Alex Johnstone (MFA) is a digital creative with a career spanning film production, public art, education, and game development. Sharing 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 Octothorpe, an interactive entertainment development studio based in Salt Lake City, Utah. 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 is excited to release the competitive card game, Singularity.exe.

In 2021, Alex co-founded InkBlack Interactive with his wife, Emilee Johnstone, who shares his passion for fusing fun with learning in innovative ways. Their first game, Art's Tiles, is a daily art history puzzle game now available on iOS and Android.

Art's Tiles

Explore a bit of art history every day in a one-of-a-kind jigsaw puzzle experience with Art's Tiles! History's most famous artworks from around the world come to life as you piece them back together.

Art's Tiles offers a fresh take on traditional jigsaws, with hexagonal puzzle pieces that reveal themselves to you at your own pace.

Brush up on your knowledge of art history after completing a puzzle with detailed descriptions of each masterpiece.

Get Art's Tiles on iOS | Get Art's Tiles on Android | Follow Art's Tiles on Instagram

Singularity.exe

Welcome to Singularity.exe, a 2-4 player competitive card game with co-op / solo expansions. Experience an entirely new kind of card game with hardcoded decks. In Singularity, there are no hands, no shuffling, and no randomness. Assemble your perfect squad in a striking digital universe and fight to control a legendary program called the Singularity.

Equip powerful programs to bend and shape the fabric of your digital world. Cooperate with friends or go solo against rogue AIs and sentient viruses in the Terminal Incursions expansion. Grow your strategic potential with Expansion Drives, harnessing powers like programmatic necromancy and possession. Battle head-to-head in 1v1 duels, team duels, free-for-alls, or cooperative / solo boss Incursions.

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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.

Get Flex Early Access on STEAM

InkBlack Interactive

At InkBlack Interactive, we want to create games that fuse fun with learning in innovative ways. As a husband-and-wife development duo, we are passionate about blending our love of art & culture with our expertise in video game development. We believe in the power of play to engage and inspire people of all ages.

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"Our debut game, Art's Tiles, is a daily dose of art history wrapped in an innovative tile-swapping puzzle game. We wanted to make a game that took a simple core mechanic, tile-swapping, and fused it with the rich history of visual fine art. We take immense care in crafting each of the daily puzzles, bringing you a fresh dose of art and culture to your daily routine. Each painting has a thoroughly researched description, distilled into the most engaging nuggets of knowledge."

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. Octothorpe's projects are shaped by decades of professional video game and tabletop development experience, and explore the intersection of digital and physical games.

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"Through the years, Octothorpe has taken on many shapes as the digital landscape and trends have shifted. Initially, we began life as a contract digital games development studio, working primarily in the VR education and medical space. In 2017, we had the privilege of being selected as one of just five participants in the U.S. Department of Education’s EdSim Challenge. We have gone on to produce virtual reality experiences for clients such as Stanford Children’s Health and the mixed-reality company Spark XR.

But throughout the years working on VR games, we've kept a passion project alive, the competitive card game Singularity.exe. In 2023, after many years of internal development and testing, we successfully crowdfunded Singularity.exe, reaching our funding goal in under 3 hours, and ultimately raising over $250,000. While this has been our first foray as Octothorpe into mass-manufactured physical games, we have loved every minute of the process and the tabletop game community."

The Irregular

Step back in time to the captivating world of Sherlock Holmes and Dr. John Watson. Start your journey as one of the Baker Street Irregulars, a promising young apprentice to the legendary consulting detective.

"After participating in the EdSim Challenge, we continued to develop The Irregular, completing a funding package and playable demo. Unfortunately, we were unable to secure additional funding to continue the development further."

Watch YouTube Trailer

Stanford Fetal Therapy VR

Stanford Fetal Therapy VR gives patients and doctors an unprecedented view of two complex fetal conditions—spina bifida and twin-to-twin transfusion syndrome—and how we can treat them using cutting-edge surgical techniques.

"An unexpected outcome of the EdSim Challenge came in the form of one of our competitors, Lighthaus Inc. During the challenge, we bonded over our shared interest in educational games. Subsequently, we were able to partner together to craft this VR medical simulation."

Watch YouTube Trailer

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.

"Singularity has been a passion project for Octothorpe, with roots dating back a decade. I've been incredibly proud to work on this game as a graphic and product designer, as well as crafting the campaign page, product renders and crowdfunding video."

Follow on GameFound

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.

"From 2014 to 2020, I had the privilege of teaching undergraduate video game development courses at the University of Utah's EAE program. Over 1,000 students came through my Interactive Machinima, Traditional and Alternative Game Development classes. Over the course of those six years, I had the opportunity to establish new curriculum and support the development of over 200 student game and digital film projects."

Learn More About EAE

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.

"In 2010/11, I helped launch the Leonardo Museum in Salt Lake City, crafting an original 2000 sq. ft. exhibit, Render, one of six opening exhibits. Shortly after the opening, I took a position as Exhibits & Programs manager. I oversaw the launch of several large-scale (10,000+ sq. ft.) traveling exhibits and, with the exhibits team, created several original exhibits, all the while 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. My time there taught me that anything can be accomplished with a small and dedicated team of passionate creative professionals."

Learn More About The Leonardo

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 to 2015.

"With Render, I was able to bring my love of film and interactive entertainment to the general public. I was responsible for developing the exhibit content, from interactive animation stands using professional-grade cameras and software, to a fully functional motion capture stage, and more. Developing Render taught me about the importance of user testing and the robust requirements for physical product and experience design."

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.

Learn More About The Dada Factory

"The Dada Factory was my first foray into the world media production and business ownership. With my business partner David Davis, in an increadible live/work warehouse, we developed over a dozen short narrative and documentary films. The Dada

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.

Smog Lake City

Filmed and edited on a single night of a particularly bad "inversion" (an atmospheric trapping of pollution), Smog Lake City shows Salt Lake in a dreamy, liminal way.

Everyday Appocalypse

Everyday Apocalypse was a fun foray into the world of real-time filmmaking, blending traditional film techniques with game engine footage (Half Life 2).

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