Indies of the Future

Speakers

• Chris DeLeon
  

  Chris DeLeon

  Chris DeLeon helps adults around the world learn remote team game development through his service, HomeTeamGameDev. HomeTeam’s approach is fully project-based, with no grades or assessments, instead teaching members 1-on-1 through questions they run into during hands-on development. HomeTeam is the third iteration of Chris’ game development practice communities, the first of which he co-founded at Carnegie Mellon as Game Creation Society, and the second he founded at Georgia Tech as VGDev. Outside of HomeTeam, he’s the chair of IGDA Los Angeles, IndieCade Alumni Lead (formerly one of the speaker organizers), and volunteers with several local high school game development programs. He’s been a speaker at IndieCade Europe, History of Games International Conference, and several times for GDC. Chris lives in Los Angeles, where he takes dozens of pictures a day of his fluffy gray cat, EDI.
  @HomeTeamGameDev
  @HomeTeamGuy is my cat on Instagram

• Darcy Gutierrez
  

  Darcy Gutierrez

  “Darcelis (Darcy) Gutierrez is an award-winning game designer and developer who is pursuing a BFA at NYU’s Game Center. She is also working with the School of Interactive Arts, a pre-college program that teaches high school students how to make games. After completing the SIA program in her senior year of high school she was inspired by the amazing work of her peers and decided to come back and teach within the program. She is now working towards a career in games education.

  She truly believes that games are the most influential platform in the world and strives to create a more accessible and diverse space with it.”

• Genesis Espinal
  

  Genesis Espinal

  “Hey! I’m Genesis Espinal, I was born and raised in the Bronx, both my parents are immigrants from Dominican Republic, and my favorite color is green! I love tiramisu and cheese and I’ve got a steadily growing dice collection because I’m the type of person that likes to have dice sets for specific characters. If you love video games (particularly metroidvanias and roguelikes) great because I do too!

  Currently I’m majoring in Digital Design at City College, but I plan to apply for the Electronic Design & Multimedia BFA due to my interest in game design and animation. I’ve burdened myself with a large amount of writing classes this year, and even if I fear for wrists (what with carpal tunnel being a thing and all) I believe they’ll better my ability to communicate my ideas and develop more engaging narratives and characters.

  Some miscellaneous facts about me:

  -i’m a nerd that plays dnd (dungeons and dragons)

  -i really love the Legend of Zelda series (even if I’ve only played Breath of the Wild, the original NES game, Minish Cap and I’m for some reason too afraid to play Majora’s Mask)

  -on top of tiramisu and cheese, i’m also an avid fan of lasagna and bread

  -i have a slight fear that Toy Story is real so i’m polite to my stuffed animals and amiibos

  -bees are pretty neat”

• Sarah Applebaum
  

  Sarah Applebaum

  Sarah is a game designer and programmer, dedicated to creating fun, inclusive games for everyone. She is a freshman at Rutgers University – New Brunswick, majoring in Information Technology with a specialization in Video Game Production. She has received a Gold Key from the Scholastic Art and Writing Awards, as well as the Grand Prize at the Games for Change Student Challenge in New York City, both for inclusive games geared towards inclusivity and community activism. Sarah hopes to one day open her own independent game studio, and create games for all! While she isn’t developing, playing, or learning about games, she enjoys competing in fencing tournaments, playing guitar, and practicing skateboarding with her two dogs.