Jonathan is an award-winning indie game designer, a former China policy analyst, and a teacher and scholar focused on critical & historical analysis of science, technology, and media. A native of North Carolina and Virginia, Jonathan spent over a decade studying Chinese language, history, and culture, as well as 7 years working as an analyst and publications editor at Asia policy think-tanks in Boston & Seattle.
In parallel, Jonathan was active in the indie RPGs movement, developing and publishing games around themes of intercultural communication, political injustice, and institutional change. Several of his tabletop and live action games have become “cult classics,” including Geiger Counter, The Planarch Codex, Lofty Beacons, Tomb Priestesses, and Restless, the latter of which was featured at IndieCade 2015. On the digital side, Jonathan is also a composer of retro video game “chiptunes” music and pixel art, as well as a designer of DIY browser games.
Jonathan’s PhD dissertation focuses on hands-on, play-based learning in science centers and museums, “edutainment” institutions where visitors engage with STEM topics and design thinking. While a PhD student at UC San Diego, Jonathan also taught courses in critical communication, games, transmedia design, and science studies.
Jonathan enjoys sharing his eclectic background at the ETC, while supporting the next generation of innovative creators. In addition to teaching and co-teaching foundational courses in game design and prototyping, he is currently developing a new research & design lab at the intersection of game design, science & technology studies, and transpacific cultures – tentatively called “Pacific Gyre.”
Jonathan Walton joined the ETC in 2022.
Education
PhD Candidate, Communication, UC San Diego (2017-present)
Certificate in Speculative Design for Policy Making, Arthur C. Clarke Center for Human Imagination & School of Global Policy and Strategy, UC San Diego (2019)
MA Communication, UC San Diego (2017)
MA International Studies, JSIS, University of Washington (2011)
Fulbright Fellow, Nanjing (2004-2005)
Associated Colleges in China Program, Beijing (2001-2002)
BA East Asian Studies, Oberlin College (2004)
School Year Abroad: China Program, Beijing (1998-1999)
Building Virtual Worlds, required first-year ETC course in team-based prototyping of interactive experiences, co-taught with Dave Culyba (2023-present)
Introduction to Game Design, foundational course for ETC student game designers and students from other CMU programs (2023-present)
Story + Game Lab: Oracle Bones & China’s Earliest Writing (Spring 2025), new course co-taught with Gang Liu (CMU Chinese program) on making interactive media inspired by the Carnegie Museum of Natural History’s collection of ancient Chinese oracle bones
Retro Game Lab: Electro-Mechanical Games (Spring 2024), new course co-taught with Robert Zacharias (CMU Physical Computing Lab) about designing and building EM arcade games, including pinball machines, which pre-dated digital video games
I both pitch and advise ETC Project Courses related to Asian & transpacific cultures, science & technology, retro & analog games, music, sports, and innovative & embodied storytelling
Industry Collaborations & Achievements
(with Gang Liu) CMU Dietrich College Seed Grant, funding research & teaching on the Carnegie Museum of Natural History’s collection of ancient Chinese oracle bones (2024-present)
Wimmer Fellow, CMU Eberly Center for Teaching Excellence & Educational Innovation (2023-24)
Honorable Mention, Golden Cobra Challenge, Miles Below Midnight (2022)
Game We’re Most Excited About, Golden Cobra Challenge, Personal Testimony of the Last Kings of Heaven (2021)
Best Adaptation, 1924 Public Domain Jam, The Hounds Follow All Things Down (2020)
Publications
(forthcoming) Tacklebox 2E, a revised & expanded edition of a 2-player experimental game about shifting narrative contexts during a fishing trip (Possible Worlds, 2025)
(forthcoming) The Barrier & the Sound, a solo gamebook about our relationship with the ocean, using 1-bit graphics and a chiptunes soundtrack, funded on Kickstarter (2025)
“D&D&D&D&D: Imagining Dungeons & Dragons at 150 and Beyond,” in Fifty Years of Dungeons & Dragons, edited by Premeet Sidhu, Marcus Carter, and José P. Zagal (MIT Press, 2024)
Contributed to two chapters in José P. Zagal & Sebastian Deterding, eds., The Routledge Handbook of Role-Playing Game Studies (Routledge, 2024)
Nanjing Nights, a Chinese-language tabletop RPG about strange happenings in the old southern capitol after dark (2023)
Miles Below Midnight, a 2-player experimental game about deep-sea mining (2022)
Personal Testimony of the Last Kings of Heaven, a sit-down freeform larp based on the 1864 interrogation of Taiping Rebellion leaders (2021)
Walk Away from the Future, a supplement for Jay Dragon’s Wanderhome about rejecting imperialism and modernization (2021)
“Leviathan Song,” a supplement about the commercial demon-whaling industry, for John Harper’s Blades in the Dark (One Seven Design/Evil Hat, 2020)
