course will be focused on modern music that is popular today, and may include popular music, indie music, traditional music, or any other relevant scenes.