Ember is a professional game designer with over 10 years of development experience in a variety of studio environments. They founded Studio Wumpus where they led the development of Sumer (www.sumergame.com) from its conception as a Master’s Thesis at NYU’s Game Center to its publishing and release on Steam and Nintendo Switch in 2017. Since Sumer, Ember has continued to lead design on indie, publisher-funded projects including Drawn to Life : Two Realms and the Deadly Path. Ember has also established themself as a consulting game designer in New York City, frequently designing educational digital games for middle-school and collegiate level students.
In addition to their design career, Ember has served as an adjunct instructor of Intro and Intermediate Game Design at the NYU Game Center since 2021. During this time they have worked closely with Eric Zimmerman and Naomi Clark to develop the curriculum for a revision of the undergraduate design track. Ember assisted Eric Zimmerman in the development of the non-majors only “Think Like a Game Designer” class and acted as the interim Game Design head for adjuncts when he was on sabbatical.
Ember has also worked closely with Games for Change, serving as the main facilitator of their game design workshops, game jams and instructional courses in Scratch, Game Maker and Bitsy. Prior to their game development Ember was an elementary and preschool art teacher in Honolulu, Hawai’i and their workshops presently inclde early elementary, middle school, and high school aged learners. Ember has also demoed and advised teachers on the integration of game development into their classroom to help them prepare for Games for Change’s Student Challenge.
