About Me
Obligatory "not my cat".
His name is Morty. He doesn't like me.
I'm Alinda. This is me!
His name is Morty. He doesn't like me.
Who am I?
Hello, welcome to my website! My name is Alinda! I am a software engineer living in LA.
My Background
I have always been interested in computers and video games for as long as I can remember. I grew up playing educational video games, such as Math Blasters, Super Solvers, and Reader Rabbit. I eventually got into "real" video games, with my first ones being Call of Duty 2 and Grand Theft Auto: Vice City. Yup, quite a stark contrast from where I started!
My first experience with programming came about when I was around 10 or 11 years old when I was obsessed with Neopets (which I still play sometimes... don't judge!) I created art, personalities, and backstories for my pets and showcased them through "pet pages", which were basically single, static webpages for our pets. Thus, a big chunk of my childhood was messing with HTML and CSS and creating "adoptables" (artwork that you can share with other people via copy-pasting of html code).
Years later, I found myself in college studying biology until one day, I took a Visual Basics class. I switched my major to Computer Science and the rest was history.
My first experience with programming came about when I was around 10 or 11 years old when I was obsessed with Neopets (which I still play sometimes... don't judge!) I created art, personalities, and backstories for my pets and showcased them through "pet pages", which were basically single, static webpages for our pets. Thus, a big chunk of my childhood was messing with HTML and CSS and creating "adoptables" (artwork that you can share with other people via copy-pasting of html code).
Years later, I found myself in college studying biology until one day, I took a Visual Basics class. I switched my major to Computer Science and the rest was history.
What Am I Doing These Days?
As a big fan of self-improvement and education, I spend half my free time learning random new skills and working on personal projects and the other half on playing video games. Okay, maybe video games are a little more than half. :)
I enjoy making small-scale video games, some of which can be found here. Lately, I've been taking piano and archery classes. I'm also trying to get back into cooking!
Anyway, I pay $12 / year for this site and have poured hours into it, so I appreciate your visit!
I enjoy making small-scale video games, some of which can be found here. Lately, I've been taking piano and archery classes. I'm also trying to get back into cooking!
Anyway, I pay $12 / year for this site and have poured hours into it, so I appreciate your visit!
Programming
Tools
HTML, CSS, JavaScript
Background
This project is this website you are viewing! It is meant to be a portfolio to showcase my projects and to give visitors (i.e. you!) some insight as to who I am.
i-Ready: Cloud Machine
Tools
C#, Unity
Background
I worked on this game during my time on the i-Ready Learning Games team at Curriculum Associates. Cloud Machine is a game that teaches fractional concepts through imagery.
My main work was in prototyping the game and its mobile features. I also worked on the UI functionality, Spanish localization implementation, and fixing various bugs throughout the production.
This was one of my favorite projects to work on. It was exciting to watch this project from its birth during office brainstorming to its release to over 150,000 students in its first week!
Click here to learn more about Cloud Machine!
i-Ready: Cupcake
Tools
C#, Unity
Background
Another game I worked on while on the i-Ready Learning Games team at Curriculum Associates. Cupcake is a simulation game where students manage a cupcake store. They practice solving arithmetic problems, analyzing word problems, and reading coordinates as they buy ingredients, take orders, and deliver cupcakes to quirky customers.
My focus was in fixing bugs, fixing layering issues, and adding Spanish localization. ¡Aprendí español un poquito porque trabajé en este juego!
Click here to learn more about Cupcake!
Tools
C#, Unity, Photoshop
Background
Chomper the gardener is in charge of babysitting the demanding little lamb, Eleanor. But boy, is she picky! She will only eat the exact number of flowers she demands. Luckily, Chomper is a patient T. rex who eagerly takes up this daunting task.
Flower Frenzy is a simple math game I made before joining Curriculum Associates. Its goal is to teach players multiplication by requiring them to figure out what combination of numbers can be multiplied together to satisfy Eleanor's demand.
