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| Scotty
Hoag
Programmer Portfolio scotty.hoag@gmail.com (209)-298-2622 |
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BIO
Personal Story and Living Curriculum Vitae  My younger years were made up of
sunny days wasted by staying inside playing video
games, watching Saturday morning cartoons while
eating heaps of sugar-coated cereals (Whichever
had the best toys inside), and drawing treasure
maps and custom Super Mario Bros. levels on the
back of my homework.I attended Middle College High School which let me take college computer programming classes for my high school electives. I later graduated from University of California at Berkeley where I studied Computer Science and New Media. I did undergraduate research with The Hybrid Systems Lab where I helped teach autonomous quad-rotor drones to play capture the flag, and the Social App Lab @ CITRIS which I helped to found and where I developed serious games for promoting health and fitness. I also worked as a teaching assistant for the Video Game Development class where I held workshops on game programming. I spent several years working at videogame studios including WayForward Technologies and Squanch Games building games and real-time simulations. I also worked as an early R&D Engineer at Two Bit Circus to help build their first theme park from the ground up. I was the lead software engineer designing the architecture for many opening-day attractions. More recently, I have worked as a senior engineer designing and building games and interactive live shows for The Las Vegas Sphere theater. After gaining practical experience working in professional game development and themed attractions, I returned to academia to earn my masters degree studying artificial intelligence at the University of Southern California. I also began teaching university computer science classes for the California State University system at the Dominguez Hills campus. I have shipped over 25 commercial projects, helped found an academic research group, built robots that can have conversations and play games, launched a high-tech theme park, and designed and built games to run on The Sphere - literally the largest digital screen in the world. So far, I think I've been having a pretty good run! Professionally, I am interested topics concerning game and interaction design, unique user interfaces, robotics, embedded systems, artificial intelligence, and new media art. ...and I still play a lot of video games, watch too many cartoons, eat unhealthy sugar-coated cereals, and doodle custom game levels on my work meeting notes. Some things never change! Professional History Employment History June 2025 - Present: CodePath.org, CSU: Dominguez Hills - Adjunct Professor of Computer Science September 2023 - April 2025: Sphere Entertainment, Madison Square Gardens - Senior Software Engineer, Interactive September 2021 - November 2022: Squanch Games - Senior Gameplay Programmer November 2020 - August 2021: Embodied, Inc. - Software Developer, Interactive Design May 2020 - September 2020: Misc contracts, Gameplay Programming March 2016 - March 2020: Two Bit Circus - Senior Lead Engineer: Attraction Research & Development, "Carnie" June 2012 - March 2016: WayForward Technologies - Lead Gameplay Programmer May 2011 - August 2011: Altera (Now part of Intel) - Software Development and IP Intern January 2011 - May 2011: UC Berkeley Teaching Assistant for "Anthropology 196: Urban Game Research and Design" May 2010 - May 2011: UC Berkeley Social App Lab @ CITRIS - Technical Director, Full Stack Developer May 2010 - May 2011: UC Berkeley EECS: Hybrid Systems Lab - Research Assistant, Full Stack Developer December 2010 - January 2011: The Blitz - Mobile Games Programmer Education M.S., Master of Sciences, Computer Science, Artificial Intelligence - December 2025, University of Southern California (pic) B.A., Bachelor of Arts, Computer Science - December 2010, University of California, Berkeley, 3.258 GPA (pic) UGCert., Undergraduate Certificate, New Media - December 2010, University of California, Berkeley (Alumni List) A.A., Associates of Arts, Liberal Arts - May 2006, San Joaquin Delta College, 3.54 GPA Others Pasadena Art Center College of Design - Studied Entertainment Design and Theme Park Attraction Design Projects and Game Titles I've Worked On [Title - Studio, Publisher: Platforms (Launch Date)] High On Life - Squanch Games: XBox Gamepass, PC (December 2022) Moxie the Robot - Embodied: Social robot for children (February 2021) Sex, Death, & Rock! - Two Bit Circus: Dinner Theater (February 2020) Skee Battle - Two Bit Circus: Midway Game (February 2020, Public Beta - Unreleased) Freefall - Two Bit Circus: Installation for X-Prize 2019 (October 2019) Doctor Botcher's Minute