Managing Director of a game publisher in Erie, PA. Responsible for all aspects of the business management, direction, and execution. Whitethorn aims to be a publisher of approachable, accessible, relaxing experiences for the discerning misanthrope.

Investment, consultancy, and business development for games.

As an assistant professor at Penn State, I was responsible for the usual triad of university employment: teaching, research, and service. In teaching, I did my best to educate students on a variety of game development related topics including game design, programming and artificial intelligence, HTML5 and new web technologies, and the sociology and history of games. My research involved VR and HCI, and I was particularly interested in motion sickness and use of audio. I also assisted multiple undergraduate research projects, ranging from game design to software engineering. Finally, service to the university included not only serving on committees and working extra-curriculars, but also developing many courses for the university's ongoing game development program, which I co-authored with two other professors.

While lecturing at Penn State, I taught primarily in the areas of game design and programming. These fledgling courses were the first two of their kind at PSU, and I was happy to be a part of them. After teaching these for a while, I would later get a promotion and help to develop the game program into a much more robust and stable offering.

In my employment at Keywords, I applied quantitative research methodologies to a wide variety of game development-focused issues.

At Sony Interactive Entertainment, I was responsible for overseeing a team of analysts who made recommendations to developers based on quantitative data gathering and analysis. The work involved maintaining and developing a robust data pipeline, and helping stakeholders make critical decisions in the most efficient and accurate way possible by leveraging player data.

At Volition, I was responsible for developing and implementing the data pipeline for upcoming title Agents of Mayhem. Additionally, I provided analytical support on other Volition titles like Saints Row IV. I also assisted other studios in the Deep Silver umbrella set up their own data structures, and aided in the development of a corporate data insights team.

As a contracting data analyst for Volition, I endeavored to provide insight into existing products and offer assistance wherever possible.The work was primarily data gathering and analysis, with additional support in building internal confidence in the kinds of assistance data could provide.

Worked as a user researcher at a small experimental branch of the department of computer science at the University of Prince Edward Island. I was deeply interested in user research and user experience for games, so I was excited to be a part of it.

Co-founder of a small startup focused on indie game development in Charlottetown, PEI.

Researched human/computer interaction in the context of instructional design for digital games.

A user research startup with another graduate student. We did our best to do user research primarily using biometrics for games. While this wasn't a sustainable business model at the time, it taught me a lot about biometrics and Games UR, to which I've contributed regularly since.