AJAY BALARAM

GAME DESIGNER, UX DESIGN

San Francisco, 94122

abalaramdev@gmail.com (or ajaybalaramdev@gmail.com)

661.476.7900

WORK EXPERIENCE

2022–PRESENT 

SAN FRANCISCO, CA 


Final Fantasy XIV  

Volunteer Free Company Leader

  • As community coordinator, administers user support regarding gameplay issues, tracking to resolution.

  • Moderates online forums to ensure that users adhere to community rules and guidelines, and educates players on gameplay, basic mechanics, game objectives, and access to community spaces. 

  • Provides guidance on how to reinforce positive behaviors when engaging in online spaces, emphasizing emotional intelligence and cyberbullying preventative practices. 


02/2019–10/2019

SANTA CLARITA, CA 

Immersive Excursions (creative experiences for theme parks, television, and film production)

Experience Design Intern

  • Developed and storyboarded immersive installations based on nature. For each storyboarding process, researched client goals and formulated relevant story arcs. 

  • Proofed products in Adobe Photoshop and Premiere Pro.

  • Immersive Exclusions works with a wide range of clients, including Universal Studios Hollywood, Universal Orlando Resort, Walt Disney Engineering, IMAX experiences for Fox, and the Bronx Zoo. 

  • Website, for reference: https://www.adventuresbeneaththeseas.com/ 



2016–2018

SANTA CRUZ, CA 

University of California, Santa Cruz (game design program)

Lead Designer and Producer

  • 2017–2018: Led three-person team for a multiplayer real-time strategy game, Rite of Conquest. The team worked in Unity as part of my senior design sequence.  

  • 2017: Created a simple trading card game as part of a graphic design course, titled Empire Building Trading Card Game. Matched trading card gameplay with economy management from computer strategy games. 

  • 2017: Produced a Pico-8 toolset (Pico-8 Tactics Mapmaker) for dynamically creating levels and enemies for turn-based tactics games on the Pico-8 virtual console program. 

  • 2017: Lead Designer for long-form collection and battling board game (Kanto Adventures) designed to remedy the problems identified in the original Pokémon Master Trainer board game. 

  • 2016: Developed coding unit, behavior, level design, and enemy behavior for a simple RTS game in gamemaker.

EDUCATION

Bachelor of Arts, Art and Design (Games and Playable Media), University of California, Santa Cruz, 2018


CORE COMPETENCIES 

Communication • Research • Writing • Project Management • Remote Work • Working Independently • Game Design • Visual Communications & Interaction Design • Storyboarding • Storytelling • Google Docs • Time Management •  Attention to Detail • Human-Centered Design • Graphic Design (Illustrator, Photoshop) • Code (Javascript, C, Java) • WordPress • User Support • Customer Service • Video (Sony Vegas, Adobe Premiere Pro, iMovie) • 3D Animation (Blender) Game Systems • Game Engines • Digital Audio • Accessible Games • History of Digital Games • Audio (Audacity, Reaper) • Game Dev Tools (Unity, Unreal, Gamemaker, Git, Twine) • Social Media Channels • Community Building • Forums • Feedback Metrics

SKILLS AND INTERESTS

Real-time Strategy, Grand Strategy, Fighting Games, Esports and Viewability, Card Games, Multiplayer Online Battle Arena Video Games (MOBAs), Game Systems. MMORPGs.