Our team is comprised of four Entertainment Technology Center Master’s students and one faculty instructor. They are:
Lochlan Belford: Programmer/Game Designer
Lochlan is a game developer and programmer with an interdisciplinary background in music, theatrical performance, and computer science. He was drawn to the ETC and game development in general as the perfect way to combine his interests and skills. So far at the ETC he has designed games for the Oculus Quest 2 and Microsoft Hololens 2, as well as one game controlled by an 88-key MIDI piano! As a consequence of playing “Spyro: Year of the Dragon” when he was five years old, his favorite color is, always has been, and always will be purple.
Caitlyn Lenhoff: Programmer/Game Designer
Caitlyn’s main area of focus is game design, but she has several years of experience as a programmer after earning a Bachelors and Masters in Computer Science. She has worked as a head designer for a small crypto-gaming startup business and has a few years of teaching experience as an instructor for undergraduate Computer Science courses. She hopes to bring some unique outlooks to the project by combining her knowledge of programming with her passion and desire for design.
Em Tyminski: Producer/Concept Artist
Em Tyminski is a character designer and concept artist currently in her second year at the Entertainment Technology Center. In 2019, Em graduated from Texas State University with her BFA in Costume Design and a minor in history. After graduating, Em decided to apply her skills from costume design and love for storytelling in the games industry. Being able to enhance the storytelling within a project through visuals is what drives Em as an artist in the industry.
Justin Yook: 3D Artist
Justin is a game designer and artist with an interdisciplinary background in statistics, music, and dance. He decided to attend the ETC because he is interested in joining the video game industry with a dream of becoming the creative director of his own studio in the future. Justin spends his free time playing and designing video games, and choreographing dance.
Ricardo Washington: Faculty Advisor
Ricardo was a faculty member at the Art Institute of Pittsburgh in the Game Art and Design department. He taught classes in 3D art, specializing in modeling and texture creation. He also taught game design, animation, and production classes. Ricardo helped to improve the academic culture with consistent and robust service on various committees and boards, organizing multiple events, updating classes and curricula, and connecting with the community in Pittsburgh. Before AIP he worked for small game company with a great team. He also did freelance game art, focusing on creating content for games for training. He worked with Simcoach games during this time to create content for interactive game based safety training material.
Before his life as a digital artist, Ricardo worked as a research specialist in the Neurobiology department at the University Of Pittsburgh School Of Medicine. As a lab assistant he spent many hours conducting in the trenches bench top science and microscope work. It was a productive time resulting in four publications.
Ricardo uses his skills and knowledge to teach students outside of the traditional academic environment. He developed and implemented the video game design programs for a local nonprofit Homewood Children’s Village and the Carnegie Library in East Liberty. He has also served as a volunteer mentor with the Carnegie Museum of Natural History EnergyNet and Game Jam programs.