About Me & Biography

I am currently working at Media Saints on a game with educational elements called Knowledge Quest. I have experience working in a large team for a AAA-title game and am also capable of motivating myself and working on personal projects in my spare time. I am an active member of the games community; volunteering for GDC 2010, GDC 2011, GDC 2012, IGDA Melbourne Chapter, IGDA Sydney Chapter and the Global Game Jam.

Please contact me if you would like a copy of my full resume.

Video Game Biography

I have developed or contributed to the following digital games, these are listen in chronological order. For more information on these games, go to the demos page (the links below are to official websites).

• Soulmate: Game Designer/Producer.
• Knowledge Quest: Associate Producer/Game Designer.
• L.A. Noire: Junior Designer.
• Vet Lucie Disastrous: [demo released] Creator, Game Designer, Artist, Programmer.
• Fashion Police: Sole Developer.
• Snowflakes: Sole Developer.

Non-digital Game Biography

I have created and implemented a number of non-digital card and board games. These games are all available through my website, please click on the appropriate link to find out more information.

• Snakes Uno Ladders
• Legacy
• Meaning of Life - Sissyfight
• Cops vs. Robbers
• Plane travel bingo

Professional Experience

I am currently working at Media Saints as an associate producer/game designer. Previously, I worked as a junior designer at Team Bondi on L.A. Noire.

I handed in a Masters thesis in 2009 relating to artificial intelligence for game characters. The title is: "Using Adaptation and Goal Context to Automatically Generate Individual Personalities for Virtual Characters". To see all work relating to this thesis, including an abstract, link to my thesis page.

Prior to my Masters thesis, I worked for Defence Science Technology Organisation on a variety of projects that lead me to agent-oriented programming, games and emotions. I have also completed a five year double degree (B.E/BSc) at the University of Melbourne. I received first class honours for engineering, majoring in mechanical engineering. For my science degree I majored in computer science and applied mathematics. In my final year of university, I completed a research project into the acoustics and simulation of air bubbles in water. This project allowed me to co-author a paper for the Australasian Fluid Mechanics Conference 2001 (see below in Technical Writing section for more information).

Technical Writing and Publications

• Masters thesis: see thesis page for more details.
• IVA conference paper: a short paper accepted to the 2006 IVA conference.
  • J. Sandercock, L. Padgham, F. Zambetta, "Creating Adaptive and Individual Personalities in Many Characters Without Hand-Crafting Behaviors", Intelligent Virtual Agents (IVA) Converence, Lecture Notes in Computer Science, vol. 4133, p. 357-368, August, 2006. Available through SpringerLink.
• Turing Test for Unreal Tournament: This work examines what methods game players use to distinguish computer players from human players. I performed a preliminary study, and then a more in-depth analysis. The relevant publications for this work are listed below. The DSTO technical report details the preliminary study, whereas the presentation reports findings from the final study. Further information on this can be found on the testing page.
  • J. Sandercock, M. Papasimeon, C. Heinze, "An Agent, a Bot and a CGF Walk Into a Bar...", SimTecT Conference Proceedings, Canberra, 2004 PDF File.
  • J. Sandercock, "Lessons Learned for Construction of Military Simulations: A Comparison of Artificial Intelligence to Human-Controlled Agents", DSTO Technical Report, DSTO-TR-1614, 2004 PDF File. Or from DSTO Publications Website.
  • I also presented at the Academic Summit and the standard part of the academic summit talk can be downloaded as a PowerPoint show.
• For final year undergraduate engineering (B.Eng - Mechanical), my research project related to fluid dynamics. Particularly looking at the sounds that air bubbles make as they detach from a nozzle. Below you can see a picture of an air bubble breaking off on the left, and on the right is the sound wave the bubble makes as it detaches. The research shows that it is possible to determine the size of the bubble by the pitch of the sound it makes when it is formed. The work matched photographs of air bubble growth in water to graphs of the sound emitted.
  • R. Manasseh, A. Bui, J. Sandercock, A. Ooi, "Sound Emission Processes on Bubble Detachment", 14th Australasian Fluid Mechanics Conference Proceedings, Adelaide University, 2001. If you'd like a copy of this publication, please contact me.