The NYU Game Center welcomes Robert Yang and Matt Boch to the full-time faculty! Robert and Matt have been part of the NYU Game Center for years, as adjunct and visiting faculty respectively. We are thrilled that they will be joining us as full-time faculty this fall.
Robert Yang makes popular games about gay culture and intimacy — his male shower simulator Rinse and Repeat has gotten millions of views across YouTube, and most recently his gay sex triptych Radiator 2 has more than 150,000 users on Steam. His research interests include gender and sexuality in media; interactive 3D worlds and architecture; and virtual reality. He is a contributor to Queer Games Studies, an anthology edited by Bonnie Ruberg and Adrienne Shaw. He has also given talks about games and level design at GDC, IndieCade, Queerness and Games Conference, and Games for Change. He holds a BA in English Literature from UC Berkeley, and an MFA in Design and Technology from Parsons School for Design, where he also taught as a part-time faculty member.
Robert has been teaching at the NYU Game Center since 2013 as an adjunct professor. He helped develop and taught several fundamental game development courses, including the recently added courses in VR. In Spring 2017, he collaborated with Assistant Arts Professor Matt Parker to secure a grant to expand and improve the Game Center’s VR equipment. For the past two years, Robert has also served as the curator for No Quarter. In the fall, he will be joining the Game Center as an Assistant Arts Professor.
Matt Boch has been with the NYU Game Center as visiting Associate Arts Professor for the past two years and will be an Associate Arts Professor starting fall 2017. During his time as visiting professor, he helped restructure our Studio I & II, Biz Lab classes, and will be introducing Project Studio in the fall. In addition to his work at NYU, he also serves as a Creative Director at Harmonix Music Systems, designing and directing some of Harmonix’s premier titles. In fall 2016, he gave a lecture on bringing the popular Rock Band franchise into VR.
Matt holds a BA in Visual and Environmental Studies from Harvard University and began working as a hardware designer for Harmonix Music Systems. He then served as lead designer and project director for the Dance Central franchise through Dance Central 3. Over the course of his career he’s occupied a huge variety of roles: from designer and producer to coder, artist, and game writer. He’s developed a number of games independently, which have been exhibited at the New York MOMA, Indiecade, and more. Matt has also given a number of critically-focused presentations at events like the Queerness and Games Conference, the Nordic Game Conference, and the Game Developers Conference in San Francisco. In his spare time, Matt makes video game remixes through his music project, anigif.