Sebastian Bolatto

Programming Portfolio

About Me

Hi! I’m Sebastian Bolatto, a game developer who works at the intersection of game design and programming. With a Computer Science degree from the University of Maryland, College Park and a current M.S. in Game Design and Development at the Rochester Institute of Technology, I bring both technical expertise and a strong understanding of design to every project. This combination allows me to create human-centered systems and realistically executable designs, ensuring that the player experience is always first and foremost.

I’ve always been deeply involved in the game development community. I’ve led game design workshops as president of the UMD Game Development Club and helped organize the SGDA Summit, a two-day games showcase and conference. These experiences have strengthened not only my creative and technical skills, but also my ability to collaborate, communicate, and share knowledge with others.

Some of my favorite pastimes including DM’ing Dungeons & Dragons for my friends, video games and board games of all genres, sports like soccer and tennis, playing guitar, reading fantasy and science-fiction novels, writing and world-building, and petting cats!

As I continue to grow early in my career, I’m excited to explore where I can make the biggest impact – whether as a designer, programmer, or in a role that blends both.

Awards

Academy of Interactive Arts and Sciences (AIAS) Foundation Scholarship

National GEM Consortium GEM Fellowship

Professional Experience

NASA

Software Used: Unity, Autodesk Maya, Figma, Git

I worked for NASA, performing two separate internships at both the Kennedy Space Center on the Space Coast in Florida, and the Goddard Space Flight Center in Maryland. There I worked on various Unity-based simulations built for desktop and Virtual Reality.

Moon Tycoon V2

Simulation Developer

Moon Tycoon Version 2 emulates the lunar surface to a high degree of accuracy for mission planning, visualization, and educational purposes.
Since the simulator provides a high degree of photo-realism, engineers are able to use the simulation to optimize the placements of tools such as cameras to best monitor the lunar environment and its interactions with the rover.

What I worked on:

Delivered improvements to the project’s vehicle and building deployment tools.
Implemented driving capabilities for vehicles, including rovers and lunar transporters.
Added a landing site picker for VR users, allowing viewers to view the moon from multiple angles and sizes and point to a landing location.

Mixed Reality Exploration Toolkit (MRET)

VR & AR Developer

MRET is a set of Virtual Reality and Augmented Reality tools built to provide cross-domain mission lifecycle support.
I contributed to two toolkit projects, including the toolkit’s Capture, Containment and Retrieval System (MRET-CCRS) project – simulating a return of samples from Mars – and the Visualization and Lagrangian Dynamics Immersive Extended Reality (VALIXR) tool, which made use of GEOS – a Geographic Information System that tracks climate and weather around the globe.

What I worked on:

Added a system to allow users to physically interact with objects in the simulation using simulated hands.
Implemented a data sources panel which allows users to toggle on and off various layers which visualized different data sets.
Created controls for the “Holographic Earth” pedestal, allowing users to navigate the GEOS climate and weather model.

Consolidated Nuclear Security

Software Used: Unreal Engine, Unity, Blender, Git

I performed two separate internships for Consolidated Nuclear Security over two consecutive summers, at their Oak Ridge Enhanced Technology and Training Center. There I created simulations for use in exercise planning and site preparation, as well as educational tools for teaching nuclear energy and history.

Reduce & Remove Planning

Simulation Developer

Led the design and development of a simulation for use with partner countries to exercise planning, analysis and preparation for the removal and transport of radioactive material between hospitals and other storage locations.
I combined LiDAR scans of building interiors with satellite imaging of street routes within the Unity game engine to create a multi-purpose simulation allowing for full mission planning from extraction to destination.

What I worked on:

Gathered information on what stakeholders wanted to use the tool for to inform the features I implemented.
Built a tool that allowed users to upload a LiDAR scan of an interior to the project and convert it into a full 3D mesh.
Integrated the interior scan tool with the Cesium Ion GIS system to allow users to plan both extraction from a building and the path taken to the destination.

AR/VR Learning Experiences

XR Developer

Designed and developed an XR simulation exhibiting a fictional nuclear power plant, as well as an AR companion app for a statue installation of figures important to nuclear history in A.K. Bissel Park.
I used a detailed 3D model within an interactive virtual environment to build an interactive virtual tour of a fictional but realistic nuclear facility. I also built a companion app that allowed users to talk to replicas of historical figures by using an LLM to detect the intentions behind a user’s question, and assign a corresponding pre-set answer to the question.

What I worked on:

Built an AR tabletop view for the facility, which allowed users to touch points on the table to enter an immersive VR view of the selected location.
Implemented user hand-tracking, so that all interactions can be done without a controller.
Developed a web application for mobile use that allowed users to communicate with virtual replicas of historical figures using their own voice, using an LLM to select responses.
Utilized Unreal Engine and thermal haptic gloves to train uranium workers in identifying the signs of nuclear criticality through heating uranium capsules when they are placed near each-other.

Additional Projects & Studies

Game Projects

Verdant Engine

Unity | 3D | Team of 7
Strategy roguelike where the player controls a massive mech that has been possessed by a plant-like entity.
The mech has a garden growing atop of its chassis, and the placement of plants influences its combat capabilities. The mech must make its way through the city, battling immense polluting factories, before defeating the central AI that keeps the factories running.

Brew and Brawl Inn

Unity | 2D | Team of 4

Take control of a wizard-cook and a drunken fighter in the grand opening of their new tavern. Compete against an egotistical necromancer and his failing restaurant as you hold out against his onslaught of skeletal minions – while brewing wild concoctions to ensure maximum customer satisfaction.
A 2-player co-op game which combines cooking and restaurant management with the hack n’ slash genre!

Carni-Ball

Unity | 2D | Team of 5

4-Player party game, created within 5 days for the SGDA Summer Game Jam 2022. This is a deadly game of dodgeball where getting tagged means that you become a ghost – and can possess obstacles to mess with the living! If you cause your tagger to get hit themselves, then you’ll rejoin the land of the living and get another chance – Last one left alive wins!

Prototyping Adventures

Rapid Prototyping Challenge

Unity | 5 Games | Developed in 2 weeks each

A rapid prototyping exercise where I create five different games with five different teams of four to five members. The goal of this challenge was to practice rapid prototyping while designing each game around a single strong mechanic, exploring that idea in depth.

UE5 Game Prototyping

Unreal | 3 Games | Developed in 2 weeks each

A showcase of a series of prototypes built in Unreal Engine 5, either alone or with a partner, as a way of learning the engine through hands-on experimentation. In this project I re-imagine three classic arcade games and give them a unique twist.

Level Design Prototyping

Various Games | 4 Levels | Developed in 2 weeks

Created four different levels across four different games, each within a two week timeframe.
Followed a complete level design process for each prototype, starting with a game analysis document, a level molecule and napkin sketch, then developing a first playable iteration, conducting playtests, and refining based on feedback into a final version.