Games

Overview

Line By Line is a third person detective game centered around solving mysteries through crossword puzzles. Players take on the role of Casey “Ace” Witt, a retired detective who approaches every case through the lens of language, pattern recognition, and deduction.

The story begins at a local theater, where a play is suddenly interrupted when the lead actor collapses on stage. As production halts and tensions rise among the dysfunctional crew, Casey steps in to uncover the truth. By gathering clues, questioning characters, and solving crosswords, players piece together the mystery line by line.

My Role & Production

I am the Lead Producer for Line By Line, a USC Advanced Games Project (AGP) now in full production. I helped grow the project from its original four-person core into a multidisciplinary team: 4 → 27 Developers.

I built and maintain the production structure that supports our larger team, including sprint planning, task tracking, and shared workflows that keep work organized across disciplines.

I work directly with leads across design, engineering, art, narrative, UI/UX, audio, QA, usability, and marketing to break down work into actionable tasks and help each lead delegate it with clear ownership.

I manage sprint structure, priorities, and task ownership, tracking progress and coordinating dependencies between disciplines. I work with leads to identify risks, resolve blockers, and adjust priorities so each team understands what needs to happen next and who is responsible.

Status

Currently In Production with a multidisciplinary team of 27 Developers.

Overview

Full Court Uprising is a third-person action-adventure game about fighting immigration enforcement. Join rebellious teenage engineer Xiara as she protects her community and turns a Frutiger Aero-themed Los Angeles on its head with snappy streetball-inspired combat and a healthy dose of rail-grinding action.

My Role & Production

I am a Tech Producer & Engineer on Full Court Uprising with Radical Play Lab at USC. I support technical production for a team of three and contribute engineering work alongside my production responsibilities.

I help maintain project documentation so the team has a shared reference for tasks, decisions, and next steps. Alongside my engineering work, I help translate production discussions into clear, actionable work for the team.

I delegate tasks within the technical team and communicate with design to clarify requirements, align priorities, and connect design goals with engineering work. This helps keep task ownership clear and gives both disciplines a shared understanding of what needs to be delivered.

When the lead producer is unavailable, I step in to support milestone planning and task delegation. I help break milestone goals into manageable tasks, clarify priorities and ownership, and coordinate what needs to happen next so the team can keep moving forward.

Notes

Build status: The playable build on itch.io represents our last major milestone: the vertical slice. We are still actively iterating on the game, so this build captures that milestone rather than the latest state of development.

For fans of Jet Set Radio, The Legend of Zelda, and Sunset Overdrive.

1 level · 15 minutes of play.

Controls

• Punch: Left Click / Square
• Stomp: Right Click / Triangle
• Dash: Shift / L2 / R2
• Target: Ctrl / L1 / R1
• Change targets: Move mouse / right stick while targeting
• Parry: Shift / L2 / R2 while targeting
• Homing Ball Throw: E / Circle while targeting

Overview

nudge is a cozy organization-sim where players take on the role of Joey, a recent graduate decorating her first apartment while navigating an unfulfilling job and an overbearing mother. Through collecting, arranging, and personalizing her space, the game explores themes of independence, identity, and finding balance in early adulthood.

My Role & Production

Usability Team Member. I observed playtest sessions, tested builds for bugs, and documented player feedback and issues to support iteration.

I recorded playtest findings in organized spreadsheets and reported bugs to the team, helping document usability issues, player friction points, and areas for improvement across systems and UI.

The project was developed as part of a USC MFA program, emphasizing experimental design and player-centered iteration. My role focused on clearly documenting test results and bringing issues to the team’s attention.

Credits

• Creative Director: EE Zhao (EE)
• Producer: Jen Huynh
• Engineering Producer: Sammy Chuang
• Art Lead: Siyi Wang (Toto)
• 2D Animator: Yu Pan (Panyu)
• 2D Artist: Claire Yang
• Lead Designer: Isabel Merced Galindo
• Designer: Shan Lin
• UI/UX Designers: Aochen Li (Daisy), Ariel Li
• UI Designer: Yu Zhang (Elvira)
• Lead Engineer: Nidhi Uppoor
• Engineers: Patrick James Alcantara, Jiayi Pan (Joy), Michelle Zhou, Yu Zhang (Elvira)
• Audio Lead, Music & SFX: Johannah "johh" Chung
• Foley Recording Technician: Yang Liu
• Narrative Designers: Jana Mae Rubio, Molli Shuker
• Usability: Yueqian Du (Scarlet), Kaylee Morales, Molli Shuker
• Marketing — Instagram: Johannah "johh" Chung
• Marketing: Jana Mae Rubio
• Marketing — Bluesky: Tianzi Wu (Riley)
• Marketing — RedNote: EE Zhao (EE)

Overview

Welcome to UCSC—sort of. Markus’s Miasma drops players into a fog-drenched, uncanny version of UC Santa Cruz where familiar landmarks are warped and the silence carries weight. Navigate eerie footpaths and unsettling interiors as you uncover the story of Markus—a man whose past is bleeding into reality through puzzles, fragments, and memory.