Fun fact: Chomper and Eleanor are modeled after my stuffed animals. :)
Tools
Python, HTML, CSS, JavaScript, Jinja, Flask, SQLite
Background
Inconvenienced by the need to create multiple Instagram accounts just to organize my posts, I was inspired to create Stalkback — my fake social media site. Like any other social media site, it features user authentication, searching for users, managing posts, following ("stalking") others, and interacting with posts. Difference is it allows users to organize their own posts into categories and lets followers curate their feed by stalking only what they are interested in (think Reddit, but for personal accounts).
Tools
C#, Unity
Background
After a hiatus from Unity, I decided to learn it again from scratch. This is the first game I've made since jumping back in.
This is Sharkbait, a game where you play as a cast away named Harper whose goals are to hunt for birds and fend off sharks.
You can play Sharkbait here! Please check out its ReadMe on Github to view credits and resources.
Tools
C#, Unity
Background
A few of my coworkers and I created Witch's Brew over a weekend for our very first self-hosted game jam together. The aim of the game jam was to introduce game development to those of us with little to no experience and to offer those who were more experienced a chance to teach. It was a lot of work for us beginners, but it was quite a rewarding experience!
In Witch's Brew, you play as Sophie, a witch who must collect falling ingredients to complete a stew for her ritual. You can play the game here! Please check out its ReadMe on Github to view credits and resources.
Tools
C#, Unity
Background
I organized and ran this game jam for the first time myself, and the result was Dealer's Dungeon. In this game, you play a mouse named Algernon, who is trapped and needs to find the cheese in a randomly generated field of dice.
You can play Dealer's Dungeon here! Please check out its ReadMe on Github to view credits and resources.
Art
Digital Art
Here is a selection of my favorite pieces from my art portfolio. The rest can be found at my Behance!
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Cruddy Crafts Stickers
Tools
Photoshop, Cricut Maker
Background
When I was a kid, I was obsessed with stickers. My sisters and I begged our parents to take us to the sticker store in LA's Chinatown. I remember making my own homemade stickers using plain copy paper and double-sided tape.
And now I toil over stickers as an adult, having opened my Etsy shop, Cruddy Crafts, in Sept 2021. For fun, I've been dropping stickers throughout Philadelphia for people to find and keep! I especially like to drop Pokemon stickers during my Pokemon GO sessions. :)
Check out my Etsy here and follow Cruddy Crafts on Instagram here!
RED: Shadow Maggots
Tools
Adobe Photoshop, Unity
Background
In 2021, I volunteered to work on RED: Shadow Maggots, a Team Fortress 2 fan game and spoof of RAID: Shadow Legends by Brogrammist.
I am currently working on some of the 2D art and animation. Here is my first contribution to the game, an idle animation featuring TF2's Demoman!
Check out RED: Shadow Maggots' development here!
Music
Danny & Rosses
Overview
Genre - Retro
Duration - 1:40
Tools
Reaper DAW, Sforzando VST
Background
When I was a kid, I wanted to make a movie with my sisters, but no one wanted to play with me. Not one to be dissuaded, I grabbed my trusty camcorder and filmed a first-person POV video of my scrappy tiger character, Timmy, going on an adventure. I improvised an "on-a-mission" theme song to accompany his shenanigans, and this song here was largely inspired by that childhood piece.
While I've recorded many song ideas in the past, this is my very first completed song. I'm proud of it! I plan to use it for a recreation of a childhood video game idea featuring my two characters, Danny and Rosses, thus I repurposed it to have a more retro video game feel compared to its original concept.
Dosage (WIP)
Overview
Genre - Classical
Duration - 1:18
Tools
Reaper DAW, Spitfire Audio VST
Background
If I could see only one song of mine come to life, I'd want it to be this one. I came up with an idea for this orchestral piece some time in 2017 or 2018, and I fell in love with it! It sat in my brain for years, only surfacing while I washed dishes through my mindless humming.
I imagine it as an end credits song to some video game, maybe coupled with an animation of a graceful ballet between some forest animals. I'm still going through a lot of experimentation with where this one will go.