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Speaker 1: Being a woman in Stem being Latina, it felt really isolating.

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Speaker 1: I was one of a handful of women in my year,

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Speaker 1: and it felt like every year the women were put

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Speaker 1: against each other in comparison, and it was hard to

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Speaker 1: find connections with people when you're constantly being pushed to compete.

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Speaker 2: From Fudura Media and PRX. It's Latino Usa. I'm Maria

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Speaker 2: Rosa today, Samantha Ortiz, I'm telling personal stories through video games.

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Speaker 2: Samantha Ortiz thinks about her childhood often it's the everyday

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Speaker 2: smells around her that triggers certain memories, especially those at

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Speaker 2: her grandparents' houses.

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Speaker 1: Do you ever like smell like a perfume or certain

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Speaker 1: scent and it just it's like takes you back. I

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Speaker 1: have that with a specific perfume, and I'll smell that

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Speaker 1: perfume and it'll just take me back to visiting my

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Speaker 1: grandma and my grandpa.

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Speaker 2: She remembers making tamalis on the brown dining room table

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Speaker 2: they set up in the backyard next to the kitchen,

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Speaker 2: grabbing a piece of bandulse from the cake stand on

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Speaker 2: the countertop.

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Speaker 1: When I think about the positive aspects of my life,

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Speaker 1: they're definitely tied to my grandparents a lot.

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Speaker 2: Samantha grew up in Houston, Texas. Her mother is a

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Speaker 2: first generation Mexican immigrant and her father is Puerto Rican.

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Speaker 1: Both of my grandparents fantastic chefs. Like the best food

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Speaker 1: you ever eat right is cooked for your grandma, and

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Speaker 1: I could say that for both sides of the family.

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Speaker 3: She spent her childhood enjoying that food.

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Speaker 2: On Saturdays, she'd visit her grandma Eva to eat the

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Speaker 2: Puerto Rican food. She'd make a ros bongandulis and banadastones.

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Speaker 2: Then on Sundays she spent them with her mom's side

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Speaker 2: of the family at her grandma Juanita's house. There, the

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Speaker 2: menu included homemade Mexican food in chiladas, tacos, and fresh

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Speaker 2: made flower tortillas.

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Speaker 3: The whole point of food is for it to be enjoyed.

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Speaker 2: Samantha is using those memories to bring life to her

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Speaker 2: work as an independent video game creator. More than programming

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Speaker 2: or the technical aspects of video games, Samantha is interested

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Speaker 2: in storytelling. She works as a game writer and narrative

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Speaker 2: designer to develop the ways a player experiences the story

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Speaker 2: of the game.

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Speaker 1: The minimum that I would love to come out of

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Speaker 1: someone playing my game is a sense of I understand,

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Speaker 1: I understand your story.

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Speaker 2: Because historically, the stories of people like Samantha have not

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Speaker 2: been told in video games. A recent study of the

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Speaker 2: top one hundred video games released in the last five

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Speaker 2: years found that only twenty percent of its main characters

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Speaker 2: are women, and of those, only eight percent are Black,

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Speaker 2: Native Asian or Latiness and this reflects what is happening

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Speaker 2: behind the scenes in the gaming industry as well. Women

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Speaker 2: make up only twenty four percent of the workforce while

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Speaker 2: being forty five percent of the audience for video games.

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Speaker 2: So in September of twenty twenty one, Samantha started her

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Speaker 2: own gaming company, cow Berry Studios, in order to create

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Speaker 2: the games she's wished to see out in the world.

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Speaker 2: At twenty five years old, Samantha's career in video games

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Speaker 2: is just starting out, but she says she has big

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Speaker 2: plans in the works. Here's Samantha Ortis in her own words.

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Speaker 1: My name is Smanthorpe. I am a game writer and

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Speaker 1: narrative designer, and I live in Texas. It was pretty

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Speaker 1: shy as a child. I still am a little shy

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Speaker 1: when it comes to interactions with people, but I played

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Speaker 1: a lot of games by myself.

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Speaker 3: We celebrated through.

