Ventures
Rafael Brochado
Founder, lifelong indie dev, and award-winning game designer, with a passion for the frontiers of science and tech.
Native
Fluent
Strengths
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Giving & Incorporating Feedback
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Creative Problem Solving
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UX, Game Design & Production
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DevOps & Game Publishing
Domains
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VR, AR, Mixed Reality
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Immersive Education
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Online, Social & F2P Gaming
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Generative AI
Contributions
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Helping grad students prepare for the industry, pursue indie dev, secure funding, work with Publishers & more
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Reviewing grad student prototypes, sharing feedback and improvement tips
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Reviewed SBIR grant proposals in the areas of Learning & Cognition Tech and Human-Computer Interaction
Education
M.S. in Interactive Entertainment
University of Central Florida
2017 – 2018
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Developed novel solutions for the deployment of VR in classrooms, winning over $1.3 million in awards
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Awarded Fulbright Scholarship ($25,000) & FIEA Director Fellowship ($22,186)
B.S. in Game Design - Summa Cum Laude
Polytechnic Institute of Bragança & Kajaani University of Applied Sciences
2011 – 2015
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Graduated as #1 top student; awarded the "golden diploma"
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Brokered a new Erasmus deal between universities, securing a year-long exchange in Finland
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Shipped and monetized 2 mobile games on the Apple & Google Play stores as a solo developer
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Shipped 8 casual and social games for desktop & mobile browsers during a 6-month internship at CoolGames
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First-gen student
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Designed, developed and shipped 3 acclaimed XR games: Tablecraft, Airspace Defender, Banners & Bastions
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Designed immersive gameplay and intuitive UI for controller-free hand interactions in mixed reality
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Developed novel solutions for the deployment of VR in classrooms, winning over $1.3 million in awards
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Partnered with academia (UCF, WestEd) to align science curriculum, deploy and study Tablecraft in the classrooms
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Repeatedly presented at the Kennedy Center, at the invitation of the US Department of Education
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Designed hundreds of hours of in-game content & systems (quests, characters, enemies, skills, maps, items, events, etc)
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Balanced in-game economy with free-to-play business model, driving consistent growth year-over-year
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Scaled the dev team to ~8 people at its peak, plus another ~15 global mods, regional mods & Game Masters
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Managed payroll & finances, recruitment, customer support, and other day-to-day business operations
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Developed expertise in games-as-a-service, MMORPG design, virtual economy design, game balance & more
