My name is Alexandra Kibilko and I’m an artist, designer, and developer! I am passionate about not only design and aesthetics, but user experiences and translating art to an interactive or interesting experience. I currently attend the University of Massachusetts Dartmouth, majoring in Game Arts & Animation, and minoring in Graphic Design. I am also an Honors student at the university, maintaining a 3.85 GPA and working on an additional thesis during my time in school. I am also impassioned by social rights and translating these ideas into art, design, and experiences in video games that players can not only interact with, but gain a better understanding of these issues in the world around us.
Game Design
I have extensive experience in video game design, being a creator and leader of our high school’s Game Design Club throughout my High School experience. I also helped create and lead a team of 4 students into the SkillsUSA “Interactive Application & Game Design” competition in 2015 & 2016. Our 2015 run resulted in us winning the local and State competition, coming in first and allowing us to attend the National Competition. The following year (2016), it was just my friend and I, the only 2 person team in both the State & National competitions. We not only won the local & State competition, coming in first, but the National Competition as well, we were the only two person team in a group of around 60 total teams! After coming in first in, our total points not only greatly exceeded that of other teams, but we had also tied with the winning college team.
The judges; extremely impressed by our game, shared that our strong suits were intuitive design and documentation, along with being the only team following a proper game design process. They were so impressed that they invited us back the following year as assistants in the judging process. Here we developed abilities to better evaluate quality and communication with higher-level professionals. We were also able to expand our relationship with the SkillsUSA community and develop speaking skills as well.
Following our experience with SkillsUSA, my friend (Jordan) and I ended up creating an LLC company, in which we were able to do design work for a private university, yoga studios, lighting studios, and work on our own game as well. Entering college we put the project on hold, focusing on our studies and developing our skills. Our plan is to reopen this company after graduation and continue working on our project as a personal goal. My personal hope is to gain experience as well as a professional, aiding a development company with art and design for years to come!
For me, Game Design isn’t simple in the least, at least in terms of creating the best possible experience for players. I believe that the goal of game design is to create an enjoyable and immersive world in which the player is able to be enveloped by.