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Speaker 1: King's Day with my grandma Eva, and we would leave

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Speaker 1: our shoes in the entryway and we would leave carrots

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Speaker 1: for the donkeys, and then we would go to sleep,

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Speaker 1: and then we'd wake up and then there would be

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Speaker 1: little treats in our shoes. And we're kids, we have

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Speaker 1: tiny shoes. And so my grandma would put little DS

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Speaker 1: games or little game Boy games for me, and.

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Speaker 3: I don't know how she picked them.

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Speaker 1: My mom and dad probably gave her some insight, but

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Speaker 1: it was a really easy thing to give me as

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Speaker 1: a kid.

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Speaker 3: Just give me a game.

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Speaker 1: The very first game that I remember is this game

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Speaker 1: called Dogs, and you play as a girl who was

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Speaker 1: adopting a puppy. You got to take care of this puppy,

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Speaker 1: teach it tricks, clean up after it.

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Speaker 3: It's so fun. I want to play it again.

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Speaker 1: I gave away my DS with my whole thing of games.

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Speaker 1: I gave them to my cousin because I was like, Okay,

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Speaker 1: I'm growing up now. I don't play games anymore. Like

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Speaker 1: adults don't play games. I don't play games. I'm gonna

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Speaker 1: focus on college and get into college. At first, I

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Speaker 1: came in freshman year, and I wanted to take some

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Speaker 1: interesting classes. So I tried computer science, and I tried

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Speaker 1: a physics class, and I kept going with computer science

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Speaker 1: because the one thing that I really paid attention to

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Speaker 1: was what is a major that I can get into

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Speaker 1: that I'll feel at least slightly fulfilled, but it'll also

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Speaker 1: make my family proud. I think there was so much

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Speaker 1: stress and pressure as a first gen college student to

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Speaker 1: do really well and to use your degree to make

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Speaker 1: money and be successful. Computer science got really hard. I

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Speaker 1: really didn't know if I was going to be able

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Speaker 1: to graduate with a computer science major because I felt

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Speaker 1: shut out being a woman in STEM. Being Latina, it

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Speaker 1: felt really isolating. I was one of a handful of

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Speaker 1: women in my year, and it felt like every year

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Speaker 1: the women were put against each other in comparison. You know,

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Speaker 1: who would get the best jobs from this degree, who

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Speaker 1: got the best scores? And it was hard to find

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Speaker 1: connections with people when you're constantly being pushed to compete.

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Speaker 1: My sophomore year, I took a game development class that

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Speaker 1: was being taught by a professor who had never worked

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Speaker 1: in games professionally, but he had a really big passion

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Speaker 1: for it. I really really love those classes and pros

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Speaker 1: made me stay in computer science in general. He was

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Speaker 1: super uplifting and supportive. It kind of convinced me to

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Speaker 1: stay in computer science to get my degree.

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Speaker 3: See what happens.

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Speaker 1: I graduated from college in May of twenty nineteen. I knew,

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Speaker 1: I was solid that programming was not what I loved

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Speaker 1: to do.

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Speaker 3: I think I'd known.

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Speaker 1: That for a while, but I was pushing it back

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Speaker 1: because I was like, no, it's practical and it pays

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Speaker 1: good money. But I just I knew if I was

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Speaker 1: going to be in games, I was going to do

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Speaker 1: something focused in narrative, either design or writing. Narrative differn

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Speaker 1: games or games into which you feel very connected to

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Speaker 1: the character that you're playing, to the people that they're

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Speaker 1: in communication with, to the story that they're telling and

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Speaker 1: the journey that they're going through. I was really really

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Speaker 1: interested in that because of the different ways that you

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Speaker 1: could tell a story. Growing up, I was obsessed with

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Speaker 1: writing and creating my own stories, and I wanted to

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Speaker 1: build that feeling that you get, that connection that you

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Speaker 1: get to these characters that come from someone's head like

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Speaker 1: that was so fascinating to me, and I really wanted

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Speaker 1: to recreate it. There's just so much that goes into

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Speaker 1: storytelling in games. Maybe something is really hard to do

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Speaker 1: in the game because it's emotionally weighing on the character.

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Speaker 3: Maybe it takes a lot more effort.

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Speaker 1: Maybe you have to button mash a lot to do

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Speaker 1: a more simple.

