Alex Johnstone
Alex Johnstone (MFA) is a digital creative with a career traversing documentary & narrative film, public mural artworks, museum exhibit design and both tabletop and digital game development. Following his passion for interactive entertainment he taught undergraduate game development from 2014-2020 in the University of Utah’s Entertainment Arts & Engineering program.
In 2015 he co-founded his second company Octothorpe, an interactive entertainment development studio. Octothorpe was selected as one of five participants in the 2017 U.S. Department of Education’s EdSim Challenge, and has produced medical virtual reality experiences for clients such as Stanford Children’s Health. After many years of dedicated development Octothorpe are eagerly anticipating the release of their first physical card game, Singularity.exe.
Current Projects
Singularity.exe
Welcome to a vibrant, digital universe where humans have abandoned physical reality and fight for control of a legendary program called the Singularity. Singularity.exe is a deterministic card game that empowers endless creativity with absolutely no randomness.
Flex Figure Reference
FLEX is a fast and versatile figure reference tool designed for all types of creatives.
FLEX’s realistic, yet widely customizable models, clothing, and hairstyles allow you to bring what’s in your imagination to life – for anything from figure reference, illustration, storyboarding, architectural visualizations, and more.
Octothorpe
Founded in 2015 in Salt Lake City, UT, Octothorpe is a lean team of avid, dedicated gamers with a passion for creating compelling new gameplay experiences that push the boundaries of genre convention. Our projects are shaped by decades of professional video game and tabletop development experience, and we enjoy exploring the intersection of digital and physical games.
The Irregular
MFM VR
Singularity
Entertainment Arts & Engineering
The Entertainment Arts and Engineering (EAE) Program at the University of Utah is a top-ranked program in video game education and research and is a national leader in the nascent discipline of games. The program is contributing to the definition of a new interdisciplinary informatics field that deeply integrates art, humanities, social science and computational research and practice. Our diverse faculty have expertise in every facet of game creation, and we have consulted with top industry professionals to build a one-of-a-kind learning experience in game development.
I had the privilege of teaching undergraduate video game development courses at the University of Utah's EAE program from 2014-2020. Over 1000 students went through my Interactive Machinima, Traditional, Alternative Game Development classes. I had the opportunity over the course of those six years to craft new curriculum and support the development of over 200 game and digital film projects.
Real-Time Filmmaking Tutorials
This tutorial series is part of the Real-Time Filmmaking course, giving you the tools you need to tell cinematic stories in the Unreal Game Engine. Once you understand this workflow you can create beautiful scenes with your own Daz characters and render animated movies in real time.
The Leonardo - Museum of Creativity & Innovation
The Leonardo, located in downtown Salt Lake City, Utah, United States is a science and art museum where visitors can explore the ways that science, technology, art, and creativity connect. The museum opened its doors on October 8, 2011.
In 2010/2011 I helped launch the Leonardo Museum in Salt Lake City, crafting an original 2000 sq. ft. exhibit Render. After the opening I worked for two years as the museum's Exhibit's & Programs manager launching several traveling exhibits, creating original exhibits, and running visitor focused programs & events. My time at the Leonardo was an unforgettable whirlwind, a David and Goliath fight to fill 20,000 sq. ft. of exhibit space with constantly rotating exhibits and events, often with limited resources. My time at the Leo taught me anything can be accomplished with a small and dedicated team of passionate creatives.
Render @ The Leonardo
Render at The Leonardo, a 2000sq ft exhibit that empowers visitors to create animation with industry grade animation tools. Render was open to the public in its original form from 2011 - 2015.
The Dada Factory
The Dada Factory has been generating media content since founding in 2007. We have worked in film, photography, museum exhibit design, and interactive experience development. Our work has been premiered in the Sundance Film Festival, and been released on broadcast television.
Afterimage: The Art of 337
337 is an unprecedented art project in downtown Salt Lake City. A boring office building was given over to 150 community artists for a complete and fleeting revamp, walls, windows, floors, and doors painted, mangled or ripped out and redecorated, no surface left untouched. After a quick two weeks of exhibition, where thousands of locals and visitors thronged to the art, the building was forever shut down in March 2008.
The Deep
The Deep follows the thoughts of a solitary character in the heart of a future dystopia. As he journeys deep underground he tends to the machines that fuel the city on the surface. His jobs are precise, almost compulsive, and he is unable to stop, even though his actions may be meaningless. The Deep premiered in the 2008 Sundance Film Festival.