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

Squid! Escape! Fight!

October 30, 2020

Dive into the deep sea and swim back to the surface. Gobble up small fish to fill up your ink attack. Can you survive the underwater dangers?

Scary Hill

October 27, 2020

The hill is covered in traps! There is fire and ice on the ground and monsters around every corner. Are you brave enough to face the challenge?

Soul Exchange

October 26, 2020

Tap into the powers of Spider and Rabbit to save your friends! Crawl across the ceiling, then transform to make daring leaps.

Sticky Sorcerer

October 22, 2020

Use your magic powers to take control of other entities. Fly like a bat and move like a ghost to clear the dungeon of evil monsters!

Swing Monkey Gameplay

Swing Monkey

October 20, 2020

Swing through the jungle from tree to tree! Beat levels to unlock new monkey skins.

Blue Boy

October 19, 2020

Your biggest obstacle is your past movements! Keep moving to grab the key, but avoid doubling back over your past positions.

Hexlands

October 16, 2020

Can you find the path to the other land? Rotate the tiles and connect the red and blue islands before time runs out!

Diff Game Screenshot

Diff

October 9, 2020

Quick! Can you spot the single d1fference? Click on the element that's out of place before time runs out!

Resizer

October 6, 2020

Shrink down to mini-size and squeeze through small gaps. Or grow huge and push giant crates! Resize yourself to reach the exit.

Incremental Memory

September 29, 2020

Put your memory skills to the test! Level up your stats between rounds to set a new high score.