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Speaker 3: Thing that you think wouldn't be very hard.

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Speaker 1: Or do you want it to be really easy because

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Speaker 1: the characters in a really good mood and they feel

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Speaker 1: like they're on top of the world and they could

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Speaker 1: do anything. Maybe you can be mean, maybe you can

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Speaker 1: be extra nice. In games, there's something there that's concrete

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Speaker 1: when you play as the character or you get to

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Speaker 1: look around at the environment. I think it allows me

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Speaker 1: and it pushes me to be a lot more open

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Speaker 1: and creative with myself in the stories that I want

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Speaker 1: to tell, which I think is really really powerful. I

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Speaker 1: came across the latinx and gaming community fall of twenty twenty.

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Speaker 1: There was a culture for me. There was a connection

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Speaker 1: to my home. There was a connection that I just

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Speaker 1: felt instantly comfortable and warm, and I needed that, especially

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Speaker 1: coming from my major where I was put in competition

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Speaker 1: with people who were similar to me. Having that community

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Speaker 1: there was so affirming to me as a Latina. In games,

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Speaker 1: Unidos is there big celebration they have every year where

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Speaker 1: they have talks, they have different events going on, and.

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Speaker 3: They also have the Unidos Jam.

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Speaker 1: A game jam is an event held over a certain

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Speaker 1: number of days. Some of them have prizes and a wars,

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Speaker 1: but a lot of them are just, you know, to

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Speaker 1: have fun. So the LATINX and Unidos twenty twenty Jam

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Speaker 1: was held for about three weeks and the theme.

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Speaker 3: Was celebration of LATINX culture.

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Speaker 1: There are a lot of different things that came to

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Speaker 1: my head, but I really wanted to make a game

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Speaker 1: about my grandma.

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Speaker 3: I love her, So I love both my grandma's so much.

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Speaker 1: When I think about culture, big thing that I think

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Speaker 1: about is the food that we eat together and.

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Speaker 3: That we're eating it together.

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Speaker 1: So I wanted to tell a story in a way

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Speaker 1: that was different than how I usually told stories.

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Speaker 3: I wanted to make it a bit experimental.

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Speaker 1: I worked with a bunch of people and we all

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Speaker 1: worked together to make this game called Damalesconfamilia, which was

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Speaker 1: just like the concept of you as a child unable

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Speaker 1: to really contribute to a conversation because you're still a kid,

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Speaker 1: and you're just like making theemalis while your family's just talking.

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Speaker 3: You press start.

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Speaker 1: You have different stations in front of you, so you

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Speaker 1: would hold the corn husk in your hand and that's

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Speaker 1: like visibly on the screen. And with the other hand,

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Speaker 1: you would grab the masa and you'd put it on

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Speaker 1: and it would spread, and then you reach and grab

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Speaker 1: the filling and then you drag it to your hand,

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Speaker 1: which then adds the chicken to it, and then you

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Speaker 1: click and does an animation where it rolls and folds,

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Speaker 1: and then it gets taken and a tray appears and

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Speaker 1: you put it on the tray and then like you

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Speaker 1: go again. And while you're repeating this on the lower

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Speaker 1: half of your screen, on the upper half, you are

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Speaker 1: reading different dialogue from family.

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Speaker 4: I cannot believe that Hector didn't show up today with

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Speaker 4: his family. It's like he doesn't care that we're trying

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Speaker 4: to get together.

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Speaker 5: It's like pulling teeth to get half of us here.

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Speaker 5: Do you remember when we will show up every Sunday?

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Speaker 1: Your passive character in this game, But it's all about

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Speaker 1: learning about your family in a really casual way of

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Speaker 1: just like talk and gossip.

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Speaker 4: Now that Mom's out of the room. Do you really

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Speaker 4: think she'd be better in Mexico? All of her children

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Speaker 4: and grandchildren are here.

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Speaker 5: I mean that build her house there, all our memories

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Speaker 5: are there.

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Speaker 4: She just doesn't remember things when she's here anymore. It's

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Speaker 4: not like we can be here all the time either.

