Experience Simulator - CES

Project Overview

Led the development of an Interactive immersive experience focused on telling the story of the boat of the future on a global stage. Powered by Unreal Engine 5 and Brunswick’s boating ecosystem, this project uses the Marine simulator developed at Brunswick to integrate CGI, virtual production, and HMI development seamlessly to showcase immersive experiences for an audience at CES. 

This ambitious initiative was brought to life by a passionate and multidisciplinary team of developers, CG artists, designers, and a group of exceptionally talented interns. Together, we crafted a dynamic, future-facing experience that captivated audiences at CES 2023, 2024, and 2025. 

Below is a curated selection of press coverage and articles highlighting the evolution and impact of the experience simulator over the years.

Tools & Technologies:

• Unreal Engine 5 – Real-time engine for interactive development, visual scripting, virtual production, HMI development, and sound design

• Blender – Primarily used for 3D asset optimization and clean-up

• Substance Designer – Procedural material creation and customization for environment shaders

• Substance Painter – Used to create custom textures for specific assets in the project

• Perforce – Version control system for collaborative asset and code management across teams

My Role:

Project Lead/Art Director

• Led the development of an integrated simulation pipeline in Unreal Engine 5 for a cutting-edge boat simulator experience

• Defined and managed annual roadmaps for CES deliverables, coordinating across multidisciplinary teams including 3D art, UI/UX, sound design, and engineering

• Established the visual language of the experience—ensuring consistency in environmental design, lighting, and narrative tone

• Directed lighting design and ensured mood continuity through post-processing techniques and LUT integration

• Mentored and provided detailed feedback/documentation for CG software developer interns, supporting their growth and project contributions

Technical Art

• Utilized Unreal Engine's Procedural Content Generation (PCG) system to rapidly construct large-scale environments

• Mapped and retargeted animation rigs to Metahuman models, enabling realistic character animations

• Authored a custom material pack in Substance Designer, fully integrated into Unreal with real-time parameter control for rapid iteration

• Handled performance optimization across prototype, alpha, and beta stages, ensuring smooth delivery across hardware setups

Level Design/Environment Art

• Prototyped level layouts at various stages of production within Unreal, balancing gameplay flow with aesthetic goals

• Animated the POV boat actor using splines and Sequencer, crafting a smooth, guided user experience

• Built final environments using a mix of Megascans, curated marketplace assets, and custom 3D models

• Led look development using custom shaders (Blueprint), procedural materials (Substance Designer), and detailed texturing via Substance Painter

Refer to Marine Simulation at Brunswick to see more details and breakdowns of the above.

Challenges & Solutions:

One of the core challenges I addressed across three consecutive CES simulator cycles was building and evolving a real-time development pipeline in Unreal Engine, while delivering a fully immersive and cohesive experience within a tight one-year production timeline. The project required seamless integration of CGI, virtual production, HMI systems, and interactive simulation, each with its technical demands.

To structure the development process, I defined a three-phase release strategy—Prototype, Alpha, and Beta—for each year. This framework allowed the team to progressively refine the experience:

• Prototype Phase: Conceptualization, experience mapping, and rapid prototyping

• Alpha Phase: Core feature implementation, UI/UX testing, and visual storytelling

• Beta Phase: Final polish, performance optimization, and CES delivery

Each year’s simulator had unique narrative and technical goals. For CES 2023, the objective was to immerse users in the feeling of driving a next-gen boat while also showcasing Brunswick’s marine technologies. To achieve this, we split the experience into two modules:

1. Free-Drive Mode – An open boating experience where users could explore and feel the vessel’s handling.

2. Auto-docking Demo – A cinematic, first-person sequence demonstrating Brunswick’s autonomous docking system.

I led the creative and technical teams through each development stage, ensuring alignment with the stakeholders' vision. Prototypes were presented to leadership for approval before progressing to subsequent phases. This iterative, structured approach allowed us to consistently deliver high-impact experiences at CES, year after year.

Outcome & Impact:

The experience simulator became a powerful storytelling tool for showcasing Brunswick’s vision of future marine technology. It also evolved into a flexible UI/UX testing platform, enabling rapid prototyping of new HMI scenarios.

By restructuring the pipeline—separating the HMI interface from the visualization environment—I introduced a modular workflow that improved asset reusability and reduced development time by over 40%.

The Future Helm Simulator emerged as a CES highlight in both 2023 and 2024. It was featured in major media outlets such as Yahoo Finance, Wired Magazine, and Sky News. At CES 2024 alone, over 65,000 attendees visited the Brunswick exhibit, generating an estimated $15.5M in ad value and over 1,000 high-value partner discussions, many centered around the simulator’s autodocking demo.