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

Words of Wonders Gameplay

Words of Wonders

February 14, 2025

Connect the letters into words! Explore different landmarks as you fill the grid with unique words.

Bee Magic Gameplay

Bee Magic

February 3, 2025

Buzz around and collect the stars! Explore the lawn and retrieve special orbs to help you gather all the stars as quickly as possible.

Super Tic Tac Toe Gameplay

Super Tic Tac Toe

January 30, 2025

It's an X! It's an O! It's Super Tic Tac Toe! Test your strategy against other players in this super-sized version of the pen-and-paper classic.

Cryptograms Gameplay

Cryptograms

January 24, 2025

Crack every code in this brain-teasing word game! Hundreds of puzzles await you - can you solve them all?

Chill Out Gameplay

Chill Out

January 9, 2025

Neither snow nor rain nor sleet shall stop this robot from delivering the package! Control the forces of nature to build your path in as few moves as possible.

War Card Game Gameplay

War Card Game

January 3, 2025

The classic card game is here! Play against a bot or a friend as you fight card to card for a victory. Will you collect the most cards?

Mushroom Blocks Gameplay

Mushroom Blocks

January 2, 2025

This endless puzzle is downright FUNgal! Sort the mushrooms into rows and make sure they don't overflow.

Penguin Love Puzzle Gameplay

Penguin Love Puzzle

December 17, 2024

Help these penguins fall back in love! Swap tiles and remove all obstacles in these loving penguins' way.

Deck the Halls Gameplay

Deck the Halls

December 16, 2024

Cover every tile in lights! Move across each tile and get the lightbulb to the plug to power on those festive lights.

Katkoot Gameplay

Katkoot

December 13, 2024

Every level is a brain teaser! There's more to these in-game instructions than meets the eye...