Project Design

Dr. Roberto Dillon

Curriculum Vitae

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Born in Genoa (Italy) on 22 March 1973

Singapore ID: S7368894I

Mobile Phone: +65 94366027

Email: abowci@r.postjobfree.com

Personal Website: www.ProgramAndPlay.com

Education:

2004--Ph.D. Degree in Electrical and Computer Engineering from the University of Genoa,

Italy.

Ph.D. Thesis: "On the recognition of expressive intentions in music playing: a

computational

approach with experiments and applications" focuse d on the design and development of

software

modules based on artificial intelligence and statistical methods, such as Hidden Markov

Models and

Decision Trees, to recognize, track and predict expressivity in actual music playing and

their applications

within the interactive digital media field.

1999--Master Degree in Electrical Engineering from the University of Genoa, Italy.

Final Mark:

Publications

Books:

R.Dillon: The Golden Age of Video Games: the Birth of a Multi -Billion Dollar

Industry,

AKPeters/CRC Press, 2011 ISBN: 978-1439873236

The Golden Age of Video Games is an excellent, succinct, and thoroughly accessible

history. Highly

recommended - Midwest Book Review

It was hard to pull myself away from reading Nigel Parker, Commodore Free #57

R.Dillon: On the Way to Fun: an Emotion Based Approach to Successful Game

Design, AKPeters, 2010, ISBN: 978-1568815824

It's a brilliant analysis. Wish I'd thought of it - Tom Sloper

On the Way to Fun is a choice pick for any would be game designer Carl Logan,

Midwest Book Review

Journals and refereed conference papers:

R.Dillon: The 6-11 Framework: a new approach to video game analysis and design,

Proceedings

GameOn-Asia, Eurosis, Singapore, 2011

Yin X., R.Dillon, A.Lam, Ng K.B.: Porting and Optimizing Music and Emotion Driven Game

Engine from

PC Platform to PS 3 Platform, Proceedings CGAMES11, Louisville, USA

R.Dillon, Ng K.B., S.Rozner: The Music and Emotion Driven Game Engine: Ideas and

Games,

Proceedings CGAT 09, Singapore, pp.15 -23, Research Publishing, 2009

R.Dillon, G. Wong, R. Ang: Virtual Orchestra: an immersive computer game for fun and

education,

ACM International Conference Proceeding Series: Vol. 223 - CGIE 2006, pp.215-218

R.Dillon: A Possible model for Predicting Listeners Emotional Engagement, in

Lecture Notes in

Computer Science, Volume 3902, pp.60-75, Springer, 2006.

R.Dillon: "An analysis and modeling of possible parameters for controlling emotional

content in

interactive audio", CyberGames - International Workshop on Gam es Research and

Development,

Singapore, pp.113-118, Pearson - Prentice Hall, 2005

R.Dillon: "Classifying musical performance by statistical analysis of audio cues",

Journal of New Music

Research, Vol.32, Issue n.3, 2003

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R.Dillon: "A Statistical approach to expressive intention recognition in violin

performances", Proceedings

Stockholm Music Acoustic Conference (SMAC 03), 2003

R.Dillon: "Extracting audio cues in real time to understand musical expressiveness",

Proceedings

MOSART workshop on "Current Resea rch Directions in Computer Music", Barcelona, 2001

A.Camurri, R.Dillon, A.Saron: "An experiment on analysis and synthesis of musical

expressivity",

proceedings CIM XIII, L'Aquila, 2000

Invited talks and lectures at international conferences (selection):

'The Development and Future Prospects of the Video Game Industry', First National

Policy Forum on

Creative Industries, Brunei Darussalam, 2012

An analysis of Fun in Casual and Social Games, Casual Connect, Singapore 2012

What Can Videogame History Teach Us Today, Korea Games Conference, Daegu, 2011

Analyzing Fun in Social Games, Symposium on Social Dynamics in Online Gaming,

Singapore, 20 11

Teaching Game Analysis the Pragmatic Way: the 6-11 Framework, Game Education Summit

North

America, Redmond, WA, 2011

Formal Models for Game Analysis: the MDA and 6-11 Frameworks, Korea Games Conference,

2010

Retro Games Exposed: Evergreen Hints and Tips to Design Fun Games, Korea Games

Conference,

Seoul, 2009

Playing Games by playing music: the M-EDGE Project, Korea Games Conference, Seoul,

2008

Using Emotions as an input medium for a new generation of Music Games, Game

Convention Asia

Conference, Singapore 2007

A Virtual Orchestra Game for Introducing Children to Music, Serious Games Summit,

Washington D.C.,

2006

Positions held:

June 2012 - Present: Associate Professor for the School of Business and IT, James Cook

University Australia Institute of Higher Learning Singapore campus.

