Passionate about the integration of digital media technologies in educational content and contributing to the future of eLearning and Edutainment.
A solid foundation in both Science and Arts, and capable of solving problems logically and resourcefully.
background
Born and raised in Vancouver, British Columbia.
I received my undergraduate degree at the University of British Columbia with a major in Physics. I went on to pursue a Masters degree at the Centre for Digital Media, learning how to turn my programming hobby into a career.
Currently, I am a software engineer at Disney Club Penguin, one of the leading children's massive multiplayer online games on web and mobile.
personal
I love architecture.
I enjoy creating useful and useless things with my hands.
I also have an unhealthy obsession with frogs. Enough to make a blog about them.
email
jeunessa.cheng[@]gmail.com
mobile
604-561-5678
Welcome to the web portfolio of developer & designer Jeunessa Cheng.
I am a software programmer.
And the occasional artist.
I strive to create immersive and engaging experiences.
about Created for the 48-Hour Design Jam event, "Boblivious" is an eccentric side-scrolling Flash game that pits an oblivious Bob against a hoard of whimsical threats.
role Flash programmer, content integrator.
challenges Appropriate time management and scoping played a significant role in our success. Prototyping early and having a playable game after a day allowed us to reiterate and solve problems efficiently.
SMILE Tummy Tumbler Masters Graduate Project
Jan - May 2011
about SMILE is a Social Media Intranet Learning Environment built for teachers, students and parents using open-source software by providing an affordable, safe and easy-to-use framework that enhances collaboration and interaction in and out of the classroom. SMILE consists of a social media web-based community using open source software, and a prototype of an interactive application (add-on 3D app) about the Digestive System.
role Unity Programmer for the SMILE App
challenges Working in a 3D environment using Unity3D and programming with C# and Javascript.
Canadian Pacific Railway Database Project Summer Internship
Jun-Aug 2010
about The BC Division of Canadian Pacific decided they needed a mitigation plan to preserve the many paper documents in storage - thus, the Digitization Project was initiated to began the process of creating a digital database of all BC's internal documents.
role Database Technician - created the database system from the ground up.
challenges There was a huge amount of data that need to processed by this system, and most commericial software for database creation is efficient, but not very usable or attractive. Flash was used for the shell and Excel was used to manage the organization.
Journey to Enlightenment View Game MDM Student Project
Sept - Nov 2009
about Journey to Enlightenment is an educational Flash game developed for the International Buddhist Temple. The game is in the style of a RPG where the key teachings of Buddhism can be explored and practiced in a virtual, fantastical world.
role Flash programmer, User Interface designer, loading sequence art.
challenges Scope was a huge issue because the original concept saw the game including five unique regions and five quests - fortunately, the game was scaled down to ensure a quality deliverable.
Nanatown Interactive Flash website
2005-2007
about An interactive town featuring several mini games, such as a burger shop, a busy housewife tending to her husband, and a "Price is Right"-style guessing game. Created for TAKOYAKIs Translations, a group dedicated to translating Japanese comics for English readers.
role As the sole web designer, I developed everything for this project, including art, programming and website creation.
challenges I had only dealt with very simple interactive features in Flash before, so making the jump to creating games was a great learning experience - I learned basic scoring and time-based gameplay, and techniques to reduce loading times.
about Cackleberries is a children's edutainment company dedicated to creating a safe and educational immersive environment for ESL and EFL learning. My projects include designing and implementing a time and completion-based ESL Classroom system that delivers daily lessons and exercises within the framework of a standalone Adobe Air 2 application, tracking student progress and updating supplementary content. Implemented over fifteen scenes, several mini-games, character AI, within the virtual world of Oville. Worked on the Variety Children's Charity House project, a dedicated space for promoting understanding and awareness of children with special needs.
role Flash developer.
challenges Working on a team of four other programmers and making use of versioning software and communication to mitigate code and file conflicts. Coordinating workflows between artists, animators, designers, and sound crew to reach project deadlines smoothly. Rapid development on multiple projects in tight, two-week sprints.
about MyWorld is an online Flash-based tutorial for high school students learning how to deal with the challenges of Internet safety and privacy, produced for Media Smarts (formally the Media Awareness Network). It began as a 4-month industry project in my Masters program, continued as another 4-month summer internship, and I stayed on for another 4 months as a contract programmer.
role Flash programmer, QA, web/art/video integration and troubleshooting
challenges The greatest challenge was determining how to structure the whole tutorial in an efficient manner, as it was essentially a simplified operating system with several storylines. I learned Actionscript 3 for this project, as well as best practices in OOP.
Persona Game Design Course Project
Nov - Dec 2010
about Shed a skin, wear a new one. Persona is a mystery and crime-solving board game where players take on roles of townspeople who have all been involved in a common crime, and the town's sheriff is determined to find who is responsible. We chose a unique target audience, young females who want to relive the days of dress-up dolls in a game setting of crime and mystery. This final Game Design project had us create and iterate on a full-fledged Game Design Document and a working prototype.
role Shared the role of Game Designer with two fellow classmates, created art assets in digital and paper form, and assembled final packaging for the board game.
about iBeg is a mobile game coming to IOS and Android platforms that simulates the life of a homeless person living on the streets of Vancouver, BC. Players step into the shoes of a homeless avatar and have to beg for money in order to survive. We hope the game will raise awareness of the issue in our city, as well as around the world, and also provide a means for players to support organizations that help the homeless. Expected release in Spring 2015.
role Artist - responsible for all in-game and promotional artwork. Background and character designs; character animations, including walk cycles, idles, and reactions; HUD/UI elements and screen layouts.
Design by Numbers Personal project
2009
about Furniture design concepts based on the 9 digits - inspired by IKEA furniture catalogues.
challenges Furniture design requires a blend of artistry and functionality, which in itself was a fun challenge - however, having little to no experience with 3D modeling and rendering, I chose to use Swift3D with its simple interface and compatibility with Flash.
about Club Penguin is a massively multiplayer online virtual world for kids with a strong commitment to safety, creativity, and self expression. Players live through penguin avatars who inhabit a snow-covered island with a host of wacky characters, games, and quests. Every month, a themed party comes to the island offering party quest activities, items, and unique player functionality like transformations, new projectiles, and a whole lot of fun!
role Client Software Engineer - player functionality, rooms, UI, mini-games, and quest systems.
challenges Working in a multiplayer environment - as a client developer, all user cases need to be handled. Tight deadlines and juggling multiple projects simultaneously.
Collaborative Project
Jan - Oct 2014
about Squeak! is a mobile app designed to help the working professional plan fun and healthy breaks throughout their day.
Break reminders come in the form of activity suggestions - from stretching to snacks to entertainment, you'll find the right break for the right time.
As a programmer, it is easy to get immersed in coding seated at a desk for long hours. Having experienced the adverse effects of continuous physical inactivity first-hand led me to approach my good friend and talented UX designer Daniela Pichardo to develop Squeak! to remind myself and others to stay active and keep moving.
role Objective-C programmer
challenges This side project was essentially my crash-course in Objective-C and Xcode, as I wanted to learn native iOS development and the full development cycle involved in publishing an app to the AppStore.
The most challenging tasks faced were learning how to manipulate UILocalNotifications, dealing with multiple gestures in TableViews, designing for different phone resolutions, and storing custom VOs.