Speakers

A reformed lawyer and unrepentant gamer, Alexandre Boiret made the leap into the video game industry in 2014 when he joined CD Projekt Red to work on The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt. After a stint in Localization, he moved into Quest Design for the game’s two expansions, Hearts of Stone and Blood and Wine, as well as Cyberpunk 2077. In 2019, he joined 11 bit studios, where he worked on Frostpunk: The Last Autumn and now serves as Lead Narrative Designer on Frostpunk 2.

Ava Draw is currently a narrative video game writer at Platonic Games. She has a long career as a fiction writer with several published novels. She also has over ten years of experience working internationally in IT, so the development team won’t let her down and at the same time she treats them with the affection she knows they deserve and rarely receive.

Inés Alcolea is a short story, poetry and video game writer with over 10 years of experience working in video game communication. Her stories appear in anthologies such as De Tenebris or Mons Subtils and in 2024 she published the essay Las narrativas de las delicias, where she talks about the need for references that make us live with greater freedom. Among the games she has written are Bambas! (Devilish Games) and self-published works such as [System], a finalist in UltimateIndieMash, or [Patching], created with her mother that convey anti-system and anti-capitalist messages. Inés also participates in many feminist and LGBTIQ+ initiatives.

QA professional specialising in narrative, functionality and missions. She began working at Larian Studios during the development and launch of Baldur’s Gate 3, where she learned the importance of paying attention to every detail so that the story makes sense to the player. She currently works at Alkimia Interactive, where she created and leads the QA department. Her work focuses on ensuring narrative consistency, mission status, and the quality of the gaming experience, integrating QA into the creative vision of development.

Felix G. Rios is a Narrative Designer and Guardian of Galactic Lore at Epictellers, where he creates stories, develops characters, and maintains the game bible for Afterlight, a CRPG based on the popular tabletop role-playing game Starfinder that combines the tactical depth of Divinity: Original Sense with the irreverent charm of Guardians of the Galaxy. His mission is to ensure that every mechanic, dialogue, and design decision serves the story the team wants to tell. Despite his background as a computer scientist, writing has always been his passion. His love for fantasy and role-playing led him to publish several indie games in our country, contribute adventures to others, and even participate as an editor. For several years he maintained a newsletter dedicated to the indie role-playing scene called “7 days of role-playing”. He has recently been invited to be part of the jury of the first edition of the HazRol awards, which will reward the best role-playing games, within the framework of the prestigious Celsius 232 Festival of Horror, Fantasy and Science Fiction.

Simmer Valenciana is a content creator, streamer and divulgist specialising in video games, genre and digital culture. She is known for her professionalism, consistency and commitment to the visibility of the Catalan language in the video games sector, the indie scene and the promotion of women in the industry. She was actively involved in the creation and direction of SAGA and collaborates on major events such as Girotrònica, MACROVICIADA, RetroBarcelona, VAG Experience and BCN Game Fest. She also collaborates with specialist media on video games and appears on television programmes, such as “3 Vides” on 3cat. She has been awarded Streamer of the Year, Best Video Game Content Creator, and the WOMAN in ICT award for digital culture. She is active in initiatives such as WiDev, FemDevs and Poblet.info, and in leading communities like SimsAddictes and GamingCat. For the past year, she has been combining her vocational training with a passion for driving and leading projects that connect culture, community organising, technology and the Catalan language, with the aim of turning video games into a space for reflection, learning and collective expression.

A video game designer with seven years of experience. In 2020, she co-founded an independent studio, where she has led the design and production of projects. She is passionate about telling stories and creating experiences that connect with people. The studio has developed Ikai, a psychological horror game inspired by Japanese folklore released on PC and consoles, and Instants, a relaxing experience about reconstructing a family’s history through its photographs, available for PC and Nintendo Switch.

Lucca Carrubba is a researcher, lecturer and specialist in digital culture, working at the intersection of art, technology, design and video games. He holds a PhD in Art from the University of Barcelona, is co-director of ArsGames, and participates in the international debate on Games Studies with conferences and articles on video games as spaces for experimentation and social transformation. He collaborates with museums, cultural centres and universities, combining theoretical research with the creation of games and other digital artefacts aimed at rethinking how we live together.

Born in Lisbon, Ana has been based in Barcelona for over twenty years. With a background in business administration, she decided to make a 180-degree career change, leaving a responsible financial position at a large multinational to devote herself to her true passion: storytelling. With several courses in screenwriting and film criticism under her belt, Ana has developed narrative design for multiple games and applications, including her work at the indie studio Appnormals. STAY (for which she received the international award for Best Narrative at the Taipei Game Show), Terracotta and Frank and Drake are the prime examples of her style, which is centred on unusual premises, deep emotional character development and a strong focus on audiovisual storytelling.