Paul S. Nowak is a game designer, educator, and researcher based in Central Florida with over 15 years of experience spanning commercial game production, immersive experience design, and higher education.
For nine years, Paul served as Course Director at Full Sail University, where he designed and delivered the Game Mechanics I curriculum: iterative design, game balancing, player psychology & segmentation, and playtesting methodology. He taught students to treat design as problem-solving, not wishful thinking, and to close the gap between “fun in my head” and “fun for a player” through structured iteration and data.
Before teaching, Paul designed live features and monetization systems at Disney Interactive Worlds, including the Fairy Gardens feature and clothing inventory system for Pixie Hollow. He served as Senior Game Designer and Producer on Team USA’s Pinsanity, a multi-platform social game for the US Olympic Committee. His work on Scurvy the Seaweed Slinger was displayed at the Smithsonian Museum of Science in 2012.
Paul also has professional experience in escape room and immersive experience design. Escape rooms use the same design principles as digital games: gating, feedback loops, difficulty curves, team dynamics. The difference is that they’re spatial, embodied, and immediate, which makes them an extraordinarily effective teaching tool.
Paul holds an MS in Video Game Design from Full Sail University, where he graduated as valedictorian and became the first master’s candidate to conduct independent, IRB-approved research. That research, the Nowak Gaymer Survey, examined the correlation between sexual identity and video game playing preferences, and continues to inform his approach to inclusive design.