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Speaker 1: For this game, I interviewed my mom and I was like, Hey,

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Speaker 1: let's chat about what our family talks about. And we

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Speaker 1: talked a lot about my grandma, her past, things that

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Speaker 1: you bring up often, topics that are really common for

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Speaker 1: us to talk about when we came together.

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Speaker 4: We're talking about five or more hours of driving just

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Speaker 4: to see our mom. What if she needs us in

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Speaker 4: the middle of the night, then we go.

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Speaker 5: We can hire someone to take care of her every day.

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Speaker 5: It will be fine, but we can be selfish by

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Speaker 5: not letting her go back to what makes her happy.

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Speaker 1: And I love that it turned out to be this

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Speaker 1: very organic and natural series of conversations, and it was

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Speaker 1: a lot of fun to make. And again, I love

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Speaker 1: it with all my heart and I hold it really

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Speaker 1: dear me. After UNI those twenty twenty I had so

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Speaker 1: much fun. I knew I wanted to do it again

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Speaker 1: next year. The theme was a story only you can tell.

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Speaker 1: And as soon as I heard it, I was like,

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Speaker 1: I have to make something. I thought about something that

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Speaker 1: makes me very self conscious, which is that Spanish wasn't

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Speaker 1: my first language that I learned. I'm not very fluent.

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Speaker 1: I can understand it really well because I grew up

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Speaker 1: listening to Spanish. But my parents, they didn't teach me

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Speaker 1: Spanish as a first language. They taught me English as

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Speaker 1: the first language. Because my mom was bullied in school

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Speaker 1: because of her accent, and she didn't want me to

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Speaker 1: go through that plot twists. Mom, kids are mean, I

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Speaker 1: got bullied for many other reasons. She wanted to protect me,

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Speaker 1: and my dad wanted to protect me too, So I

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Speaker 1: don't I mean, I don't blame them. I completely understand,

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Speaker 1: even at my peak of knowing Spanish and being able

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Speaker 1: to communicate very well, every time I was put in

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Speaker 1: front of my grandma and she would say something, I

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Speaker 1: drew a blank and it was just so terrifying. And

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Speaker 1: my grandma loves me. I know she doesn't care. I

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Speaker 1: know she probably wishes maybe that I could speak with

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Speaker 1: her fluently, but she loves me either way.

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Speaker 3: But still I wanted so.

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Speaker 1: Badly to feel the verbal connection that you have when

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Speaker 1: you're able to speak with someone who speaks your language.

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Speaker 1: And so that's where the idea for Comunegacion came, is

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Speaker 1: that I wanted to tell that story.

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Speaker 3: Es.

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Speaker 6: Yes, you say shyly, You give a quick hug and

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Speaker 6: kiss to your abuelo, your abuela holding onto your hand

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Speaker 6: the whole time. Yeah, your grandmother looks up at you.

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Speaker 6: You stare into her eyes, hoping to find something to

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Speaker 6: help you decipher what she just said.

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Speaker 1: It's just dialogue, so it's a plain background with just

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Speaker 1: texts on the screen. You'll see like a word highlighted

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Speaker 1: in a different color than the rest of the text,

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Speaker 1: and it's clickable and if you click on that, it'll

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Speaker 1: either unlock more dialogue on the same screen, or it'll

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Speaker 1: take you to the next screen where there's like a

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Speaker 1: whole other set of dialogue.

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Speaker 6: Awalita holds her hands out for your mother and speaks

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Speaker 6: in the same sweet tune. Your mother turns to you.

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Speaker 5: Grandma says, she asks you a question, and you just

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Speaker 5: stare at her.

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Speaker 6: You feel your cheeks flush.

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Speaker 3: It was very cathartic.

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Speaker 1: I cried a lot while writing it, putting myself back

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Speaker 1: in that situation, you know, but it was a great

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Speaker 1: way for me to feel connected to my grandma. I

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Speaker 1: guess that's another way that nonverbally i'd connect with her

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Speaker 1: is through games. Something that always held me back in

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Speaker 1: terms of making games was that I was afraid of

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Speaker 1: making something people wouldn't like.

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Speaker 3: I didn't know.

