Brendan Tipney
Technical designer and creative technologist in Nova Scotia, Canada. I build XR experiences, games, hardware, and live visuals, plus the tools that help other people make them.
Work
I'm a generalist on purpose. My work thrives at the intersection of disciplines and falls into four core areas. Pick one, or keep scrolling for the short version.
01 : XR and Technical Design
Virtual puzzles you can touch with your hands, reactive holograms, and volumetric performances in your room. Three years at Arcturus designing and building with volumetric video on Quest 3, Apple Vision Pro, Looking Glass, and phones.
02 : Games
Cloudbreaker is out now on Steam. It's a bullet heaven roguelite where managing your inventory is half the fight, built in Godot by a studio of two. I lead the project, the code, and the gameplay design.
Split Keyboard
Split Keyboard : scroll to assemble03 : Hardware and Design
Eight years as an electronics tech on broadcast transmitters, and I never stopped building. I design in Fusion 360, then make it real with a 3D printer, a CNC, or a soldering iron.
04 : Live Visuals
As PsyPhi I played visuals at festivals across Atlantic Canada, mapped stages, and built interactive installations people could play with. TouchDesigner, Resolume, and whatever cutting edge tech I could get my hands on.
18+
Years working directly with customers, enterprise since 2013
~10
Volumetric XR demos shipped for trade shows
100+
HoloSuite customers supported, enterprise accounts included
1
Game shipped on Steam, with a studio of two
Clients
I've worked directly with customers since 2008, and with enterprise customers since 2013. Plenty of people have my technical skills. Where I stand out is the human side: connecting with clients, making them feel heard, and owning their problem until it's solved.
01
People need to feel heard first. I listen for the real problem, not just the first symptom they describe.
02
I take personal ownership of the issue and make that clear, so the client knows it's under control and someone is on it until it's fixed.
03
I gather exactly the information needed to troubleshoot, then fix the problem as efficiently as possible.
04
Docs, tutorials, and live troubleshooting steps written so they can't be followed incorrectly.
If a customer follows my instructions wrong, that's my fault.
Some of my Nautel customers had to charter a helicopter to reach a transmitter site and report back. Instructions that only work most of the time aren't good enough out there, and I've written every doc and tutorial since with that in mind.
Around all of it is the project side: keeping clients updated, setting clear expectations, and managing the back and forth until the job is done.
About
I'm Brendan Tipney, a technical designer and creative technologist in Nova Scotia, Canada. I like the space where code, real time graphics, and physical things meet, and I like building the tools that let other people work there too.
I'm one half of Ballast Games, where we shipped Cloudbreaker on Steam in September 2026. Before that I spent three years at Arcturus, first supporting the creators who used HoloSuite, then as a Technical Designer building XR games and demos with volumetric video.
Before that, eight years at Nautel as an electronics tech, testing, repairing, and supporting broadcast transmitters for customers all over the world. That job taught me to write instructions that work the first time.
I care about tight feedback loops: tools you can poke at, systems you can read, and visuals that respond to whatever you give them.