John McCalep - Houston, TX

 Who are you?

- John McCalep

What's in your bag?

- My Laptop, My drawing pad, tablet, game design concept foler, drawing pencils and pens, graphic tablet, mouse, cords.

Favorite game(s) of all time?

- All Elder Scrolls titles

What are you playing right now?

- Minecraft, League of Legends, waiting for GW2 J

Who, or what, is your biggest inspiration?

- Nikola Tesla

What made you want to study game design?

- It’s a creative and interactive medium in which a person can express their art in a more hands on environment.

Favorite piece of video game memorabilia (t-shirts, props, etc) that you may or may not own?

- Collector Toys

Guilty pleasure of the moment?

- Thinking big about my comic.

Any last words?

- Think of others when you do something and don’t take for granite those who help you when no one else would.

Matthew Simon - Alexandria, LA

 Who are you?

- Matthew Simon

What's in your bag?

- Laptop, mouse, wacom tablet, 3d world magazine, 3d artist magazine, Tums

Favorite game(s) of all time?

- Mass Effect franchise

What are you playing right now?

- Mass Effect 3

Who, or what, is your biggest inspiration?

- My inspiration is seeing passion from another person.

What made you want to study game design?

- My love for the industry.

Favorite piece of video game memorabilia (t-shirts, props, etc) that you may or may not own?

- Tattoos

Guilty pleasure of the moment?

- Learning Spanish

Any last words?

- Can't be anything less than brilliant. So strive to be the best.

Luis Sandoval - Reynosa, Tamaulipas, MX

 Who are you?

- I am Luis Sandoval in the real world, a student @ Houston Community College in the Digital Gaming and Simulation program trying to get my AAS, however, in the online realm I am known as xSageOnex. XBL, PSN, Steam and anywhere else that is usually my handle. If you've ever played a Halo game, or COD, Battlefield, and more recently Ghost Recon, chances are you've been killed by me XD

What's in your bag?

- Contents in bag
Some semesters you will see me carrying a TON of stuff, I’m usually carrying art books, text books, sketchbooks, and notebooks, pens, pencils and all that crazy stuff. This one has been a breeze and I don’t have as many classes to take so this is how my bag is currently looking.

A. The most important thing to me right now, or ever since started attending classes @ HCC, my portable hard drive, containing everything I've ever worked on-finished or not- Never leave home without it.

B. a pair of rinky dinky headphones, what can I say, at least they recreate sound. A must for working on my Audio class assignments.

C. A sammich, yep, I’m usually at campus 10+ hours a day and being on the usual student budget. I can't afford to go eat out every day. I make sure to catch breakfast before I head to school and I usually take along a couple of sammiches to keep me going throughout the day. That and a healthy dose of cigarettes to curb those cravings. Yep, healthy. At least they're low in calories.

Favorite game(s) of all time?

- When Hironobu Sakaguchi, the creator of Final Fantasy,  Yuji Horii, the creator of Dragon Quest, Akira Toriyama, the creator of Dragon Ball, come together and weave their magic...the result is Chrono Trigger, for the SNES. I have the best memories of that time but that game took the cake, it had multiple endings and choices that bring BioWare games to shame, and this was more than 15 years ago.

Recently though I have to pick the Uncharted series and Mass Effect series as my favorites as well.

What are you playing right now?

- Ghost Recon Future Soldier, just finished Mass Effect 3...regardless what all the internet whiners think...awesome ending to that trilogy. Wouldn't have had it any other way.

Who, or what, is your biggest inspiration?

- Inspiration comes from the video games and the developers alike. Shigeru Miyamoto, bringing us games that continue to define Nintendo to this day. Hideo Kojima, Metal Gear Solid, need I say more? Also brought us the vastly underrated and almost forgotten Zone of the Enders series. To games like Uncharted, Shadow of the Colossus, Mass Effect. Everything I play at some point or another has inspired me to chase after my dream and make some games.

What made you want to study game design?

- I've always had a passion for art. I've always loved video games. Combine those two and it’s only natural for me to go down this route. I figured why limit myself to only playing games when I can make them.

Favorite piece of video game memorabilia (t-shirts, props, etc) that you may or may not own?

- That I own. Uncharted 3 collector’s edition, comes with belt buckle, Sir Francis Drake's ring necklace. Nathan Drake action figure.

Also these nice Pacman plushies. I have Pacman, Pinky, and a scared ghost. You can see how large they are when you compare the size of my hand to them.

That I do NOT own but wish I had..see this link----> here 

Guilty pleasure of the moment?

- Love listening to Taylor Swift when I'm in the car or at home alone. I can’t help it she has a very nice voice, and her music is catchy and cheery, lol. Screw the people who say she can’t sing or she isn’t "country" pffft!

Any last words?

- Blargh?

Michael Lavallies - Houston, TX

  

 Who are you?

- My name is Michael Lavallies. I once thought I knew who I was, but as I travel down life's road of pursuit I figured that it’s all about the journey. I don’t know who I am but I do know what I am at the moment. And as life creates opportunities I will continue to explore their possibilities.

What's in your bag?

- In my rugged brown skull candy bag resides: 1 echo smart pen so I may record the spur of the moment ideas and occasional lectures for future, My adequate laptop, A pair of head phones for those secret conversations or the moments you can’t help but drown out the world, the accessories required for powering said laptop, Eleanor's Sketchbook which houses her old works and some of my ideas, loose change, my dying portable hard-drive, my wallet(empty), leaflets, un-discarded food wrappings, and can’t forget the Dust Bunnies.

Favorite game(s) of all time?

- One game I can’t help to have at the top of my list would have to be Perfect Dark for N64, although Golden Eye N64 dragged me in to the world, because I kept me in.

What are you playing right now?

- While writing this I couldn't have been playing anything but I understand the question and my answer would have to be Minecraft. Simply it’s Minecraft, the crazy randomly generated building block survival game with all its unlimited possibilities. The bar is continually raised each time someone builds something new.

Who, or what, is your biggest inspiration?

- My biggest "who" inspiration has to be Markus Persson. Until he came into the scene, it was the Houser Brothers. All of them proved roughly the same thing that it can be done even with people as close as your brother. IT can be done. Something I will live with forever. If you can think it then one way or another it can be done. My biggest "what" inspiration would have to be Friendship and the never ending joy of sharing the wealth of success with those who helped you get there.

What made you want to study game design?

- The cliché' as old as time, is the wanting to know how things worked; Games being no different. Something a creative as a game has to have a process and it’s something I really wanted to know how to do. I thank Richard Garcia for leading me to DGS and Dustin Price for increasing my interest in the Game design process at a young age and Reni for her welcoming Fold she let me in to, and to my BFF Adriana for answering the call. The Game design world isn’t that really scary anymore.

Favorite piece of video game memorabilia (t-shirts, props, etc) that you may or may not own?

- It would have to be my still working N64. It wasn’t my first system but it was the system that set everything in motion.

Guilty pleasure of the moment?

- Although it’s old my guilty pleasure is My Gameboy and Pokémon. I can play it but once I start I feel guilty about it and even knowing that I enjoy it none the less.

Any last words?

- I may not know exactly where my life is going right now but I can tell you this, no matter how many bumps I hit, no matter how many plans go wrong and no matter how long it takes my life will end up where I want it. We guide our future based on the moves we make. I will make mistakes, but I’m only human.

Where do you see yourself in five years?

- In 5 years I hope to be a part of something that has the potential to be big. I have my goals and all I need to do is layout the plans to reach them. I am starting over from scratch. It will be different this time.