Hello beautiful people, my name is Cem (pronounced as Gem). I make games and music. I am from Istanbul, Turkey. I have a huge interest in different cultures and had the opportunity to visit over 50 different cities in 30 different countries. I love playing games as much as making games, and building communities using those games. I enjoy working and creating things with people.

Background & Skills

I have a decent background in programming and design. I am very familiar with many tools, but have mastered none. I enjoy working with sounds. I have been playing drums for 11 years, but I explain my experience as being able to hit stuff and make them sound good. I have a band that I started here at WPI, called Cassava. I have been working with Arduino and other open source software for the past 2 years, creating small but useful projects. Here is a link to my portfolio: https://calemdar.github.io/

Projects

The big project I am working on right now is my MQP, which is a project I have been designing since my freshman year. Trying to make procedural levels using songs as an input. Ask me about it if you are interested, I enjoy talking about it. I also made a VR toy over the summer only using cubes, cat meows and Unity. This video shows how much entertainment can be made only using cat sounds:

I also made a tap dance sock that sends MIDI notes into Ableton using Arduino and some pressure sensors.

Creative Inspirations

I am greatly inspired by the progressive movement. Most of my inspiration comes from trying to make something that hasn’t been made before. Even though this might sound like some sort of an impossible goal, I have realized how easy it is to get few different ideas together and make something that is out of the scope of all those ideas. Mixing an audio visualizer with a procedural level system was one of them, which ended up being my MQP. I have a strong aspiration towards folk music and traditions, because it gives me a good idea for humanitarian design. Usually the artists making these folk tales or stories focus on accessibility and simplicity, while trying to touch a very primal and culturally accepted feelings and ideas. It is also one of the biggest tools for unifying people. I have put a creative goal on myself to create humanitarian technology, rather than abusing this knowledge of what is entertaining, and negatively impacting people’s lives.

Some Bands I Enjoy

Opeth, Paus, Leprous, Jack White, Rage Against the Machine, System of a Down, Muse…

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