About Me
Hello I’m a second-generation immigrant from a Cuban-American family, and a proud Latinx and LGBT indie game developer, startup founder, AAA game developer, and educator.
  • Prior to university, I conducted research for NASA (the National Aeronautics and Space Administration) including a paper I presented for the American Geophysical Union and research for the FIP (the International Pharmaceutical Federation) for which I received the following awards and commendations:
    • The U.S. Surgeon General’s Special Science Award.
    • Semi-finalist in the Intel Science Talent Search
    • Finalist in the Intel International Science and Engineering Fair
    • Regional Finalist of the Google Science Fair
    • Additional info: https://fip-glyph.weebly.com/
  • Within university, I completed a Bachelor of Science degree in the field of Computer Science. I also started my first company and began internships within game development as I transitioned my career away from science research and toward entertainment technology.
  • Over the last several years I have created educational content on game development that has garnered millions of views and created indie games that have reached millions of players. As an indie game developer, my work mostly focuses on “games for change” highlighting important inequities in political and social justice. My personal indie work includes projects from two companies I founded, BVP and VVLLC. Here are some of my games:
    • NoStranger is an ARG scavenger hunt through real-world social media on Android and iOS. NoStranger was recognized as a Google Play Indie Games Festival 2017 finalist. NoStranged has been translated into over 15 languages and its international audience includes several million players. NoStranger’s narrative is focused on exploring the bounds of user privacy. You can view AppUnwrapper’s coverage of NoStranger here: https://www.appunwrapper.com/2017/02/23/you-should-be-playing-nostranger/
    • Do Animals Dream? is a narrative-focused adventure game on PC and macOS that prompts players to reflect on the moral efficacy of eating animals. DAD inspired over a thousand players to “take the pledge” to try a one-week vegan diet. You can view IGN’s coverage of DAD here: https://www.ign.com/articles/do-animals-dream-veganism-animal-crossing
    • NSA Intern is a found-phone game on Android and iOS that pushed the boundaries of challenging a government’s control over its citizen’s data. NSA Intern is banned in perpetuity from all digital storefronts for its firm stance against terrorism. You can view AppUnwrapper’s coverage of NSA Intern here: https://www.appunwrapper.com/2019/07/03/apple-rejects-nsa-intern/
    • Upcoming projects:
      •  A Queer Perspective is a poignant walking simulator for PC and macOS focused on dealing with the emotional trauma of losing a loved one and the challenges of navigating the world as an LGBT+ person. AQP was initially revealed as “Coming Out” in the Stanford Video Games Association’s Fall Jam for which it won the Audience Choice Award. https://mrventures.itch.io/coming-out
      • Head Hunters is a high-stakes extraction shooter set in an apocalyptic world for PC and macOS. https://store.steampowered.com/app/2419440/Head_Hunters/
      • …And more to be announced.
  • For my day job within the AAA side of our industry, I have been privileged to work on several award-winning projects including:
    • Development on Fornite’s creative mode, empowering the next generation of game developers to bring their ideas to life.
    • Leading technical development on Call of Duty: Warzone’s seasonal content, creating new ways to support emergent gameplay within a battle royale environment.
    • Leading technical development on several AI for id Software’s upcoming, unannounced game.
    • And development on God of War: Ragnarok’s emergent narrative technologies, which allow for writers to create dialogue and story content that weaves in and out of combat gameplay.
    • Currently I am working on an unannounced title for Amazon Game Studios.
  • Outside of developing games, I have led programs to instruct and empower students. Here are some of my projects:
    • I led course design and instruction of Stanford University’s first game development course. This work included lecturing my course for two years and successfully placing over a dozen of my students into prestigious careers within our industry. https://stanfordgamedev.weebly.com/
    • I volunteer as a recurring mentor for Code 2040, a Black-led, national nonprofit leading racial equity work in the tech industry with a focus on empowering Black and Latinx students. https://www.code2040.org/
    • I’m the published author of Get into Game Dev, a book designed to help  traditionally disenfranchised students break into the games industry that donates 100% of profits to support the Against Malaria Foundation.  https://www.mrventures.net/get-into-gamedev.html

Through my instruction and mentorship as a Stanford University lecturer, published author, Youtube content creator, and Code 2040 mentor, I have dedicated my life to empowering disenfranchised voices to learn and thrive within the tech industry of Game Development and beyond.

My dream is to see the game development industry grow increasingly diverse, in particular surfacing more creative voices from within my backgrounds of the LGBT and Latinx communities.​