Professional Experience
Since Jan. 2023
Liminal Experiences, Inc.
Founding Engineer
- One of the first employees at what grew to be a $5.8M, 15 person startup, working on a user-generated content game creation platform, centered on a philosophy of "joyful creation."
- Led AI strategy, instrumental in developing the core Python LLM technology stack; implemented an agent pipeline for narrative quest generation from open-ended input; worked with a cross-disciplinary team on developing AI-powered content creation; programmed in Python, C++, and Unreal Engine Blueprints.
- Implemented generative technologies for world and scenery generation with the goal of avoiding "blank page" scenarios. This included technical art research and development on generative content, using C++ and Unreal Engine Blueprints as applied to environment generation, gameplay, and narrative aspects of the game.
2019-2022
Generative AI Consulting
Generative AI and Procedural Generation Consultant
- Worked with clients such as The Lego Group on procedural generation strategy, focusing on user creativity and technical implementation planning.
- Technical art and consulting in the video game, media, entertainment, and toy industries.
- Taught masterclass for experts in generativity and game design on using generative AI and machine learning for image generation.
2017-2022
University of California, Santa Cruz
Teaching Assistant, Research Assistant, Instructor
- Instructor of record for the summer session of the intermediate game development class.
- Supervised dozens of student teams in each cohort across multiple years of the senior capstone game development class, some of which had tens of thousands of players.
- Research on generative AI, constraint solving, procedural content generation, game AI, and game design.
2013-2017
Freelance Technical Artist
Technical Art and Media Production
- Technical art and consulting for game development.
- Media creation, including 3D modeling, video production, and VFX.
- Web design and development.
Technical Skills
Programming Languages: Python, Javascript, Clojure, C++, Unreal Blueprints, Processing.js Tools: git, Perforce, Visual Studio Frameworks & Libraries: PyTorch, vLLM, LiteLLM, Instructor, DSPy, TensorFlow, Burr, Outlines, llama.cpp Software: Unreal Engine, Unity3D, Blender, 3D Studio, Lightwave 3D
Education
Mar. 2023
University of California, Santa Cruz—Baskin School of Engineering
Ph.D. in Computational Media
Ph.D. in Computational Media
May 2013
University of Texas at Dallas—School of Arts and Humanities
M.F.A. in Arts and Technology
M.F.A. in Arts and Technology
Dec. 2006
Ferris State University—Kendall College of Art and Design
B.F.A. in Digital Media
B.F.A. in Digital Media
Peer-Reviewed Publications
Selected Peer-Reviewed Publications
Journal Articles
2021
WaveFunctionCollapse: Content Generation via Constraint Solving and Machine Learning. IEEE Transactions on Games.
2019
Preliminary poetics of procedural generation in games. Transactions of the Digital Games Research Association.
Conference Papers
2025
Scaling Analysis of Creative Activity Traces via Fuzzy Linkography. Proceedings of the Extended Abstracts of the CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems.
2023
Better Resemblance without Bigger Patterns: Making Context-sensitive Decisions in WFC. Proceedings of the 18th International Conference on the Foundations of Digital Games.
2022
Constructing a catbox: story volume poetics in Umineko no Naku Koro Ni. International Conference on Interactive Digital Storytelling (ICIDS) 2022.
Finalist for Best Student Paper.
2021
Content Reinjection for Super Metroid. Proceedings of the AAAI Conference on Artificial Intelligence and Interactive Digital Entertainment.
2018
Preliminary Poetics of Procedural Generation
in Games. DiGRA ’18 - Proceedings of the 2018 DiGRA International
Conference: The Game is the Message.
2014
Ergodic Agency: How Play Manifests Understanding. Engaging with Videogames: Play, Theory and Practice.
Workshop Proceedings
2024
Toward Prose Performances:
Reflective Practices in Social Simulation. 11th Experimental Artificial
Intelligence in Games Workshop. Lexington, Kentucky, USA.
2023
Conceptual Art Made Real: Why
Procedural Content Generation is Impossible. Proceedings of the FDG
workshop on Procedural Content Generation.
2022
Evaluating Mixed-Initiative Creative Interfaces via Expressive Range Coverage Analysis. HAI-GEN 2022: 3rd Workshop on Human-AI Co-Creation with Generative Models.
2019
Generators that Read. Proceedings of the 14th International Conference on the Foundations of Digital Games. ACM.
2019
Addressing the Fundamental Tension of PCGML with Discriminative Learning. Proceedings of the 14th International Conference on the Foundations of Digital Games.
2017
WaveFunctionCollapse is Constraint Solving in the Wild. Proceedings of the 12th International Conference on the Foundations of Digital Games.
Posters
2021
Neurosymbolic Map Generation with VQ-VAE and WFC. Proceedings of 16th International Conference on the Foundations of Digital Games (FDG 2021).
