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Bernice Anne W. Chua

Skills:

About:

Hello! My name is Bernice Anne W. Chua. I am a software engineer, and indie videogame developer, and IoT/Robotics/AI enthusiast. I'm also trying to get better as an A.I. programmer! ^_^

I make videogames for fun and for profit, and I am the founder & sole videogame developer of Chua Productions.

I graduated from UC Davis with a Bachelor's in Economics and Geography, and I used to work in I.T., until deciding that it’s more fun to just create stuff with software, like making videogames.

Projects

Videogames:

-- In collaboration with Project Beanstalk.
-- "Heart To Heart" is a 3rd person JRPG-like game set in a fantasy world where all myths are true. The player takes the role of Speaks, a young sorcerer who specializes in "Synesthurgy" or emotions-based magic. Through interacting with various characters and progressing the story, the game is about empathy, emotional intelligence, communication skills, conflict resolution, navigating difficult situations or conversations, and the importance of mental health. [ private repo, ask for access: gitlab.com/BerniceChua/ProjectBeanstalkRPG ]
-- Play the pre-Alpha demo!
-- Global Game Jam Entry Page -- globalgamejam.org/2021/games/lost-remembrance-3
-- "While visiting home for the holidays, you rediscover the joyful memories from childhood." Our epic team submitted this game for the Global Game Jam 2021. The theme was Lost & Found. We explored the concept of rediscovering activities we enjoyed as children, but lost our connection to as adults. By going through a series of puzzles with escape room-like mechanics, the lost joys of the past will be found. [ gitlab.com/BerniceChua/LostRemembrance ]
-- Play the pre-Alpha demo!
-- screenshots (temporary webpage)
-- "Dágat" is a cute endless runner game, where you where you play as a fish who was separated from their school, and you have to avoid dangers like predators and plastic bags. (Since it's swimming, maybe it should be called "endless swimmer" instead??) [ private repo, ask for access: gitlab.com/BerniceChua/Dagat ]
-- Play the pre-Alpha demo!
-- ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/44/ares-fairies-and-berries
-- Ludum Dare 44 entry (Friday April 26th to Monday April 29th, 2019 at Noisebridge): using C#, Unity3D; a 1-player puzzle game where the player needs to figure out how to get from point A to point B, even though the movements are constrained. [ github.com/BerniceChua/LD44_At_Noisebridge ]
-- Play the game!
-- work in progress, a 3D game where you can play as a spider, and do everything that a spider can, including swing on a web.
-- github.com/BerniceChua/Sumusunod_-_landing_page
-- Augmented Reality game where you play with butterflies, bees, ladybugs, dragonflies, and hummingbirds. [ private repo, ask for access: gitlab.com/BerniceChua/Augmented_Focus ]
-- globalgamejam.org/2019/games/flotsam-and-jetsam
-- Global Game Jam 2019 entry (Jan. 25-27, 2019): using C#, Unity3D; a couch-co-op game where two players help each other build shelter to protect against an impending cataclysm. [ gitlab.com/BerniceChua/co-op-construction ]
-- globalgamejam.org/2018/games/bowel-battle
-- Global Game Jam 2018 entry (Jan. 26-28, 2018): using C#, Unity3D; a couch-co-op game where two players control micro-organisms called "gut fauna", which affects the digestive system of a fish. [ gitlab.com/BerniceChua/GlobalGameJam2018 ]
-- youtu.be/8pYvrHFh1-A
-- AT&T Developer Summit VR/AR Challenge
-- (Nov. 7-11, 2016): using C#, Unity3D, & Google Cardboard API, this shares the experience & joy of scuba diving, and teaches about marine life. [ github.com/BerniceChua/Marine_Biologist_VR ]

Hackathons:

