Pao Salcedo

Game Curator

Pao standing over a skillet full of bistek tagalog

Favorite Coolmath Games: Powercut, 8 Ball Pool
 

Pao is an advertising copywriter turned game producer. A graduate of the NYU Game Center's Game Design MFA program, he has over 9 years of experience playing, testing, and curating games in an academic or professional setting.

As a Senior Game Producer at Coolmath Games, Pao has created comprehensive game design documents for experienced external developers and translated them into launched games, such as Rock Paper Scissors, Pirate Battle: Ships Ahoy, and Tag.

He has licensed over 100 games and counting for CoolmathGames.com (including Tiny Fishing, Slice Master, and Duck Duck Clicker) and the Coolmath Games mobile app.

Before Coolmath Games, Pao worked at Computer Lunch, developers of the hit mobile games Cell to Singularity and Mama Hawk. He researched historical tidbits for Cell to Singularity and wrote write-ups for limited-time events. He also wrote in-game text and copy for Mama Hawk, and store descriptions for the App Store and Play Store.

Prior to that he was briefly a playtester for one of the most successful tabletop RPG Kickstarters ever.

In a previous life, he was a creative copywriter in multinational ad agencies in the Philippines.

Outside the hallowed, equation-filled halls of Coolmath Games, he is playing old JRPGs, trying to catch up to the latest One Piece volume, and experimenting with his lola's adobong manok recipe. 

 

WORK EXPERIENCE

  • COOLMATH GAMES | Senior Game Producer
    2019 – Present
  • COMPUTER LUNCH | Game Researcher
    Apr – Jun 2019, Sep 2022
  • KICKSTARTER RPG | Game Tester
    Apr 2019
  • COMPUTER LUNCH | Game Design and Copywriting
    Jun – Aug 2017
  • LEO BURNETT GROUP MANILA | Creative Team Head
    May 2014-May 2016
  • TBWA\SANTIAGO MANGADA PUNO | Copywriter
    June 2010 – April 2014

 

EDUCATION

  • NEW YORK UNIVERSITY, USA, MFA Game Design
  • ATENEO DE MANILA UNIVERSITY, PHILIPPINES, BS Business Management
  • ÉCOLE SUPÉRIEURE DE COMMERCE, PAU, FRANCE, Int’l Management Program

 

CONFERENCES ATTENDED

  • Game Developers Conference 2023
  • Indiecade 2017, 2018
  • PlayNYC 2018, 2021
  • Waffle Games 2018

Games Reviewed By Pao Salcedo

Close Tiles Gameplay

Close Tiles

October 21, 2025

Sort colorful tiles in this cozy puzzler! Drag, drop, and rearrange them until tiles of the same color are next to each other.

Lextiles Gameplay

Lextiles

October 17, 2025

Connect the tiles to make new words every day! String letters together and form as many words as you can to score the most points.

Bouncy Woods Gameplay

Bouncy Woods

October 16, 2025

Collect ducks and destroy blocks! Get your ducks in a row to destroy the incoming blocks and make sure they don't reach the bottom.

Bygone Treasures Shop Gameplay

Bygone Treasures Shop

October 10, 2025

No two photos are alike in this shop! Look closely and try to spot the differences among the trinkets and baubles.

Bridge Gameplay

Bridge

October 7, 2025

Take the win in this classic trick-taking game! Play the classic card game and win all the points.

Sum Slider Gameplay

Sum Slider

September 26, 2025

Slide the tiles to the correct positions so they all add up to the target numbers!

Jelly Block Puzzle

September 25, 2025

Merge jelly blocks in this oddly satisfying puzzler. Drag and drop jellies in strategic spots so you can reach your goals.

Trivia Online Gameplay

Trivia Online

September 19, 2025

Is your brain overflowing with obscure facts? Put it to the test in competitive trivia! Match up against random opponents or play with friends.

Word Salad Gameplay

Word Salad

September 11, 2025

Hungry for word puzzles? Satisfy your vocabulary by connecting the letters to form delicious words to go!

3D Cannon Ball

September 5, 2025

Ready, aim, fire! Shoot the towers of blocks down in as few shots as possible without wasting all of your cannonballs.