Medical School - Two Bit Circus: Escape Room (September 2019) Last Ball Standing - Two Bit Circus: Midway Game (September 2018) Demolition Zone - Two Bit Circus: Midway Game (September 2018) Big Top Balloon Pop - Two Bit Circus: Midway Game (September 2018) Super Thunder Bloxx - Two Bit Circus: Arcade (September 2018) Danger Danger - Two Bit Circus: Arcade (September 2018) The Two Bit Circus - Two Bit Circus: Amusement Park (September 2018) Robot Battle Royale - Two Bit Circus: Arcade (July 2018, Public Beta - Unreleased) TUPAC: TwoBitCircus Unity Protocol for App Communication - Two Bit Circus: SDK for Arcade Games (July 2018) Battlezone Arcade - Rebellion, Two Bit Circus: Arcade (September 2018) Untitled Virtual Reality + Motion Simulator Ride - Two Bit Circus: Arcade (December 2017, Unreleased) World War Toons: Tank Up! - WayForward, Studio Roqovan: Gear VR, Oculus GO (September 2017) The Gadgetron - Two Bit Circus: Art Installation (December 2016) The Spellbinder - Two Bit Circus: Arcade (August 2016) Intel Deja Cube - Two Bit Circus: Smart Toy (May 2016, Unreleased) Space Squad in Space - Two Bit Circus: Escape Room (2016) Off Your Rocker - Two Bit Circus: Midway Game (2016) Marvel Puzzle Quest - WayForward, D3: XBox360, PS3 (October, 2015) Adventure Time Puzzle Quest - WayForward, D3: iOS, Android (July 2015) Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Danger of the Ooze - WayForward, Activision: XBox360, PS3, 3DS (October 2014) Adventure Time: Explore the Dungeon Because I DON'T KNOW! - WayForward, D3: WiiU, XB360, PS3, PC, 3DS (Nov 2013) The Smurfs 2 - WayForward, Ubisoft: Wii, WiiU, XBox360, PS3 (July 2013) Lalaloopsy: Carnival of Friends - WayForward, Activision: DS, 3DS (October 2012) Pokerwalk - Berkeley Social Apps Lab @ CITRIS: Android (February 2011) Conway's Live Wallpaper - The Blitz: Android (September 2011) Professional Awards Themed Entertainment Association, Thea Award for Outstanding Achievement, Immersive Technology and Production: Sphere (Award Credit) - March 2025 TIME Magazine - The Best Inventions of 2023: Sphere - November 2023 TIME Magazine - The Best Inventions of 2020: Embodied Moxie - November 2020 Scholastic Awards Madison Square Gardens - Continuing Education Award Scholarship - January 2025 Tonwnsend Center for the Humanities: G.R.O.U.P. Summer Apprenticeship - May 2010 NATCar Autonomous Race Car Competition - Placed 3rd at UC Berkeley, 6th at National Competition - May 2010 UC Berkeley Digital Design Project Contest 1st place - December 2009 Alpha Gamma Sigma Honors Society Scholarship Winner - May 2008 Publications, Conference Presentations,
Tech Demonstrations, and Art
Exhibitions 2025, December 10th - University of Southern
California 2025, December 10th - University of Southern
California 2025, May 10th - University of Southern
California 2024, December 10th - University of Southern
California 2024, October 11th - Games
@ Berkeley conference, Berkeley Center for
New Media, UC Berkeley 2015, March 11th - Department of Electrical
Engineering and Computer Sciences, UC Berkeley 2012, August 20th - Center for Hybrid Software
Systems 2012, February 22nd - Tangible, Embedded and
Embodied Interaction (TEI) 2011, May 17th - Games for Health 2011, 2011, April 19th - UC Berkeley Undergraduate
Research Poster Session, 2010, November 3rd-13th - 2010 Art Practice Faculty Show,
Worth Ryder Art Gallery, 2010, April - UC Berkeley Cal Day Presentations "From Processors to Video Games" Anthony Glenn DeMarco, Loring Scotty Hoag
2010, February 28th - Game Developers Conference
(GDC), Serious Games Summit Playfest
2009, May - UC Berkeley Art Practice Student Game
Development Showcase 2008, November - UC Berkeley Art Practice
Undergraduate Exhibition
Martial Arts I practiced Korean "Wushu" Tae Kwon Do Martial Arts and achieved the rank of first-level black belt. I have also been a member of a local Medieval Combat Club and practice sword and spear fighting techniques. Movie Club I started a monthly movie club and meet with friends monthly to marathon great and terrible movies alike, all while cracking jokes like an episode of Mystery Science Theater 3000. Arcade Collecting I have been fulfilling a childhood dream by piecing together my very own garage arcade. My collection has grown impractically and irresponsibly large. I am slowly restoring a number of old games, including several 1970's TTL logic games, multiple original PONGs, and an original Computer Space cabinet. Internet Profiles LinkedIn - YouTube - Thingiverse - VAPS - Moby Games Contact Information email: scotty.hoag@gmail.com Phone: (209)-298-2622 |
 Scotty Hoag giving a talk at
the "Games @ Berkeley" conference at the
University of California, Berkeley, October
2024.
 BBC footage of Scotty working on a prototype motion simulator VR game. |