-- ( won TechCrunch Disrupt SF 2016 SoftBank Robotics America's challenge )
-- TechCrunch Disrupt SF Hackathon project
( September 10-11, 2016 ): we turned Pepper The Robot into an automated hotel concierge. I programmed her to turn towards a person who says some keywords like 'come here' or 'help' or 'Pepper' and move towards the speaker, with Python and the Pepper SDK. [ github.com/TCPepper/tcd16 ]
-- ( won AT&T’s Digital Life Home Automation challenge. )
-- AT&T Shape Hackathon project (July 15th - 16th, 2016): using AT&T's Digital Life, AT&T's M2X IoT Services, IBM Watson APIs, & Qualcomm hardware, the user can say keywords (hands free) to contact the police, firefighters, or ambulance services. I tested out the Qualcomm Dragonboard to see if it would enhance our project. [ github.com/malekascha/ATTShape ]
-- ( won OpenIO’s challenge )
-- Ubi I/O hackathon project (June 3rd - 9th, 2016): a roommate finder that also matches based on personality, created with OpenIO's API, Zillow API, & IBM Watson's Personality Insights API. I programmed the part that uses IBM Watson's personality insights. [ github.com/afayek1/ubi-io-hackathon ]
-- Athackahon project (April 29, 2016 at 6:30 PM - Sunday, May 1, 2016): Empowering regular people like us to fight human trafficking, by helping us make informed decisions about things we buy, through a simple question: "Where's it from?"
-- I did idea generation, used Python Pandas to scrape data from Bureau of Labor website, research possible APIs that we could use Rails & Asset Pipeline, research and implement code that allows web browsers to use the phone’s camera to upload an image. [ github.com/BerniceChua/where-is-it-from ]

Others:

-- (February 18th - 25th, 2016) We gather data with Arduino sensors to find if an area has a high incidence of fevers, to alert relevant authorities of potential health crises. Each of us contributed to all aspects of the project, but my main contribution is I programmed the Arduino to send POST requests by connecting through WiFi with the use of 'nmap' (which I knew from my I.T. background). [ github.com/WALTERKERR/TAP ]
-- noisebridge.net/wiki/NGALAC
-- Maker Faire project of Noisebridge for 2018.
-- The Hurt Locker Sweeper: Explosive Ordinance Disposal
-- Minesweeper clone, named after the film "The Hurt Locker"
-- (The name and the images are just for fun, because they deal with mines/bombs in that film. So this is a parody. All copyright belongs to their creators.)
-- Link to GitHub.
-- Unlike the original Minesweeper, which used "Board Cycles", this version is actually random. Even I don't know beforehand where the mines would be!

Activities

Noisebridge

I am based in San Francisco, and I am an active contributor to the Noisebridge hackerspace, specifically in:

helping to teach in Noisebridge’s videogame development workshop called Gamebridge Unityversity.
building and maintaining the Noisebridge Gaming Archivists Livestreaming Arcade Cabinet.
one of the hosts/MC's for NoiseCast.
Noisebridge's events support and Noisebridge's outreach.
building and maintaining the Noisebridge Gaming Archivists Livestreaming Arcade Cabinet.
created the meetup group to help jobhunters (the Whiteboarding & Algorithms Self-directed Workshop).
miscellaneous creative projects, like art, laser cutting, and creating cosplay.

Global Game Jam

Since 2018, I am one of the organizers of the yearly Global Game Jam local jam site at Noisebridge.

The duties here involve securing a venue for the game jam, finding sponsors for the game jammers' meals, posting in social media and other places to promote/advertise the event, fielding questions before and during the event from the attendees, perform duties as the MC/emcee, keeping up to date with the information from Global Game Jam's Slack, receiving and acting on feedback from the attendees and the other volunteers, and hosting prep workshops on the weeks right before the game jam to give everyone involved the best experience.

Girls Make Games

Girls Make Games is a series of summer camps, workshops and game jams designed to inspire the next generation of designers, creators, and engineers. "We’re on a mission to increase diversity and inclusivity in the games industry. "

I was accepted into the Girls Make Games 2021 Summer Fellowship Program.

