Jared Cocomazzi

Jared Cocomazzi

EDUCATION
Clark University, Becker School of Design 2026
Master of Fine Arts (MFA), Interactive Media Worecester MA
Relevant Coursework: Literary Development of Virtual Worlds, Interactive Theater, Interactive Media Seminar

Union College Bachelor of Science (BS) 2021
Major in Biology and English, Minor in Philosophy Schenectady, NY 2021
● Relevant Coursework: Game Development: Introduction to CS, Creatures of Myth and Legend, The Enlightenment and Romanticism, Film as Fictive Art, Plato’s Republic, Ancient Philosophy, Samurai: Lives, Loves & Legacies
● Served as Treasurer for the Gaming 4 U Club, the Film Club, the Anime Club, managing $2000 quarterly operational budgets, organizing weekly club events for 50+ members, and hosting admin staff meetings

PROFESSIONAL EXPERIENCE

Clark University, Becker School of Design
Worcester, MA 2024 – Present
Narrative Game Designer, Narrative & Cinematic Team – Arcadia Project
● Led narrative design for the visual novel Snooze or Looze in the 2024 IGDA Clark Harvest Game Jam, writing the 1300
word script for the game in 48 hours in collaboration with 5 other team members (1 programmer, 4 artists)
● Spearheaded a paid fellowship research project alongside faculty researchers to create a narrative-based game exploring the
similar exploitative rhetoric and environmental impact between data mining and fracking
● Developed an AI-assisted AR e-learning mobile app as a stealth project for the Clark Game Studio, with the goal of
gamifying the learning process for acquiring and developing English literary skills among middle school students; worked
in sprints and utilized Agile methodology to rapidly incorporate playtester feedback to improve UI/UX

GameRant Features
Writer Ogden, UT 2022– 2023
● Wrote 800-1000 word headline opinion articles for Game Rant Originals based on personal insights and experiences
● Conducted industry research for writer team using press releases, official publications, and third-party statistics
● Publications: 2022 Has Been a Great Year for TRPG Fans; Fire Emblem Engage: What to Know Before Buying

ThePokéCommunity
Staff Writer Sacramento, CA 2021– Present
● Wrote and formatted 800-1000 word headline opinion articles for the Daily Section of ThePokéCommunity
● Initiated and wrote article series on design origins of specific characters, environmental settings, and story elements
● Publications: Shin Megami Tensei: The original monster catching RPG series, and why Pokémon fans should care; The History of Sus Pokémon; The Hidden Historical References behind Pokémon Masters’ Sync Pairs

EXTRACURRICULAR EXPERIENCE
Independent Game Designer 2016– Present
● Designed gameplay systems, player characters, narrative settings, and visual frameworks for “Chronicle”, an educational tabletop RPG that aims to teach lessons about world history and geopolitical conflict through core gameplay elements featuring time-traveling bounty hunters on a race through history
● Built custom faction mods for Starcraft 2 and custom sidequest dungeon mods for Neverwinter Nights 2 using Unreal
● Designed single-player FPS platformer with Unreal inspired by Metroid Prime, using Unreal Tournament as codebase
● Wrote 5,000-word narrative script as first draft for a comedic visual novel “The Adventure of Joost Vekkes Klaarkens”

Champlain College
Summer Game Design Academy 2016
● Designed 3Daction platformer “SkyMaze” (YouTube demo) and 2D side-scrolling platformer “Reign of Chaos” (YouTube demo) as Lead Programmer and UX Designer in teams of 4 to learn about various aspects of video game design (coding, art, and animation) through hands-on practice while receiving professional mentorship
● Refined in-game collision physics engine as an prelaunch QA tester for Diaries of a Spaceport Janitor
● Attended industry veteran lectures on 3D Modeling in Maya, Coding in C#, and Level & Environment Design

Random Hacks of Kindness 2016
● Provided individualized guidance as a computer science mentor to eight middle school students on how to create homebrew mobile iOS apps using the GameSalad iOS engine; received positive reviews and feedback from nonproft
● Organized Hackathon event logistics and structured event space for 50 participants and 10 staff members

ADDITIONAL INFORMATION
● Skills: Unity, Unreal, Python, SQL, C#, Maya, GameSalad, RPGMaker, Twine, 3D Modeling (Tinkercad), Photoshop, WordPress, iMovie, Microsoft Office (Word, PowerPoint, Excel), Google Suite, Facebook, YouTube, LinkedIn
● Languages: English, Spanish (conversational)
● Interests: J-RPGS, D&D, MTG, creative writing, reading (sci-fi, philosophy, nonfiction), hiking, Coursera