ALISA KHIEU
Game Dev, Educator, and Community Builder
Resume: View Online | Download PDF
Contact Me: anqkhieu(at)gmail.com
GAME DEV
With a passion for game design and programming, I've won national game dev contests.
Educator
I've always been a teacher-- beloved by my students for how much I care and how well I articulate concepts.
COMMUNITY BUILDER
Creating spaces which people call a second home, I foster a culture a warmth and belonging in all my communities.
GAME DEV
Six years ago before I joined the professional game dev industry, I was completely self-taught. I love tinkering with new tools, so I learnt engines like RPG Maker VX Ace, Game Maker Studio 2.0, Unity, Core, and Unreal. You can often find me in hackathons and game jams in my spare time!When I'm not developing games, I enjoy building out Discord/Slack bots and automation tooling. One of my greatest strengths is need-finding and taking the initiative to add value to my team without having to be asked.
A Selection of My games
| Game | Award | Role |
|---|---|---|
| Goodbye Ozymandias | Silver Medallion for Top 7 in the country in the National Scholastic Art and Writing Awards Competition (2017) | Designer & Programmer |
| Goodbye Ozymandias | Regional Gold Key in the National Scholastic Art and Writing Awards Competition (2017) | Designer & Programmer |
| A Lost Treasure | Top 20 Winner in Decentraland Annual Game Jam (2019) | Designer & Programmer |
| Squirrel Season | Top 10 Winner in The Sandbox LEVEL UP Game Jam (2021) | Designer, Programmer, and Environment Artist |
| Gotta Go Fast | Overall Winner in CSULB's BeachHacks for a multiplayer racing game (2021) | Designer, Programmer, and Environment Artist |
| Prideland | IMC Unthinkable Category Winner in Team Liquid's PrideMakers Hackathon (2021) | Designer, Programmer, and Environment Artist |
| I Drive, You Shoot | 2nd Place Winner for a live multiplayer coop game in community game jam with Theme "Collaboration" (2022) | Designer, Programmer |
| Dragon Colony Simulator | Winner of the month-long Advanced Android Makers game competition with the Theme "Diversify" (2023) | Designer, Programmer, Environment Artist |
| Runic Signature | 1st Place Winner for mobile game for the Genies 2023 Game Jam with the theme "16 Personalities - MBTI" (2023) | Designer, Programmer, Environment Artist |
I also like creating just for creation's sake. There's tons of side projects on my Github that weren't entered into any contests and were just made... for fun and coolness! Like below. 😎
More Projects I've Worked On
These are games created within studios or teams! While all the games above were solo-developed and showcase my well-roundedness across all disciplines, I always learn a lot by working together with others.
| Game / Company | Role |
|---|---|
| Core Games | Developer Relations & Marketing Manager for a user-generated content (UGC) platform. Empowered and educated devs through game dev bootcamps and engagement programs. |
| Project Frontier | Developer Relations Engineer for a cooperative creative sandbox game. Scripted demo game modes and created documentation for creatives and modders. |
| Desiderium | Composer for a cancelled roleplaying game. Created several OSTs for character themes and background music. |
| Gundalf | Composer for a a light-hearted top-down action RPG/shooter where you play as "Gun"-dalf. Made chiptune OSTs for all the BGM for the game. |
| Marina's Adventure | Composer for an adventure game about a daydreaming girl on a beach in one of my first game jams. Worked with a team of 5 strangers, two of which I would team up with again in the future! |
| 3 Nights an Intern at Team Liquid | Programmer for an educational visual novel about eSports and careers in gaming with 3 interactive minigames. Worked in a group of 4 with the RenPy game engine! |
Other Non-Game Works
| Project | Award | Role |
|---|---|---|
| Is My Food Safe? | TOHack's Best Use of Google Cloud, 2nd Place Winner (2021) | Solo Developer (Python) |
| XTZ Ez Bot | MakeUC's Best Project Using Blockchain on Tezos, 1st Place Winner (2021) | Solo Developer (Python) |
| One Wallet Watcher | Swiss Blockchain Hackathon's Wealth Management Challenge, 1st Place Winner on the Streamr Protocol (2021) | Designer and Developer (Python, JS, NodeJS) |
| Square Starbot | Square 2021 Hackathon, Honorable Mention Award and Most Valuable Feedback Award | Solo Developer (Python) |
| Lens Lingo | Foreign Language Snapchat Lens for Snap AR Lensathon 2022, Most Valuable Feedback Award - International Hackathon | Solo Developer (Javascript) |
Check out my Github for my opensource work.
EDUCATOR EXPERIENCE
No matter where I go or what I do, I always give back and impart my knowledge to others. Because I care about my students so much, I'm often beloved by them-- so I'm fortunate to have received many sentimental letters and drawings from my students.Below are quotes from my work colleagues and students. To certify their legitimacy, refer to their recommendations directly on LinkedIn!
"Alisa did such a great job running the [game dev] bootcamp. She has been so wonderful from the very start. She has been really welcoming and just very genuine."
"'Above and beyond' is what I will say about Alisa. My children enjoyed learning from Alisa very much because she understood them very well and always encouraged and supported them."
“Brought back the smile I lost weeks ago.”
Empowering people
From tutoring piano to onboarding new teammates, I've had a great experience teaching people of all ages. Historically, people have cited my genuineness and empathy as qualities they highly value.In addition, I've run several successful educational initiatives remotely such as two game dev bootcamps and a level-up protoaccelerator in preparation for GDC (the annual Game Developer Conference). I'm experienced in both in-person and remote teaching!With experience in technical writing and video tutorial creation, I've also helped produce many educational resources. Check some of them out below!
I'm also a mentor for Cal's Marginalized Genders in Gaming Club. Feel free to reach out if you'd like to talk or for a portfolio review! I'm happy to share my knowledge in game jams and user-generated content gaming platforms.You can find a workshop I gave below!
COMMUNITY LEADER
I love creating places where people grow and learn together. I design communities where people feel like they can develop their creativity and make friends, and I proactively work to instill camaraderie in my teams.That's why the screenshot above is of a game I made for a departing coworker to celebrate our team and work together!I've been an Admin and Moderator on multiple writing and gaming forums way before Discord servers became a thing! In total, I have about 8 years of experience in building online communities of all sizes.
One community particularly dear to my heart is the creative arts forum called The Scratch Notebook which I co-founded with a close friend. Together, we made an awesome community for people to learn, write, and create art alongside each other.As a head admin, I designed the forum, organized events, managed the community, and conducted outreach campaigns. Proboards ultimately awarded TSN "Forum of the Month" in 2012.
I served as the head admin of the Core Creator Discord-- a community with 15K+ game creators on the server. I take pride in how close, friendly, and welcoming our community is, and I believe we established a solid foundation to foster such a healthy environment.Throughout Core's Closed Alpha and Open Alpha, I supported creators on our platform through education, advocacy, and community management. I'm known to be really good at simply being authentic, communicative, and human. Being patient and empathetic are two of my strongest suits.