This site contains a collection of Josh Hirshfield’s digital and physical game projects, as well as a collection of talks he’s given at conferences, and several academic resources. This website is updated periodically with new information, and was last updated June 4th, 2025. If you’d like to reach out for any reason, please email me.

Who is Josh Hirshfield?

Josh Hirshfield is an award winning game designer and developer based out of Brooklyn, NY, with over 7+ years of experience working in myriad of roles. His work spans the games industry, featuring a rich portfolio of independent and educational games work. His talks and projects have been recognized and featured at several events, including the Game Developer’s Conference (GDC), Penny Expo Arcade East (PAX East), Games for Change (GFC), Waffle Games (EGD), James Paul Gee Games & Learning Awards (JPG:LA), Frontiers in Playful Learning (FPL), and more.

Independent Work

Recent (2023-Current)

Josh currently lives in downtown Brooklyn and is a Resident Member of the Games Under the Manhattan Bridge Overpass Collective (GUMBO) where he collaboratively builds experimental independent commercial games. While at GUMBO, Josh has released several of his own indie games, and collaborated with other creators. He’s collaborated on games such as Vivarium, Unwound, Nocturne, and more. In addition, he is an active member of GUMBO, assisting with event planning and runing the sponsored membership program.

Pyrebug Studios (2018-2022)

During his time pursuing his undergraduate degree at the University of Connecticut, Josh began a small games studio, Pyrebug Studios, to develop and release game projects with his peers. Together they went on to build two games, Scrapshoot and RUBICON. Both projects would go on to be featured at ConnectiCon, where they were nominated for several awards. Josh functioned not only as the coordinator of the studio, but as a developer, artist, musician, and designer.

At the start of 2020, Pyrebug was contracted via the University of Connecticut’s Neag School of Education to build EOS-503, a combination game and research project. EOS-503 set out to explore how players learn through play through an environment of verbal problem solving. EOS-503 went on to be featured at Games for Change, Frontiers in Playful Learning, and the James Paul Gee Games & Learning awards, where it was nominated for several awards.

Since then, Pyrebug games have remained a small part of the games scene in Connecticut and New York. Most recently, Scrapshoot was featured at Wonderville in late 2024.

Industry Work

During the completion of his Master’s degree, Josh worked as a 3D Artist for Meta, building game assets for a project under non-disclosure for the Quest VR headset. After graduating, Josh moved on to a combination of independent and industry work. Halfway through 2024 he began his work as the Game Development Director at Alterea Inc. where he worked interdisciplinary with all areas of the company, coordinating the development of the educational game Agents of Influence.

Academic Experience

Josh holds Adjunct Professorships at both New York University (NYU) and the Pratt Institute (Pratt), where he teaches Game Design, Game Development, and several other courses focused in Mobile Application Design / Development / UX, XR Development, and more. Outside of his work as an adjunct professor, Josh works with several other educational organizations, including Urban Arts (UA) where he runs the Google Play Accelerator, collaborating through both organizations to assist students in publishing their mobile games. He has also collaborated with several over-seas organizations, such as ATA Creativity Global and Maxsine, where he has helped students from several countries prepare for an education in the United States.

Education

New York University, MFA in Game Design & Development (2021-2023)

Immediately following his undergraduate graduation, Josh attended New York University’s Tisch School of the Arts, where he pursued a Master’s of Fine Arts degree in Game Design and Development. His graduate thesis, GODWALKER went on to receive several awards, and was featured at indie game showcases around the country. He also participated in an independent study where he was able to work directly with Clarkson Potter, a subsidiary of Penguin Random House where he worked in-house to develop physical games with his peers. He would also go on to turn several of his class projects into small game releases, the most prominent being Chromatic Isle. Several others can be found on his Itch.io page.

University of Connecticut, BA in Digital Media Conc. Game Development (2017-2021)

Josh began his degree in Digital Media, with a concentration in Game Design & Development at the University of Connecticut in the Fall of 2017. While there, he founded and ran the Game Development Club where he ran a speaker series consisting of department almuni and industry members; worked as a VR Lab Research Assistance on the digital game project Courtroom 600, an educational game project focusing on an accurate retelling of the Nuremberg Trials at the end of World War 2; and worked at the Digital Media Department’s Student Agency to build several creative solutions in the industry of digital media.