My Role & Production

Product Owner & Project Manager for a six-month development cycle. Led an interdisciplinary team of eight using Scrum: sprint planning, backlog management, milestone builds. Directed creative vision, coordinated cross-discipline work (design, programming, art, audio), and presented regularly. I was responsible for the project files shown below and owned the team’s shared documentation, keeping plans, research, tasks, and design decisions organized and accessible throughout development.

Originated as a UCSC undergraduate capstone. Progressed from pre-production (vision, scope, prototypes) to production (feature/content) and post-production (polish, QA). Refined via structured playtests with classmates and faculty.

Credits

• Project Owner / Producer: Kaylee Morales
• Tech Lead: Nat Chu
• Tech Members: Isai Rincon, Nick Dilorenzo, Chrstina Taylor, Celeste Herrera
• Art Lead: Samina Esteqlal
• Art Member: Hasina Esteqlal

Notes

All characters, locations, and events are fictional. While inspired by the aesthetics of UC Santa Cruz, this work does not depict the real university.

Overview

Red Trees Rail Co is a VR horror train simulator placing you in a restored steam locomotive on a new night route through redwood forest towns. Reports of unsettling phenomena complicate routine operations.

Horror Elements

Expect hallucinations—figures in the trees, impossible interior damage, and other reality-bending events. Rely on the former engineer’s notebook for procedures and survival.

My Role

2D artist, storyboarder, QA tester, generalist. Joined a UCSC capstone team as a sophomore to support a senior team delivering a polished VR experience.

Credits

• Programmers: Charles Qi, Phil Meyer
• Art / Social Media / General: Kaylee Morales

Overview

Pulse & Pole is a rhythm-based combat game where you control two magnetic forces: one positive and one negative. Positioned on opposite sides of the screen, your goal is to defeat an enemy standing between them by matching your inputs to the beat of the music.

As the song plays, the enemy shifts between positive and negative polarity in sync with the rhythm. You must react quickly and choose the opposite polarity at the right moment to attack. As the song progresses, staying on beat becomes increasingly challenging, testing both your timing and reflexes.

My Role & Design / Programming

I served as the project's designer and programmer, owning the overall game concept, gameplay design, documentation, and a large portion of the gameplay implementation.

On the design side, I created and maintained the Game Design Document (GDD) and developed the core gameplay loop centered around rhythm-based polarity switching. I designed the player experience, game rules, controls, fail states, and overall flow of the encounter. The goal was to create a rhythm game that required both timing and quick decision-making by having players react to an enemy that constantly changes polarity in sync with the music.

On the programming side, I worked in Unreal Engine 5 using Blueprints. I implemented the initial polarity system, player input handling, lives systems, fail states, game over functionality, UI elements, and overall gameplay flow.

Beyond development, I maintained the project's development log, documented design decisions throughout production, refined the final user interface, and created the project's itch.io page and presentation materials for submission.

Details

• Engine: Unreal Engine 5
• Implementation: Blueprints
• Controls: Q - Positive Magnet, E - Negative Magnet
• Genre: Rhythm Combat
• Playtime: ~2 minutes
• Lose Condition: Losing all three lives restarts the level.

Credits

• Design: Kaylee Morales
• Programming: Nyela Allen, Kaylee Morales
• Art: Dean Andrian
• Audio: Tobi Adefidiya

Jam Info

Made for PSCP Ratchet Up 2026. Based on the theme: "Tool with a Twist".

Overview

Sky Is The Limit is a fast-paced vertical climbing game where you play as a firework racing toward the sky before its fuse burns out. The rocket continuously launches upward, and your only control is steering left and right as the climb becomes more chaotic the higher you go.

Birds, power lines, UFOs, and other strange objects stand in your way, turning the ascent into a frantic survival run. The goal is simple: celebrate by reaching the highest height possible before time runs out or one mistake ends the run.

