Alexei Othenin-Girard

Alexei Othenin-Girard has a diverse background in game design and education. Alexei is currently working as a Senior Game Designer at Schell Games. Prior to this, they were a Consulting Game Designer as a self-employed individual, providing design and development services in the games and education sectors. Alexei has also worked as a Game Designer at Age of Learning, Inc. and as a Curriculum Designer at eDynamic Learning.

Before transitioning into the game industry, Alexei worked as a Teacher at the San Francisco Unified School District, where they developed and implemented a 2-year Game Design Academy for high school students. Alexei also served as a Senior Lead Designer at Taiko Labs, leading the design and development of the Kudos Reading website, which aimed to improve reading skills in middle school students.

Alexei has also worked as a Freelance Game Designer, collaborating with various companies to produce feature design documents and game analyses. Additionally, they gained valuable experience as a Designer at Nonchalance, where they focused on designing systems for Alternate Reality Games.

Alexei's educational background includes a Master of Fine Arts degree in Playable Media from UC Santa Cruz. During their studies, they participated in a research initiative for Microsoft, exploring strategies for innovation in storytelling in games. Before that, they worked as an Associate Game Designer at PlayFirst, Inc., where they led the design of multiple titles and coordinated teams of artists and engineers.

Alexei Othenin-Girard completed their Bachelor of Arts (B.A.) degree in English Language and Literature, General from the University of California, Berkeley, from 1999 to 2002. Alexei then pursued a Master of Fine Arts (M.F.A.) degree in Digital Art and New Media at the University of California, Santa Cruz, from 2010 to 2012. In addition to their formal education, Alexei has obtained several certifications. In 2015, they received a Career Technical Education Teaching Certificate from the State of California Commission on Teacher Credentialing. Furthermore, they obtained a Unity Certified User: Programmer certification from Unity Technologies in April 2019, and a Unity Certified Instructor certification from the same institution in January 2020.