Hi. I'm Mike.

Michael Scott Lazer Walker, to be precise. I'm 22. I live in San Francisco. I'm originally from San Diego, but I've also lived in Boston and New York. I work at Zynga, where I help make Words With Friends the best darn word game on Facebook, iOS, and Android (My username is “Mike W”, with two spaces. Challenge me!). Before that, I studied computer science at Bard College.

I like to make things that bring happiness and deeper meaning to people's lives. Above all, I believe in building things that are fun, quirky, and thought-inspiring.

I'm a cyclist, homebrewer, former Quidditch captain, playwright and director, accordionist, unabashed musical theatre enthusiast, avid reader, and lover of board games.

GetchaBooks

In 2010, I created a textbook comparison service called GetchaBooks with Ricky Mondello and Mike White.

GetchaBooks helps students buy their textbooks as cheaply and easily as possible by combining a price comparison service with course list data. All you need to do is enter what courses you're taking, and GetchaBooks will tell you what books you need and what are the cheapest places to buy them, even accounting for factors like savings on combined shipping.

GetchaBooks supports course lookup at over 1,200 schools across the United States; students at other schools can search by ISBN. Check it out at getchabooks.com.

Tangible User Interface Research

For my undergraduate thesis at Bard, I conducted original HCI research exploring tangible and multitouch interfaces in gaming.

I built a basic twin-stick shooter for the iPad with three different control schemes: two conventionally found in the genre, and a third tangible interface where the player physically moves a plastic game piece on top of the iPad's screen, with the in-game character's position and angle of rotation mirroring that of the game piece.

The study explored the relative performance of each interface among test participants, focusing specifically on ease of learning, overall performance, and the use of optional multitouch gestures that were present across all three interfaces. The tangible piece was of my own design, and required no external power.

The full whitepaper is available on the Bard College Digital Commons.

Smaller Projects

I've done a variety of freelance work and smaller personal projects, ranging from net art to internal corporate tools. Here are a few selections from my portfolio. All designs are live; click on the thumbnails to check them out.

Bard Shuttle Schedule (iOS) Michael Porter Lighting Design FBchan

Annandale Ales

While studying at Bard, I co-founded an on-campus nanobrewery. We held weekly pub nights where we served hand-crafted beer and soda to students, faculty, and other community members.

I formulated original recipes for dozens of different sodas, all made from fresh, all natural ingredients. Favorite flavors include balsamic strawberry, lavender honey cream, and pear rosemary.

Since moving to San Francisco, I've continued to experiment with soda, beer, and other fermented foods — look out for my new soda blog coming soon!

Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along Blog

In the spring of 2009, I directed the first authorized stage adaptation of the cult internet musical Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along Blog.

My production concept was to create a “live-action comic book” in which live actors interacted with hand-drawn comic book-style art projected behind the actors to emphasize the show's campy superhero aesthetic.

The production was staged in the Tufts Center for Scientific Visualization, a NSF-funded projection system at Tufts University.