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Speaker 1: If it was going to be well received. I didn't

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Speaker 1: know if anyone was going to relate to it. And

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Speaker 1: a lot of people did. They were like, Wow, this

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Speaker 1: really made me understand this a lot more, which was nice,

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Speaker 1: and it was also validating that I can still make

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Speaker 1: something on my own and it can still be really

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Speaker 1: personal to me and it can still connect with other

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Speaker 1: people as well.

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Speaker 3: That kind of.

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Speaker 1: Kickstarted my confidence in telling stories and games that were

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Speaker 1: a little closer to my heart. For me, I want

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Speaker 1: to take my company, Calbary Studios, and turn it into

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Speaker 1: a brand. I want to put my games under it.

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Speaker 1: I want to be an entity, and I think I

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Speaker 1: have great stories to tell and I want to bring

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Speaker 1: on people who also have great stories to tell. And

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Speaker 1: I want to build and foster a place in a

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Speaker 1: studio that has fun and tells like these really heartwarming stories.

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Speaker 1: It's just me right now because I don't have employees.

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Speaker 1: I don't have anyone that's working.

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Speaker 3: With you right now. That's like my dream for the future.

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Speaker 1: I'm currently working on a game about coming back after

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Speaker 1: my grandfather passed away and feeling the heavy difference in

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Speaker 1: the house and seeing all of the changes and just

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Speaker 1: seeing the home in a completely different light, and wanting

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Speaker 1: to make my grandmother feel okay again, and helping her

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Speaker 1: find herself after my grandfather and help her feel uncomfortable

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Speaker 1: and feel like her own person. I wanted to be

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Speaker 1: a full game, like I'm actively chasing publishers. I'm actively

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Speaker 1: chasing I want to make this into as big of

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Speaker 1: a game as like any other project, which is shooting

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Speaker 1: for the stars. But also I feel like I don't

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Speaker 1: see a lot of stories of grandmother, granddaughter, LATINX culture,

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Speaker 1: Like I don't see a lot of those in the limelight,

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Speaker 1: and I wanted to tell that story. And you know what,

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Speaker 1: it might fail, hopefully it succeeds.

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Speaker 3: I'm gonna work my.

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Speaker 1: Butt off and it's gonna fail or it's gonna succeed,

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Speaker 1: but I'm gonna try my hardest and I'm not gonna

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Speaker 1: change anything for it. Like I'm gonna keep it core

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Speaker 1: to myself. I'm gonna tell a story I want to tell,

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Speaker 1: and if it connects with people, it connects with people,

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Speaker 1: and I hope it does.

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Speaker 2: That was Samantha Orti's game writer and narrative designer. Both

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Speaker 2: Da malisk And Familia and Go Monicacion are available online

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Speaker 2: to play for free. This episode was produced by Victoria

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Speaker 2: Stradra and edited by Daisy Contreras. It was mixed by

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Speaker 2: gabriel A Bias and JJ Carubin. The La TiO Usa

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Speaker 2: team includes Andrea Lopez Gruzado, Marta Martinez, Mike Sargent, Julieta Martinelli,

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Speaker 2: Rinaldo Leanos, Junior Alejandra Sarrassard, Patricia Ulvarand and Julia Rocha,

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Speaker 2: with help from Raoul Perez. Our editorial director is Fernanda Santos.

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Speaker 2: Our director of Engineering is Stephanie Lebau. Our senior engineer

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Speaker 2: is Julia Caruso. Our marketing manager is Luis Luna. Our

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Speaker 2: New York Women's Foundation Big Night Fellow is Elizabeth Lowet

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Speaker 2: Val Torres. Our theme music was composed by Sean Ruinos,

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Speaker 2: I'm Your Host and executive producer Marienno Rosa join us

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Speaker 2: again on our next episode, and remember you can find

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Speaker 2: us on all of your social media and where that

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Speaker 2: Stella Proxima Joe.

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Speaker 7: Latino USA is made possible in part by W. K.

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Speaker 7: Kellogg Foundation, a partner with Communities where Children Come First,

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Speaker 7: the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative, and Hispanics and philanthropy.

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Speaker 1: And then sometimes she would make besteak and I would

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Speaker 1: eat that too. It was just amazing. This is a

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Speaker 1: food podcast.

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Speaker 3: Now we're just