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

Dip N Dice Gameplay

Dip 'n Dice

April 10, 2025

Roll the dice just right! Each white tile needs a certain number placed on it before you can reach the goal.

Rope Wrapper Gameplay

Rope Wrapper

April 4, 2025

Bring the circles together with one rope! Enclose the purple circles and make sure they touch to leave no shape behind.

Logic Bend Gameplay

Logic Bend

March 28, 2025

Don't tie your brain into knots! This shape puzzle has a twist, literally! Accomplish feats of spatial recognition as you drag, drop, and rotate everything into place.

Flipfox

March 25, 2025

Turn the whole meadow green, sly fox! Turn every tile green, collect your gem, and reach the target before you run out of moves.

Word Swipe Gameplay

Word Swipe

March 14, 2025

Swipe to light up the right words! Use the colors of the letters to help you make the correct words in the grid.

Puzzle Blocks Gameplay

Puzzle Blocks

March 7, 2025

Place the pieces just right! Rotate the shape and put each piece back in the right spot. It may take a few spins to get it right.

Quick Escape Gameplay

Quick Escape

March 4, 2025

Point and click, but do it quick! Take a glance at your surroundings and find a way to escape before the timer runs out.

Farming 10x10 Gameplay

Farming 10x10

February 28, 2025

Plant and harvest rows or columns of veggies without losing all your gardening ground.

Bomb Pirates Gameplay

Bomb Pirates

February 27, 2025

Bombs away - time to hunt for treasure! Raid each cabin on the ship to collect each treasure chest as fast as you can.

Mutablob Gameplay

Mutablob

February 25, 2025

Greetings, Blob Commander! Are you ready to defeat the foreign bodies? Our enemies will fall to our sheer numbers!