Other: Course Work
USC x
東京芸大
Collaboration - じょじょに
じょじょに (or Gradually) is a game made as part of a collaboration between Tokyo University for the Arts (
東京芸大
) and USC Games.
A game about burnout,
じょじょに
is about a businesswoman running in a marathon. She will always reach the finish line, but without any intervention she will continue running faster and faster until all the colors and the world fade around her. The player is able to slow her down to a stop with the space bar, and using the mouse while stopped they can interact with the environment to find small moments of joy that last as long as the player wants them to.
In the collaboration,
じょじょに was showcased in March at an exhibition at Tokyo University for the Arts and in May at USC Games Expo.
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Nickey Olson
Lead Producer
Programmer
Shira Wu
Lead Programmer
Producer
Chanya Sriuranpong
Artist
Yang Yini
Artist
Haruna Izumi
Artist
Design for Interactive Media - Sean Bouchard
Crumbling Cliffs
A board game inspired by Up the River about a sumo wrestling tournament set on a series of breaking cliffs. The last wrestler standing wins.
Created with Haocheng Liu and Stephen Zhou.
Pablo’s Basement
A project created to learn about experience goals, Pablo’s Basement is a Saw-like board game intended to inspire tension and betrayal in players.
Created with Bryan Nguyen and Sakura Luo.
Moving On
An experimental digital game created over five weeks where two players are working together to solve a puzzle, but only one player knows it’s cooperative.
Created with Pablo Pueyo Poves, Jose Striedinger, and William Dong.
Experiments in Interactivity I - Peter BrinsonPet the Dog
A short digital game intended to allow a player to explore narrative beats in whatever order they choose. This game explores the player’s relationship with a dog as they relive memories and eventually say goodbye.
This game was created over the course of two weeks.
Created with Bryan Nguyen
Cockroach Simulator
A short digital project about a cockroach that wants to play piano where players unknowingly create their escape route.
This game was created over the course of two weeks.
Created with Ziyang Liu.
Procedural Expression - Mitch Mastroni
A course wherein Nickey learned the basics of coding beginning with Processing and ending with Unity.
Interactive Systems Design - Sam RobertsCourting Royals
A game designed with the constraint that it must be playable with a standard deck of cards and consist of an economy with positive and negative feedback.
Created with Marielle Brady and Colin Spiridonov.
Experiments in Interactivity II - Martzi Campos, Mark Bolas
A course wherein Nickey learned to experiment, give feedback, organize his time, and discovered the key idea of what interests him artistically.
Survey of Interactive Media - Kiki Benzon
Easter Eggs to Q-Anon
An academic analysis of easter eggs and how the mentality behind Alternate Reality Games could be extrapolated to the rise in popularity of groups like Q-Anon in America.
Cinematic Ethics - Stephen Armour
A course wherein Nickey studied various ethical dilemmas in the entertainment industry and applied ethical philosophies to expand his thought process.
Game Development for Designers - Sean Bouchard
Nicolas Cage Simulator
A digital project intended to be a short exploration of text based adventure games in Unity that grew into an absurd adventure with many many different endings. This game was created for this course and later expanded for the Survey of Interactive Media course.
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Visual Expression - Drew McClellan, Bruce Block
Photo Notebook
Photographs exploring cinematic storytelling techniques taken over the course of January-April 2023.
Through examples in media and lectures on individual techniques, Nickey learned a variety of different storytelling methods used to heighten themes and narrative in both film and games.
Subjects Depicted:
William Bremer, Casey Alcoser, Alison Seidner, Sammy Chuang, Sydney Brundige, Heming Ruan, Kat Donahue, Shira Wu, Andy Chen, Sarah Jane Hall, Drew McClellan, Nian Chen, various strangers and USC students (Thank you)
Business and Management of Games - Robert Nashak
Unlimited Business Pitch Deck
A short 5 minute business pitch created over the course of a semester. The game itself is a non-existent game concepted by Nickey Olson and iterated/refined for the final pitch based on peer and professor feedback.
In the process of creating the pitch, Nickey focused on understanding the various costs and market research for games in order to create a realistic business pitch presented at the end of the semester.
