Pao Salcedo
Game Curator

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
Like A Hot Knife Through Butter
June 21, 2024Don't melt away from this slippery challenge! The butter is too hot and there are too many knives. It's up to you to slip, slide, and slice until every knife is buttered!
Mrs. Hop! Hop!
June 20, 2024Help Mrs. Hop Hop hop her way to a yummy meal. Aim her jumps just right and try not to fall off a cliff!
Carrom Live
June 18, 2024Sink some pucks in this classic aim and shoot game! Test your mettle against other players in online multiplayer.
Packing
June 13, 2024Your packing robots are awaiting orders! Set up your instructions, then sit back and watch them do all the hard work for you.
Magiciban
June 11, 2024The rabbits are out of the hat! Shift the stage to get them all back in place to put on a spectacular magic show.
Knightmare
June 10, 2024Move your knight across floating islands! Free from the chess board, teleport over perilous plunges until you reach your goal.
Square Away
June 7, 2024Fix up this mix-up of squares! Try to restore order to this shuffled grid in as few moves possible.
Laser Overload
May 31, 2024These lasers won't aim themselves! Rotate the mirrors to charge the battery to full power. Try to collect all the stars!
Flip-flop
May 30, 2024Reflect reality itself to repair the broken mirror. Use your skills and scientific genius to retrieve all the mirror shards in this flip flop game.
Frog Corral
May 23, 2024Lead the frogs back to the water. Solve the puzzles and return the little ones to their amphibious master.