Alex Boccia

WORK HISTORY

EDUCATION

ABOUT ALEX BOCCIA

I was born in Detroit and spent the majority of my life in Michigan, but since Bachelor studies in Chicago, I have been living abroad, between France, Sweden, P.R. China and now Germany - based first in Cologne but now in Berlin. In Germany I pursued a Master in Game Development & Research, an extension of the Game Development Bachelor I achieved while studying in Chicago at DePaul University\'s CDM. I am a co-founder, principle game designer and the sound designer of a startup game studio, Achtung Autobahn, which strives to make social realist games that propose new ways to engage with and reflect on society. We currently exist as a registered cooperative and strive to make our game prototype of Berlin Maniacs into a real experience. Berlin Maniacs, Achtung Autobahn\'s first title, a historical fiction narrative action-adventure game set in 1968 West Berlin, seeks to blend adventure game spirit with light stealth and action, with a deep story featuring dialogue, dramatic intrigue and a narrative that forces the player to contemplate the consequences of their actions in a plot featuring complex webs of politics, I also am a former game designer at Freeletics GmBH, where I worked on a daring new exergaming product called Stædium. The Stædium platform sought to re-invent home fitness by allowing the player to become the controller. Fitness movements tracked via phone camera, translated to real-time actions on a TV monitor in a track & field style \'racer\' as well as an Atari Tempest-inspired gravity-action game. Stædium entered the European market for DACH in January 2022 and remained in live operation until financing issues forced a premature shutdown of the platform. This experience defined and solidified the breadth of my game design abilities by forcing me to think creatively to solve difficult constraint-oriented contradictions between digital games and fitness, brainstorm collaboratively with team members, consult with research and engineering to gain better insights, and realize my strengths as an all-around disciplines team player.