Asterist
A mobile constellation journaling app developed by Martzi Campos and Sean Bouchard. Nickey helped with design iteration and testing narrative use cases through the second year of his MFA. Asterist was the recipient of USC’s Sloan Grant and showcased at USC Games Expo in 2024.
Developed with Martzi Campos, Sean Bouchard, Sammy Chuang, Kat Donahue, Olivia Siu, Daisy Jin, and Ashley Kim.
Interactive Design and Production I - Richard Lemarchand
The AdmiralThe Admiral was created as a deliverable in this course taught by Richard Lemarchand. The course focused on teaching the production process from iteration and prototyping all the way through a gold master release. The Admiral was also accepted to and shown at USC Games Expo in May, 2024.
Advanced Storytelling for Interactive Media - Marianne KrawczykRichard
(Original Pitch Deck)This was the original narrative pitch created for what would become Nickey’s thesis game Richard. The original task was to develop the narrative for a game based on a work in public domain, and Nickey picked his favorite Shakespeare play (Richard III). Nickey loved the concept so much that he iterated the narrative even further into a full master’s thesis.
Advanced Development Project (AGP) - Andy Nealen, David White, Matthew Whiting, Scott Easley
This was the course dedicated to producing The Glitch Witch wherein Nickey immersed himself in a fast paced project environment as the Lead Producer.
Preparing the Interactive Project - Laird Malamed, Whitney Wade
Richard
(Thesis Pitch)This is Nickey’s official Thesis pitch for Richard: the culmination of a semester of iterating, receiving feedback, and iterating more delivered to the USC Games faculty.
The pitch presentation is 10 minutes, with 10 minutes of Q&A to follow.
Interactive Design and Production II - Mark Bolas
Richard
(Early prototype)This was one of the first prototypes Nickey created to help illustrate Richard’s game flow. The entire prototype was created in Google Slides. If you’re interested in playing, start the slideshow at the first slide and follow the instructions.
Tabletop Roleplaying Games - Sam Roberts
Drama Alert!A one page RPG created from the inspiration of the folk tale Rumplestiltskin in the style of one page RPGs like Lasers and Feelings.
Created with Cerulean Goldman and Lihao Chen
Astrologer
(D&D 5e Class)A homebrew Dungeons & Dragons Fifth Edition class created as a part of a larger assignment where we created a Dungeons & Dragons module in teams. Nickey was responsible for the creation of a new class and the narrative context for the world.
Module created with Eric Cui, Kristoffer Kaufmann, and Ken Pan
Audio Expression - Jesse Vigil
Abstract Expression ProjectA digital audio project where Nickey was tasked with selecting an abstract painting and creating an audio track that illustrates what he thinks the painting sounds like.
Master's Thesis - Martzi Campos, Laird Malamed
Richard
(Thesis Defense)This is Nickey’s official Thesis defense for Richard as presented to the USC Games Faculty.
The defense presentation is 20 minutes, with 10 minutes of Q&A to follow.
Richard
(Thesis Paper)
This is Nickey’s thesis paper written alongside his thesis and submitted into USC’s Libraries. The paper explores the inherently manipulative nature of dialogue choices and how Richard was designed to expose this through narrative context.
Virtual Production - John Brennan
That Life Stuff
A short film written, directed, and acted in by Nickey Olson. The project was created in Unreal Engine 5.3 using Metahumans. Character facial and body animations were created through motion capture, and the project was shot and edited in Unreal by Nickey Olson.
The project itself is a conversation between a man and versions of himself at different ages about life and values.
Actors: Nickey Olson, Casey Alcoser
2-D Motion Graphics - Moses Journey
A course in which Nickey learned in depth animation techniques and basics on how to work with Adobe After Effects.
Level Design Workshop - Richard Lemarchand
Level DocumentationOver the course of the semester, Nickey designed and created three levels: One solo project with pathing constraints, one team project with narrative and coordination constraints, and one solo project with locked door constraints.
Team project created with Jacob Scott, JT Torrea, and Yue Qian
Level Design Sizzle Reel
A short video showcasing the levels created by Nickey Olson over the course of the semester.