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

lixel playing the level

Lixel

January 24, 2022

You need to be the last pixel on screen! Get rid of the red block and stay on screen while the level crumbles around you.

Icy North Gameplay

Icy North

January 18, 2022

Hop across the icy squares. If you get stuck on the edge, take a dip and swim to the other side! Can you get through these frozen puzzles?

orakyubu gameplay

Orakyubu

January 13, 2022

Stretch your brain to think in 3-D! Slide and rotate around the cubes to put the box into place. Can you solve all 25 levels?

the doctor cat gameplay

The Doctor Cat

January 13, 2022

Grab your ingredients and start mixing! Match blocks to make the most effective potions. Make sure to use everything before time runs out.

doublings gameplay

Doublings

January 11, 2022

Bring your 2048-sliding skills to this new challenge. Match up numbers to make them grow. Combine three of the same number to earn a bonus tile!

Word Race Gameplay

Word Race

January 10, 2022

Compete against your friends in the word search arena! Find words in all directions in this multiplayer word search.

dasshubox gameplay

Dasshubox

January 7, 2022

All this bunny wants is to enjoy their carrot, how hard can that be? Help this little critter move through the maze to grab it!

swatch gameplay

Swatch

January 6, 2022

Combine your powers and jump to the exit! Pull blocks into position, and use your teleporting device to reach the portal.

cryptic clash gameplay

Cryptic Clash

January 3, 2022

Sharpen your cybersecurity knowledge with this password battler! Learn how to create a strong password and gain powerups to keep the hackers out.

Bauble Buster Christmas Tree

Bauble Buster

December 20, 2021

The gnomes are redecorating for the holidays. Drop a gnome-bomb from the gnome-plane and clear all the baubles for all gnome-kind!