Michelle Leonard

Swarthmore College '28
CS & Film and Media Studies
Academic interests: game studies, digital media

Selected Work

academic · games · video & music

Academic

Starlink Quality of Experience Sigma Xi Poster 2025-26.pdf (link will download PDF)

I designed and presented this poster at a conference hosted by Swarthmore’s chapter of Sigma Xi. See our paper, presented at TPRC 2025: A View From Above: Measuring Rural Internet Access Across a Diverse Corpus of Starlink Measurements

“Dicey Dungeons: Familiar Foundations”

Dicey Dungeons: Familiar Foundations

A video essay analyzing the aesthetic and mechanic legacies that inspired Dicey Dungeons (Terry Cavanagh, 2019) which make it so easy and so fun to play. Made with the patience and grace of my mother. I filmed clips using OBS, edited the essay in Adobe Premiere Pro, and recorded narration under a blanket in my closet. Co-written and -narrated with Aaron Moss.

Games

Chrysallis

My first TTRPG: GM-less, no-prep, lightweight, d6-based, 3-7 players; basically, everything I found myself wishing for in a game I could play with my friends. It was a fun exercise in ludonarrative consonance!

Fishing Derb-80

Or play on Itch:

A remake of “Fishing Derby” by David Crane, programmed in Lua for the TIC-80 fantasy computer. I designed the overall class structure; implemented sprite movement and collision detection; and drew all of the sprites (based on the original Atari game). Created in collaboration with a classmate for a Swarthmore CS86 lab.

Bumper Cars

A gif showing a pixel-styled video game. A red car and a blue car race around a track in a grassy field. Occasionally they bump into each other or a tree and lose a heart. A bumper-cars game made in TIC-80, a small fantasy console that uses Lua. I implemented collision logic, multi-player support, and drew the pixel art. Code base and car sprites from Josh Goebel’s TIC-80 vectors tutorial. Coded in collaboration with a classmate for a Swarthmore CS86 lab.

Video & Music

road taken from fire emblem fates but it’s a city pop mashup

road taken from fire emblem fates but it's a city pop mashup

A cover/mashup of a Fire Emblem Fates song. Vocals by me. Produced in Garageband; recorded with OBS.

dark sanctuary but im a mizzle

dark sanctuary but im a mizzle

A cover of a song from Deltarune Chapter 4, using a mix of recorded instruments and digital synths. Piano, percussion, and vocals by me. Produced in Garageband; I edited the video in Premiere.

bonetrousle but it’s completely normal

bonetrousle but it's completely normal

A mashup of an Undertale and a Deltarune song which I produced from scratch, using various free audio samples. Thumbnail by me.