We’re thrilled to introduce Jarory de Jesus who will be judging the Game Writing SIG Arcjam!
Jarory de Jesus is a game developer who specializes in narrative design, implementation, and programming. As a developer he’s worked on properties such as Madden, Marvel, and Star Wars as both a Narrative and Technical Designer. Jarory is also a community organizer for Black in Gaming (BiG) and a member of the Latinx in Gaming community as well as President of the board for Global Game Jam. His current studio, Coquito Games, is the culmination of his years of experience and passion for telling stories from under-represented voices. We asked Jarory some burning questions regarding his background in the game industry, his advice to our game jammers, what he would look for in a portfolio piece, and more! Take a look at his answers below.
Let’s get to know you! How did you originally get into game development?
“I started out as an anthropologist of all things. After dropping out of my Phd program, I taught myself to code. Ended up really enjoying coding for games and thought it’d be a great medium to tell stories so I went to get a masters in that.”
We’ve been going through incredibly tough times in the industry. What keeps you going?
“Spite? Okay, jokes aside, I have stories I want to tell some day. And knowing that I have a unique background that makes me really the only one likely to tell them makes it important to me and pushes me to keep going. That and I feel like if I gave up I’d let down all the people who helped me get here.”
We shared some basic advice for our jammers in this blog post. What’s your #1 tip for our game jammers?
“Scope small and build on that idea only if you have time. One or two well polished and fun moments are better than 5 or 6 mediocre ones.”
Learning new tech can be quite daunting, but is vital to a career in game narrative. How do you approach learning new technical skills?
“I’m lucky that I’m technical already, but honestly just playing around with a tool and reading the documentation helps a lot.”
Finally — What do you like to see in a game narrative portfolio piece?
“Dialogue with examples of branching narrative, bark sheets, and data bank entries. Also if you can implement those, even if it’s just in twine, it goes a long way.”
Check out our other judge spotlights below:
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