Duties:

Teaching different game development subjects for the Bachelor and Master Degrees in IT

(Interactive Technologies and Game Design)

Student supervision

Research on models for game analysis and design, expe rimental game mechanics etc.

Curriculum revision

Feb 2011 - Present: Founder, AdsumSoft: Game Development & Design Consultancy

services.

Developing original games for iOS and other platforms from initial concept to final

release.

Collaborating with indie studios like Tokyo based Oyatsukai (for QA) and working with

Singapore based Kentaura Pte. Ltd. as Chief Game Designer on social games for PC

and mobile platforms.

Duties:

Conceptualize game ideas, scope and mechanics.

Liaising with developers and artists to be sure game design ideas are properly

implemented.

Mentoring and interviewing/recruiting junior developers.

Aug 2009April 2012 : Department Chair / Assistant Professor for the Department of

Game Software Design and Production, DigiPen Institute of Technology - Singapore.

Duties:

Teaching different subjects for the B.A. and B.Sc. Degrees in Game Design and for the

B.Sc.

in Real Time Interactive Simulations. In particular: Introduction to Computer

Environment,

Computer Environment, Game Project - Introduction, Game Project I, Game History,

Game Mechanics I, II and III, 2D Level Design, Technology for Game Designers etc.

Liaising with the main campus in Redmond, WA for contributing to the latest curriculum

development, meeting ACCSC accreditation requirements for the Singapore campus and

defining the articulation of DigiPen s courses into the Singapore Institute of

Technology

(SIT).

Managing academic staff and ensure all game design and production courses are

effectively

being taught according to specification.

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Interviewing both prospective students and lecturers besides mentoring existing

freshmen

and sophomore students.

Served as a judge for the CNB sponsored competition Life does not rewind targeting at

polytechnic and ITE students for developing video games on drug abuse issues (2011).

Served as External Judge for the URECA undergraduate research projects in NTU (2012)

Jan 2007 - Jul 2009: Lecturer at the School of Interactive and Digital media (SIDM),

Nanyang

Polytechnic (Singapore).

Duties:

Module Leader for Production and Project Management, Audio Creation and Digital

Entertainment and Society besides teaching also different subjects like C++

Programming,

Digital Entertainment Systems and AI for Games .

Principal Investigator/Project Lead for M-EDGE (Music -Emotion Driven Game Engine,

fully funded with USD1million by the National Research Foundation of Singapore under the

grant NRF2007IDM-IDM002-015). Conceptualized and wrote the research proposal,

designed the engine architecture, recruited and managed the team from August 2007 to July

2009.

Jan 2005 - Dec 2006: Research Fellow at Nanyang Technological University NTU

gameLAB (Singapore).

Duties:

Responsible for R&D on Serious games and other proj ects, including: Virtual

Orchestra, a

serious/educational game for introducing children to music which was featured on the

st

international press, including Singapore s The Straits Times (21 February 2006), the

st

May/June 2006 issue of the British music mag azine MUSO and USA Today (31 October

2006).

Planned and developed a curriculum for a Fundamentals of Game Design and

Development course on behalf of the Infocomm Development Authority of Singapore.

Delivered seminars, reports and lectures on specifi c research topics as required.

Jun 2000 - Dec 2005: Co-Founder / Director : Callisto Multimedia SNC.

Duties:

Managed all business development issues, taking Callisto s multimedia CD productions

to be

officially distributed in countries such as Germany, Russia, Japan, USA etc.

Managed every stage of the production chain for all its products.

