Vanessa's Project Page

Who:  I am from St. George, Utah. I joined ACCESS for the amazing research opportunity, and to meet other women who share similar aspirations as me. In my spare time, I love to try to catch up on sleep, or play video games.

My scientific/engineering interests: I have loved computer science since I took my first CS class in my freshman year. CS has opened opportunities for me that I never knew existed. The software I had once thought was untouchable became a tool I could use to code algorithms that solved complex problems in a short amount of time. 

Academic goals:  Currently, I am a computer science major. In the future, I will continue working with my ACCESS lab and hope to make a contribution to the research field in game development. After I earn my undergraduate degree, I hope to get a job in the game development industry, or perhaps pursue a Master's in CS.

Career goals:  I hope to eventually be a part of a large game development company that creates innovative games that inspire others. In addition, I hope to inspire other women who are unsure of pursuing a degree in the sciences, that they are capable of anything they put their mind to.

The game industry has dramatically advanced over the years. So too have expectations for games increased. Currently, game developers have a wide variety of tools with which to create compelling experiences. However, these tools are still difficult to use.  As a result, novice game developers still find the process of game creation to be stressful and unfriendly. We propose that artificial intelligence (AI) can be used to create game development tools that better-handle the complex system of algorithms working together to create and manage a game’s virtual world. Further, we can make these AI-powered tools easier to understand and use than the current state-of-the-art. The proposed project aims to transformatively impact game development by creating AI-powered software that (a) supports how designers naturally think by applying the language used to understand games to the user interface, and (b) makes creating game environments a less-labor intensive and natural process by offloading the difficult parts to the AI system. In the short term, we expect this research to make game development easier for novice developers. In the long term, we expect this research to make game development accessible to audiences who see games as a means to create compelling interactive experiences writ large.

Developing Game Design Tools that Support How Designers Naturally Think Download Developing Game Design Tools that Support How Designers Naturally Think