Copyright 2025 Nina Tepponen
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About
I am a software engineer with an interest in game development and user experience. I'm currently working on completing my master's degree in Game Design and Development at Aalto University.Work Experience
Software Engineer Trainee
Nokia
I'm currently working as a software engineer trainee at Nokia in 5G physical layer software.
Course assistant
Aalto University
I've done course assistant work for various computer science courses at Aalto University.
Research assistant
Aalto University
I worked as an assistant in a HCI research project focused on the use of browser tabs when multitasking.
Software developer intern
Sulake
I worked as a client-side developer for the Hotel Hideaway mobile game.
Games
Thus Sang The Trees
In a world where spirits and ghouls roam the lands, infecting them and leading nature itself to rebel against man, it is your job to appease those spirits and coax the plants back to health.
A narrative-focused farming game with elements of survival horror made with Unreal Engine. The game was a thesis project for several master's students in game design and development. I joined in as a programmer.
My roles: I worked in the project as a programmer and game designer. My contributions included creating a dialogue system integrated with character animation and a system for simulating plant growth.
Absinthe Tails
As Claude, a detective with a penchant for spirits, your task is to unravel the mysteries surrounding your quaint town. Armed with photographs from around the town, you must piece together the clues to solve the case.
Absinthe Tails is a detective game with a dash of absinthe and missing cats. It was made with Unity.
My roles: I worked in the project as a programmer. My main contribution was creating a messenger app for texting one of the game's characters. I used the YarnSpinner plugin for Unity to manage the dialogue flow.
Apogrowth
You, a spore, are the last drop of life essence in a post-apocalyptic world. Set off to discover the past and bring the world back to life.
Apogrowth is an atmospheric third-person exploration game. It was made with Unity.
My roles: I worked in the project as a programmer and game designer. My contributions included gameplay programming and player research on our character movement mechanics. I also managed the project's version control and worked with sound designers to integrate the Wwise audio software with our Unity project.
Mykola
Traverse to the afterlife and play a mysterious card game with the sad dead cowboys to save your brother's soul.
Mykola is a 3D narrative-driven deck-building adventure game. It was made with Unity.
My roles: I worked in the project as a programmer and game designer for the card game. I created the backend system that runs the card game and resolves user actions, and created an AI opponent for the game.
RoboRescue
You are a RoboRescue unit with a simple task: save the child in danger. But something in this decrepit amusement park is not how it seems at first glance.
RoboRescue is a third-person puzzle adventure for Bit1 competition 2024. It was made with Unreal.
My roles: I worked as a programmer in the project. My contributions included general gameplay programming as well as building a dialogue system for the game using Unreal Engine's behaviour trees.
Publications
Towards Understanding Waiting in Video Games
An article published in CHI PLAY Companion '24.
Waiting is an everyday activity that is often present in video games. Waiting situations in games can happen during, for instance, loading screens, turn-based action in multiplayer games, and cut-scenes. Different waiting situations can cause both positive emotions, such as anticipation, and negative emotions, such as frustration. Thus, understanding how waiting relates to players' emotions can be beneficial when designing player experiences. However, academic discussion on waiting in games is quite scattered, and there is no comprehensive overview available on the subject. In this paper, we contribute a literature review on the topic of waiting in video games.