Creativity Meets Code: How a UWG Theatre Degree Led to Designing Digital Worlds Share this page
Every time a player encounters a Pokémon in their own neighborhood, a carefully designed digital environment makes that moment feel seamless. That experience is powered in part by University of West Georgia alumnus Alex Turbyfield ’08, a senior technical artist who helps translate real-world locations into the evolving scenes of Pokémon GO.
But before he ever built scenes for millions of mobile players worldwide, Turbyfield pictured a career in theatre. That vision began to shift after a scenic design course at UWG introduced him to the technical side of creating environments – how structure, scale and atmosphere work together to tell a story. It was there that he realized those same principles could extend far beyond the stage.
“In my scenic design classes, I was introduced to software that enabled me to build theater sets while also generating 3D scenes,” Turbyfield recalled. “The ability to create these detailed renderings, like applying textures, really gave your director a better idea of how you wanted the set to work within the software. I loved learning that process and exploring how far I could take it.”
With invaluable UWG mentors like Shelly Elman and the late Alan Yeong-Marcello, whose theatre expertise laid in various areas, Turbyfield also learned the value of cross-functionality.
“Being involved with different groups, like directing, helped me learn about budgets, communication and decision-making,” he said. “I still use those skills today.”
Turbyfield said it was a long route from UWG to Pokémon GO, which is celebrating its 10-year anniversary. After working around local theatres, he found himself drawn to the art and animation aspects of the craft. He decided to supplement his bachelor’s degree with a Master of Fine Arts at the University of Georgia, where there was a joint theater and 3D design master’s program. After gigs building large-scale animations for events, he accepted his first gaming job, which eventually led to the market leader.
The basic premise of Pokémon GO is to bring the Pokémon world into the real one. Using a smartphone’s GPS, camera and location data, the game encourages players to go outside and explore their surroundings to find, catch and collect Pokémon that appear on their screens as if they exist in the real world. Different Pokémon show up in different real-world locations, environments and times, mirroring the idea of habitats in the Pokémon universe.
“We use map data to generate scenes influenced by a player’s location,” Turbyfield explained. “Nothing is specifically placed beforehand. We create things, like a building in the background or a body of water, and place them based on different parameters depending on where the user is in the world.”
A fine balance between realism and playability also factors into his designs, including the season and time of day.
“We have to ensure that whatever environment we put the Pokémon in makes sense,” Turbyfield continued. “At nighttime, everything gets darker, but we don’t want to tint the Pokémon in a way that makes them look unnatural. It’s a back-and-forth with our art directors to find a happy place between something realistic versus the cartoony nature of the Pokémon themselves.”
Players can catch Pokémon by finding them on a map based on their location, visit PokéStops – often landmarks or public art – to collect items, battle at gyms with other players, and team up for raids and events, blending solo play with social interaction.
These shared experiences are another reason Turbyfield wanted to work with the game in the first place: connecting people and getting them outdoors.
“We always encourage new hires to attend live events and meet players who are really invested in the game,” he concluded. “You see it day-to-day, occasionally – just someone walking by playing the game – but during our live events, there are crowds of people playing, getting excited, and walking and exploring. And that’s so rewarding, especially in the field of gaming.”