I currently help out as a Tech Support (a specialized role to support the workshops) at Girls Make Games' 2021 Virtual Global Workshop -- "Virtual game development workshops designed for beginners, intermediate creators & experienced GMG alumni".

Talks And Panels

Sometimes I get invited to give talks:

-- This talk was originally for the Gamebridge: Game Dev Workshop (Wednesday, April 7, 2021) Discord server, at Noisebridge. ^_^
-- the slides for the talk
-- Each year, before the Global Game Jam, I give a prep workshop for participants to be able to prepare for it. Usually, the Global Game Jam is in-person, but in 2021, the Global Game Jam was fully online for the health and safety of everyone during the pandemic, this prep workshop also guided people of what changes to expect.
-- held on Wednesday, January 20, 2021, at https://www.meetup.com/noisebridge/events/vkqldsycccbbc/.
-- the slides for the talk
-- I was invited to give a talk for the VR LBE (Location Based Entertainment) Summit 2020 (October 15-16 (Thursday - Friday), 2020), at the Venu Online Platform. ^_^
-- video of live talk
-- the slides for the talk
-- I was invited to give a talk for the Developer Week 2018 hackathon (Saturday, February 3), at Galvanize SF. ^_^
-- the slides for the talk
-- the talk
-- This talk was made for "5 Minutes Of Fame - International Women's Day Edition @ Noisebridge 2018": Noisebridge has a "5 Minutes Of Fame" each 1st Thursday of the month, and this one happens to be on the same day as International Women's Day.
-- video
-- the slides for the talk
-- I was invited to give a talk for the Aaron Swartz Day International Hackathon (Sunday, November 11), at The Internet Archive. ^_^
-- video of the talk
-- the slides for the talk

If I am not working on creating my videogames, learning AI, and on Noisebridge activities, I am doing outreach and activities that help, support, advocate for, & promote local indie videogame developers, such as talking to organizers of conventions to add an indie games section.

In the wild, I can be found going to Maker Faire, going to conventions and conferences related to indie videogames, attending the events of the livestreamers meetup called Bay Area Live, and going to other types of tech conventions, conferences, events, and meetups.

I also write articles for Silicon Valley Global News (SVGN.io) in medium.com (https://medium.com/@BerniceChua).

Fanime

In August 2018, I was approached by the organizers of Fanime to create a pilot version of a section for indie videogame developers to exhibit their work in Fanime of May 2019:

The rationale here is because there's a large intersection of people who like anime and people who also like videogames.

It was successful, so Fanime decided to continue having the indie videogames section, and added me as a staff for 2020 and onwards! ^_^

https://www.fanime.com/exhibits/gaming/indie-games/

The duties here involve recruiting would-be indie videogames exhibitors, posting in social media and other places to promote/advertise the event, fielding questions before and during the event from the groups who agreed to showcase/demo their games, receiving and acting on feedback from the recruited exhibitors and attendees, and working with the other teams in Fanime to give everyone involved the best experience.

MAGWest

I have also been the staff/volunteer of the indie videogames section of MAGWest since it started in the Bay Area in 2017, and eventually became the co-department head in 2018.

The duties here involve recruiting would-be indie videogames exhibitors, posting in social media and other places to promote/advertise the event, fielding questions before and during the event from the groups who agreed to showcase/demo their games, receiving and acting on feedback from the recruited exhibitors and attendees, and working with the other teams in MAGWest to give everyone involved the best experience.

Past MAGWest Indie Videogames Expos (that have webpages):

QGDM

As an extension of wanting to help independent videogame developers, I am also the Discord community manager and support of the Queer Game Developers Meetup (QGDM).

Bernice Anne W. Chua

Skills:

About:

QGDM

Learn more about Bernice here:

Come join Bernice at the makerspaces that they go to! ^_^

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