Managed budgets and assembled the best possible team for each project (including

artists

and technicians) while fulfilling everyone s expectations and meeting the required

deadlines.

Feb 2001 - May 2004: Ph.D. Candidate / Research student at the University of Genoa,

Italy. Ph.D. included 6 months as:

Guest Researcher at the Royal Institute of Technology, Department of Speech, Music

and Hearing in Stockholm, Sweden within the framework of the European Research Project

MEGA (IST-1999-20410 Multisensory Expressive Gesture Applications

)

Oct 1999 - Feb 2001: Analyst / Programmer at ELSAG SpA in Genoa (Italy).

Duties:

Designed and developed software and web-based components, both client and server side,

in C++, ASP and DHTML for large scale projects commissioned by Poste Italiane (Italian

Mails).

Mar 1999 - Oct 1999: Multimedia Developer at Philarmonia SRL.

Duties:

Designed and developed multimedia applications for i nteractive CD productions.

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Games and related R&D projects:

Year Company Project Role Team Budget Platform Description

size (US$)

>1,000,000

2012 Kentaura Horse Master Chief Game 12 PC(SNG) An innovative and

Designer ambitious social network

game combining farming

gameplay with minigames,

competitive action and

meaningful social

interactions.

2,200

2012 AdsumSoft BlockedIn Designer/Developer - iOS A modern take to the retro

ball and paddle game

concepts.

NA

2012 Oyatsukai Final Freeway QA 10+ iOS A fast, arcade inspired

2R racing game

NA

2011 Oyatsukai Fractal QA 10+ iOS A futuristic high speed

Combat arcade flight combat game

2010 DigiPen Orfeo Designer / 1 - PC An experimental music

Developer based game. Relive

Orfeo s myth by playing his

lyre to save Eurydice.

Showcased at the Sense

of Wonder Night, Tokyo

Game Show, 2010 and at

FILE Games 2011, Rio de

Janeiro

2007- NYP M-EDGE Principal Investigator 15 $1,000,000 PC/PS3 The Music-Emotion Driven

2009 (Architect / Lead Game Engine is a platform

Designer / Project for developing a new

Manager) generation of music games

where players interact by

playing a real musical

instrument. Different games

were developed under my

supervision.

2006 NTU Battle of Pasir Audio Lead/ Sound 4

TRUST project

2005 NTU TRUST Audio Lead 12 $200,000 PC A collaboration with UK

based SMARTLab and

BBC to deliver a

rehabilitation game for

children at KK Hospital in

Singapore

Memberships and Professional Certificates:

Certified Scrum Master (CSM) by the Scrum Alliance (certification obtained in 2008)

Member of the International Game Developers Association (IGDA) since 2006

Included in the 2008 and 2009 editions of Marquis Who s Who in the World

Other Skills / Experiences:

Admitted to the Intensive Program in Cognitive Musicology at the Faculty of Music of

the University of

Jyvaskyla (Finland, 1998) and later attended courses in Appl ied Acoustics (University

of Genoa, 1999)

and Acoustics of Musical Instruments (Royal Institute of Technology, Stockholm, 2001).

As audio engineer, worked with both affirmed and rising artists such as American

flutist Robert Dick,

singers Angelo Manzotti, Amanda Pabyan and Ingela Bohlin, pianist Andrea Bacchetti,

violinists Huang

Bin, Giulio Plotino and Tanja Becker -Bender, conductors Tito Ceccherini and Michele

Trenti etc.

Chess Candidate Master in correspondence play (played for the Italian national t eam in

a few friendly

postal/email matches) and Genoa Student Chess Champion in 1986. Elo ICCF (2009/2): 2207

Brown belt in Karate (Shito Ryu style).

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Languages:

Italian (mother tongue), excellent command of English (both spoken and written),

elementary k nowledge of

German and Chinese (spoken).References:

Prof. Kenji Suzuki (University of Tsukuba): abowci@r.postjobfree.com

Prof. Edmond Prakash (University of Bedfordshire): abowci@r.postjobfree.com

Prof. Michele Giugliano (University of Antwerpen): abowci@r.postjobfree.com

Dr. Zhi Zeng (Microsoft): abowci@r.postjobfree.com

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