2018
Talin: A Framework for Dynamic Tutorials Based on the Skill Atoms Theory. Fourteenth Artificial Intelligence and Interactive Digital Entertainment Conference (AIIDE 2018).
Demos
2024
Hlockey: An application of story sifting to Blaseball-like
emergent narrative. Foundations of Digital Games, Games and Demos Track (FDG 2024).
2023
.
Blabrecs: An AI-Based Game of Nonsense Word Creation.
NeurIPS Creative AI 2023.
2021
Generating
Playable RPG ROMs for the Game Boy. Games and Demonstrations
at Foundations of Digital Games (FDG 2021).
2021
A Demonstration of Blabrecs,
an AI-Based Wordgame. Artificial Intelligence and Interactive Digital
Entertainment (AIIDE 2021).
Further publications: https://isaackarth.com/cv.html
Invited Talks
Apr. 2024
Vivisecting Procgen. AI & Storytelling Talks. Davis, California, USA. University of California, Davis.
Dec. 2022
Infinite Storytelling.
Billund, Denmark. Lego A/S.
Nov. 2017
Worldbuilding and Procedural Generation.
Madison, South Dakota, USA. Dakota State University.
Awards, Honors, Grants, Fellowships
2021
Best Game or Demo, Foundations of Digital Games (FDG).
2020
CITL Graduate Pedagogy Fellow in Computational Media, Fellowship, UCSC.
2019
Hitchcock Modern Poetry Fund, Grant, UCSC.
Institutional Service
2021-2022
Chair, Graduate Student Association.
2021-2022
Graduate Representative, Academic Senate Graduate Council.
2019-2021
Treasurer, Graduate Student Association.
2019-2021
Committee Member, Student Fee Advisory Council.
Professional Service
Conference and Workshop Organization
2020
Workshop Co-Organizer PCG2020 (11th Workshop on Procedural Content Generation)
2019
Symposium Organizer, Computational Poetry Workshop.
Reviewing and Program Committee Membership
Journals
2024
Journal Reviewer IEEE Transactions on Games (ToG)
2023
Journal Reviewer IEEE Transactions on Games (ToG)
2022
Journal Reviewer IEEE Transactions on Games (ToG)
Conferences
2025
Program Committee IEEE CoG 2025 (Conference on Games)
2025
Program Committee FDG2025 (20th International Conference on the Foundations of Digital Games)
2024
Program Committee AIIDE 2024 (20th AAAI conference on Artificial Intelligence and Interactive Digital Entertainment)
2023
Program Committee FDG2023 (18th International Conference on the Foundations of Digital Games)
2022
Program Committee IEEE CoG 2022 (Conference on Games)
2022
Program Committee FDG2022 (17th International Conference on the Foundations of Digital Games)
2021
Program Committee (Research Track) AIIDE-21 (17th AAAI Conference on Artificial Intelligence and Interactive Digital Entertainment)
2021
Program Committee IEEE COG 2021 (2021 IEEE Conference on Games)
2020
Program Committee ICCC’20 (International Conference on Computational Creativity)
Workshops
2022
Program Committee PCG2022 (13th Workshop on Procedural Content Generation)
2021
Program Committee EXAG 2021 (Experimental AI in Games 2021)
2021
Program Committee PCG2021 (12th Workshop on Procedural Content Generation)
2020
Program Committee EXAG 2020 (Experimental AI in Games Workshop 2020)
2019
Program Committee EXAG 2019 (Experimental AI in Games 2019)
2018
Program Committee PCG2018 (9th Workshop on Procedural Content Generation)
Teaching
University of California, Santa Cruz (as Instructor)
Su2021
Instructor Teaching Fellow, Game Development Experience
Su2019
Instructor Associate In Computational Media, Game Development Experience
UCSC Science Internship Program
Su2021
Mentor UCSC Science Internship Program
Su2020
Mentor UCSC Science Internship Program
University of California, Santa Cruz (as Teaching Assistant)
F2022
Teaching Assistant HCI Capstone
Sp2022
Teaching Assistant Game Design Studio III
W2022
Teaching Assistant Game Design Studio II
F2021
Teaching Assistant Data Structures for Interactive Media
Sp2021
Teaching Assistant Game Design Studio III
W2021
Teaching Assistant Game Design Studio II
F2020
Teaching Assistant Game Design Studio I
Su2020
Teaching Assistant Game Technologies
Sp2020
Teaching Assistant Interactive Storytelling
W2020
Teaching Assistant Data Structures for Interactive Media
F2019
Teaching Assistant Generative Design
F2018
Teaching Assistant Visual Communication and Interaction Design
F2017
Teaching Assistant Procedural Content Generation (Game Design Practicum)
Conference Tutorials
2023
Introduction to WaveFunctionCollapse COG 2023