Dennisse Pagan - Portfolio

The Technical Stuff

I graduated cum laude with a B.S. in Game Design and Development from Inter American University of Puerto Rico...

I graduated cum laude with a B.S. in Game Design and Development from Inter American University of Puerto Rico. While I’ve always taken pride in being largely self-taught, if I was going to pursue a formal degree, it had to be in something I genuinely loved.

That program allowed me to build a broad foundation across game design, 3D art, narrative design, programming, and collaborative development.

During my final semesters, I joined Autonomicity Games as a remote 3D Art Generalist. While my primary focus was asset creation, my role expanded to include serving as a liaison for a small local team, implementing Android touchscreen functionality, and contributing to UI work.

Wanting to deepen my engineering skillset, I am currently studying Software Engineering through Game Dev HQ, with a strong focus on C# development in Unity.

While programming is my current priority, I thrive on multidisciplinary growth— continuously refining my skills in narrative design, game design, and technical art whenever possible.

I’ve also had the opportunity to be mentored by industry veterans Flint Dille and John Zuur Platten through The Art of Video Game Writing cohort, and contributed as a Narrative Designer on the upcoming indie Steam title Hope for Winter.

I’m actively seeking to join the video game industry and contribute to meaningful, thoughtfully crafted projects.

The Human Factor

The Spark That Started It All

The first time I felt game development truly call to me was on Christmas Day, 2001.

I had just received my first console—a PlayStation 2, bundled with Jak and Daxter: The Precursor Legacy. I spent countless hours swimming around the virtual worlds of Naughty Dog’s latest creation… and I mean literally swimming around.

You see, the game had this invincible gargantuan shark that would swallow the player whole if you swam too far.

And I was obssessed.

Why did it work that way?
How did the game know where I was?
Why couldn’t I defeat it?

I didn’t have the words for it yet, but I was already thinking like a developer.

That curiosity became a spark.

I had no idea what game development was or how any of this worked, but I knew I’d be creating games. So, I’d sit on the floor with my army of crayons, pencils, and paper and make games.

I had always been in love with telling stories, so I started with those. Then I’d move on to whatever passed as gameplay mechanics in the mind of a seven-year-old

At the of 16, I discovered C# and the Unity Engine, the idea of a free tool to make games seemed too good to be true, and although my learning resources were rather limited at the time, I learned about the engine as much as I could.

I lead my life with curiosity, unapologetically pursuing anything and everything I want to learn.

I run the gauntlet of what it means to create games: I have always been a writer, I became a coder, my first job in the industry was as a 3D artist, and soon I will chase more technical art skills.

It isn't ambivalence—to learn multiple skills is a symptom of my passion for creating.