David Gao

I'm a senior at Rochester Institute of Technology, majoring in Game Design Development and English. I am passionate about creating immersive, player-driven, and character-driven narratives. You can always find me practicing art, writing, or development, gaming, or enjoying my 12th film of the week!

To get in contact with me email me at david.04.gao@gmail.com or message me directly at my number: 347-681-7435.

David Gao

Game Developer |Software Engineer | Writer

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Game Development

Last Day on the Frontier

Unity 2022 LTS, C#, Aseprite, Blockbench, Twine, Beepbox

Last Day on the Frontier is a choices-matter narrative western in which you assume the role of a gunfighter(?) thrust into an already dead town on the edge of the dying American frontier.

While on the frontier the player meets with people in a place they never wanted to be, running from a past they cannot stand, and talk to you, a person who doesn't matter.

Developed with a singleton architecture in order to ensure object safety and reduce coupling for a complex narrative game. Designed an intuitive and expansive dialogue system that takes in text files and parses them for animation events, dynamic variables, and dialogue in real time.

Prison

Javascript, HTML, CSS

Prison is a generative poetry idle game inspired by Nick Montfort's piece of eletronic literature — Taroko Gorge, as well as Orteil's and Scott Cawthon's viral games — Cookie Clicker and Five Nights at Freddy's, respectively.

Upon making the conscious choice to load prison, the invoker forces consciousness upon the page itself. Prison can only unconsciously generate negative thoughts, barring "progression". By consciously participating in the generation of conscious positive thoughts, the player must eternally prevent the page from succumbing to negativity.

Prison is a piece of electronic literature about the eternal weight of consciousness.

Bathysphere

LÖVE2D, lua

Bathysphere is a sci-fi idle working simulator set in a speculative deep-ocean environment. Players have to make it deeper and deeper into the ocean while performing repitive tasks while monitoring the things keeping you alive.

Web Development

DX4

Javascript, Canvas API, Web Audio API, HTML, CSS

A rhythmn game audio visualizer.

Audio data is played and retrieved via Web Audio API and then mapped in real-time as the song plays.

Notes and other elements of the visualizer are drawn to the screen using the Canvas API.

WaniKani Japanese Dictionary

TypeScript, Bulma, HTML, Webpack

A Japanese dictionary which utilizes the WaniKani API, parsing their database to allow users to search for Japanese vocabulary words and radicals

Refactored the project into TypeScript for improved type safety and maintainability, as well as utilizing Webpack for efficient module bundling and optimized performance

The application is styled with Bulma CSS, creating a responsive and visually appealing user interface

My Writing

Work Experience

Lavner Education

Stem Instructor Internship

June 2024 - August 2024