My Role & Design

I worked on game design, helping shape the core concept and gameplay loop around the theme of celebration. We chose a firework as our central mechanic because it naturally represents celebration, but also introduces tension through its limited lifespan.

I helped translate that idea into gameplay by framing the experience as a race against time, where the player is constantly moving upward while trying to avoid obstacles. The act of dodging objects like birds, power lines, and UFOs became a way to reinforce that tension. Celebration isn’t calm, it’s chaotic, fast, and easy to lose control of.

I focused on making the loop feel immediate and engaging: simple controls, constant movement, and quick decision-making. The goal was to create something that feels exciting from the first second, while still capturing the fleeting nature of a firework: a short but intense moment that the player tries to extend for as long as possible.

Details

• Controls: Move mouse left and right to steer.
• Goal: Reach the highest height possible before crashing or running out of fuse.
• Game Over: Your run ends if you hit an obstacle or your timer expires.
• Style: Fast, chaotic, arcade-like vertical climbing.

Credits

• Design: Dean Andrian, Kaylee Morales
• Programming: KT LoPorto, Michelle Zhou
• Art: Thomas Shalosky
• Assets From: Synty

Jam Info

Made for The Jam 2026 @ GDC with the Global Game Jam. Based on the theme: "Celebrate".

Overview

Alienated is a cutesy pixel puzzle game about a small alien trying to fit into an ancient society that doesn’t quite understand them. You play as the alien, navigating daily interactions while slowly learning how this culture communicates.

The society speaks through an esoteric symbolic language. Because words fail, you communicate using emotional masks. As you progress, the alien begins to understand not just the language, but what it means to belong.

My Role & Design

I worked on design and helped shape the core concept: communication as a puzzle, and belonging as the emotional “goal.” This was strongly influenced by my background as a non-native English speaker in the U.S. It's the feeling of knowing what you want to say, but not having the “right” words, and constantly reading tone, context, and reactions to figure out if you’re being understood.

I wanted the alien’s experience to mirror that: learning a culture isn’t just translating language. It’s learning what’s socially “safe,” what creates warmth vs. awkwardness, and how one small choice can shift how people interpret you. The emotional masks became a way to make that isolation, pressure, and learning curve playable.

Notes

• Best experience: Please full screen the game for the best experience.

Credits

• Design: Kaylee Morales, Aedan Ramos
• Programming: KT LoPorto, Kaylee Morales, Michelle Zhou
• Art: Emi Bennett, KT LoPorto, Dizhe Xiang, Michelle Zhou
• Audio: Kash Hodges
• Jam: Made for Global Game Jam 2026
• Theme: Mask

Jam Info

Made for Global Game Jam 2026. Based off of the theme: "Mask".

Overview

Things Left Unspoken is a point and click narrative game about a daughter having lunch with her mother. You play as the daughter, who is trying to say something she has been putting off.

As the mother talks, dialogue choices appear in real time. However, your brain will be riddled with intrusive thoughts (doubts, fears, etc.), that may bleed into the real world. As the conversation gets heavier, these panicked thoughts may overwhelm you.

My Role & Programming

I was the main programmer responsible for bringing the core mechanic to life: we wanted the interaction to feel like the difficulty of speaking. This mechanic would show the hesitation, the emotional blockage, and the pressure of having too many responses in your head at once.

The UI was designed so text can fill the screen, and you often have to wait for the mom to finish speaking before you can click. This was intentionally designed to simulate having a flood of responses in your mind, but not being able to say them yet.

I closely read the design documents that our designer, KT, would share with us and translated them into real gameplay behavior. I turned narrative intentions into timing, input rules, and moment-to-moment tension.

Content Warning

This game contains emotionally sensitive themes, including difficult family dynamics and intrusive thoughts.

Details

• Controls: Left click to select a response.
• Outcomes: There are three possible endings.
• Playtime: ~5 minutes.
• Themes: Mother-daughter relationships, intrusive thoughts, emotional pressure, and the difficulty of being honest with someone you love.

Credits

• KT LoPorto — Narrative / Designer / Voice Actor
• Kaylee Morales — Programmer
• Michelle Zhou — Art / UI / Programmer

Audio Assets

• freesound.org/people/el_boss/sounds/645342/
• freesound.org/people/Destructo20/sounds/780545/
• freesound.org/people/dynia87/sounds/381157/
• freesound.org/people/3bagbrew/sounds/57742/

Jam Info

Made for thatgamejam #1 by thatgamecompany, inspired by the provided image.