San Diego State University

Vibe Coding · p5.js Video Game

A web-based video game made in p5.js with an 8-bit character.

The game is about the afterlife. It’s Cat’s 5,000th birthday, and a visitor, UNKNOWN, arrives from outside the _after_life_ with a gift called _memories_. Cat is curious, but content in the _after_life_ — this space seems to hold everything Cat could ever want.

Cat decides against the gift and heads to the chrome portal for unlimited fun in the _after_life_: ice skating, shopping, upgrading ice-skating gear, a latte store, and a disco plant room. Every background is AI-generated in Midjourney — surreal, colorful, and artificial.

Cat returns to scene one and presses 1 to seek the gift. By now, Cat has been in the _after_life_ so long that they can’t remember a time before this simulated world. In a white space, Cat finds an old folder that asks, “Know why you are here?” Press 5 to unlock 2024 global issues, or 6 to see personal memories.

Cat moves through global issues — climate change, pollution, the evolution of technology — then through personal memories: a montage I shot on my Sony a7 IV in San Diego that semester for my photography class. These images were later printed in my book, Ephemeral. Then the game ends.

Magazine Cover

A digital collage built in Adobe Firefly and Photoshop, celebrating San Diego State University’s recognition as an R1 research institution.

Surf Team Apparel

An original hand-drawn graphic for the San Diego State University Surf Team, produced across team apparel.

SDSU Magazine · The Intersection of Art and AI

Featured in the Spring 2025 issue of SDSU Magazine. After a territorial sea lion breached over me while surfing near Marina del Rey, I used a generative AI image generator to illustrate the encounter — so my dad, who hadn’t seen it, could believe it. Read the article in SDSU Magazine ↗