Juan José is 25 years old, originally from Medellín, Colombia, where he grew up in a large and close-knit family of six siblings. His mother, who migrated from a village in northwestern Colombia in search of better opportunities, built a life for her family through hard work and determination. Today, Juan José lives in Bogotá – a city he moved to for a job that, not long ago, felt completely out of reach.

A Game That Changed Everything

His love for video games started at age 7, when his mother gifted him his first console, a small device that opened up entire worlds. His father, who worked collecting discarded items around neighborhoods, later surprised him with a Nintendo DS and a Game Boy he had found along the way. Those early games sparked something that never faded. 

After finishing high school, he started a graphic design degree, where he excelled academically. But eventually realized he was chasing a dream that didn’t belong to him. He moved on, turned his focus toward the video game sector, and began teaching himself through online tutorials. “I would rather fail trying to do what I’m passionate about than settle for something that doesn’t fulfill me,” he shares. 

The Program That Opened the Door

One day, while searching for resources online, he came across Generation Colombia’s Junior Unity Developer program, sponsored by Unity. In early 2025, he took the chance and he got in. The previous months of self-teaching had prepared him well. During the program, he went further into Python, artificial intelligence, level design and character development. 

Support came from every direction: a psychologist from Generation’s team helped him work through years of self-doubt, and a talk with an expert in the field left him with a phrase he still carries: ‘In this industry, what matters most is your portfolio and your passion, not a traditional degree.’ For someone who had always felt held back by the absence of a formal title, it was a revelation. “I heard that and thought: I’m in the right place,” he recalls. For his final project, he channeled everything into level design and character creation, work that went straight into his portfolio. 

Level Up

Juan José graduated in July 2025 and four months later joined Electronic Arts (EA) in Bogotá as a Quality Analyst, testing video games and contributing to internal training initiatives. The shift in his quality of life has been total: he can support his mother, invest in courses and tools, and build the career he always wanted. “That’s something I’ll carry in my heart forever,” he reflects.

His dream: to keep growing within the video game industry and one day contribute to the projects that first made him fall in love with this world. He wants to be proof that Latin American talent belongs in this field. Outside of work, he enjoys football, astronomy – and has recently started thinking about revisiting another childhood passion: acting. To anyone still waiting for their moment: “You only truly fail when you stop trying.”