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

Pocket Kitten Gameplay

Pocket Kitten

February 28, 2024

Take care of your very own kittens! Collect hearts, then spend them to get food and toys for your pet. You can even get enough hearts to adopt more kittens.

Growmi Gameplay

Growmi

February 27, 2024

Start from a crawl, then reach for the stars in Growmi! Grow your body and help out fantastic beings in this strange new world.

Fungi Town Gameplay

Fungi Town

February 22, 2024

It's the annual shrine-building ceremony, and you've got to participate! Join your fellow 'shrooms and fungi as you prepare for the big day.

Mini Steps Gameplay

Mini Steps

February 20, 2024

Step up and around to grab the coins! Avoid the spikes and fire and plan your path carefully in this mini platformer.

Super Number Defense Gameplay

Super Number Defense

February 7, 2024

Do these enemy waves have your number, or will you divide and conquer? Multiply your power to earn victory on the battlefield!

Rope Gameplay

Rope

February 6, 2024

Pull and weave the rope so that it touches every node. Make sure to avoid the blue danger zones!

7 Segments Journey Gameplay

7 Segments Journey

January 31, 2024

2048 meets sokoban! Slide and merge numbered cubes to reach the highest number in this unique genre mashup.

Raccoon Retail Gameplay

Raccoon Retail

January 24, 2024

Hop on your zamboni and take out the trash! Tidy up the supermarket to earn cash and upgrade your cleaning machine and spiffy up the store.

Word Lawrie Gameplay

Word Lawrie

January 17, 2024

Stretch your vocabulary to reach the target word. Play the classic mode or select one of three different challenge modes.

Bingo Gameplay

Bingo

January 12, 2024

Match five numbers and you could win it all! Pay close attention to the revealed numbers and hope your lucky five are shown.