Santiago Gaete
Technical Game Designer
USC Games
ABOUT
My name's Santi, and I love to make things. My goal is to make cool things that inspire other people to make even cooler things. The best medium for that, in my humble opinion, is video games!
I'm a student at the University of Southern California in Los Angeles as a major in Computer Science Games with a minor in 3D Animation. I live in Carlsbad, but I grew up in Portland, Oregon. I'm also Chilean-American, and yes, I'm from Santiago...
I'm VERY interested in technical game design, tech art, and game production, but I've been working hard to take advantage of my time as a student to learn to wear as many hats as possible.
I have a lot of hobbies:
- I make art, merchandise, and other custom-made toys and collectibles under my small brand, cloudlime. I'm a really big on DIY self-manufacturing, which is why I'm also a Student Worker at the Baum Family Maker Space at USC.
- I play Japanese taiko drums as part of Kazan Taiko, USC's ensemble group. I also handle our merchandise, along with our...
- PHOTOGRAPHY!!! Simple as that. Here's a recent album!
I'm also into distance running, character design, Pokemon VGC, statistics, trying to write novels, printmaking, beavers, pixel art, Blender, woodworking, collecting plushies, singing, and playing Guess Who. Among many other things.
You can contact me at sgaetepe@hotmail.com or gaete@usc.edu :)
PROJECTS
Kronii, I Shrunk The Holos!
Kronii and the rest have been turned into pint-sized pipsqueaks, and are stuck in a 10-second time loop to boot! Use her powers to scale Kronii's tower and find out who's responsible in this puzzle platformer!
A time-loop puzzle platforming adventure! This is a jam project I developed on my own in two weeks, doing the all the art, programming, and design.
Tamadoki
Train Doki's gunslinging, music, and tomato skills over the summer and keep track of your work calendar!
Based on your choices throughout the game, chain reactions will occur--changing the outcome of Doki’s story!
A life simulation pet trainer for a two-week game jam, made with a team of 3 others. I was in charge of game design, UI/UX, art direction, and writing!
Idol Showdown
Made by hololive fans, for hololive fans. Idol Showdown is the definitive fan-made hololive fighting game experience, powered by rollback netcode.
A free-to-play fighting game by Besto Games, with over 1.2 million downloads on Steam. I helped with art sprites and marketing, handling countless character animations and a few entire game trailers!
MOOM: Last Promise
The remnants of civilization... What will you have at the end of time? A Mumei 3D platforming metroidvania.
Developed in 1 month as a graduation gift. I worked as an assistant producer in a team of 12 people, doing level and movement design, alongside all UI design and general art pipeline management. I also directed and edited the game's trailer myself!
Move, Move, Melon!!
Move Move Melon is a 2026 USC Advanced Games Project, a class that brings together students of all years, as well as from other schools. MMM is a cutesy on-rails platformer, starring a hamster who makes her way through exotic locales on the back of an ice cream machine!
I work as a 3D artist on the team, making props and obstacles using both Blender and Maya!