2023-2024 GADIG Officers

Matthew Neri

Matthew Neri

Matthew is a Junior at George Mason studying game design. He has a passion for fashion, music, and obviously video games. He loves making games that inspire others and tells the stories of underrepresented people. He loves working with the talented people at GADIG and strives to make GADIG an inclusive and accepting place as possible.

Favorite Game: Bayonetta 3

Evan Kusko

Evan Kusko

Evan is a Creative Writing Fine Arts major interested in folklore and digital media. Ever since he learned what an eSport what, he's been thoroughly invested in learning how games are played at their highest levels. An avid student of video game history and trivia, he took on a minor in Professional and Technical Writing as a pathway for exploring diverse narratives and inclusive UX design in video games. Striving to be well read in design philosophy as well as critical competitive game theory, some of his personal inspirations as a developer include Robin Walker, Melissa DeTora, and Hideki Kamiya.

Favorite Game: Magic: the Gathering | Pokémon | TF2 | The World Ends with You

John McGuire

John McGuire
Secretary

jmcguir@gmu.edu

John is a junior at George Mason University currently aiming for a degree in Computer Game Design. He has participated in the development of several games both in and out of the classroom. He joined GADIG to expand on his game development skills and has experience working in producing, design, writing, and 3D art. His goal once graduated is to make any kind of game that brings joy to the people who play them, as well as contributing to the growth of the game industry to open new opportunities for other aspiring developers.

Favorite Game: Fallout New Vegas | Hollow Knight | Rayman Legends | Grand Theft Auto V

Hannah J

Hannah J

Hannah is an Applied Computer Science major with a passion for game development. Be it indie or AAA companies, her dream is to be able to do what she loves - making games. Her favorite part is problem solving involved in programming, it's like a puzzle! Aside from games she loves crochet, the horror genre, and her big kitty cat Travis.

Favorite Game: Project Zomboid | Little Nightmares

Daniel Irchai

Daniel Irchai
Assistant Sound Director

Daniel is a Computer Game Design major at George Mason University, increasing his knowledge and social network so he can work on various game projects. Daniel was born and raised in a family of musicians and aspires to compose music for films and games. He also advocates for the awareness of neurodivergent game designers and the need for greater communication and positive, collaborative work among individuals and teams. Daniel's dream is composing an original, award-winning score for a video game. He is currently conceptualizing his own indie studio, and a personal game project inspired by his love for modern and retro action role playing games.

Favorite Game: The Legend of Zelda | Magic: the Gathering | Destiny 2

Maia Ocampo

Maia Ocampo

Ocampo is a current Junior at George Mason University majoring in Computer Game Design, minoring in Computer Science. She is also a Mason Honors Student and currently holds the title as the Lead Intern for the Honors College’s Communications Team. Maia has always been a lover of games, both in the entertainment sense as well as the technical. Through GADIG she has been able to invest in her passion, the members of the club fostering her growth and skills everyday.

Favorite Game: The Walking Dead

Alex James

Alex James

Alex is a Junior Computer Game Design Major at George Mason. He has experience designing, programming, and producing games. Alex has wanted to make games for as long as he can remember and has since created many games including 'Clean Corps,' which was created while studying abroad in South Korea. 'Clean Corps' went on to win Third Place at Mason Korea’s Progress@Play Competition which featured over 70 submissions. Alex’s dream is to be able to create the same kind of games that inspired him to pursue game development through a job at a game development company or independently.

Favorite Game: Mario Galaxy | Outer Wilds | Resident Evil 2-4

Joan Palacios

Joan Palacios
Art Director

Jonmpal21@gmail.com

Joan is a new junior transfer student at George Mason University. After taking a break from education to work in the game industry as a 3D modeler for a year, they returned to pursue a degree in Computer Game Design and finish a minor in Sociology. They have an interest in 3D art, with a focus on modeling and level creation. Inspired by the many colorful games that they played in their youth, Joan wishes to explore a vivid world through creating art, running TTRPG campaigns, and making games.

Favorite Game: Shadow of the Colossus | Halo: MCC | Divinity: Original Sin 2

Jonah Kossoy

Jonah Kossoy

Jonah “J” Kossoy is a junior year game design major and assistant art director at GADIG. He specializes in digital art and sketch art and loves designing characters for himself and his friends. He also loves playing the piano, dungeons and dragons, and Mario and Luigi Dream Team.

Favorite Game: Mario & Luigi: Dream Team

Stephen Happ

Stephen Happ
Programming Co-Director

shapp@gmu.edu
stephenhapp.github.io/

Stephen is a senior majoring in Computer Science at GMU. He is excited to be the Assistant Programming Director for GADIG after helping on the programming team since Fall 2020. He has worked within GADIG's programming team since joining the club in Fall 2020, and is honored to serve as a Programming Director in his final year at GMU. He enjoys getting to know new people and spending time with friends. His continued interest in computer programming and video game development has been with him from a young age, producing many simple computer games and projects as a teenager using MIT's Scratch website, and later developing and programming games on Roblox. He plans on working as a software developer after he graduates.

Favorite Game: N++

Joe Ballanderson

Joe Ballanderson
Programming Co-Director

Joe is a senior studying Applied Computer Science with a Concentration in Game Design. He enjoys game development, playing guitar, powerlifting, cosplay, D&D, miniature painting, and many many other hobbies (too many somebody stop him). If you would like to increase your social score with him or train your charisma attribute, talk to him about anything. He will listen.

Favorite Game: Mount & Blade: Warband | All the Total War Games | Rimworld | Age of Empires 3 | Valheim | Halo | Dota 2

Ethan Hart

Ethan Hart
Assistant Design Director

ethanhartcreatives.com/

Ethan is a Senior Computer Game Design Major. He’s been a part of GADIG for 4 years now, and loves to tell and create stories. Their end goal in game design is to create something that is able to put as many smiles on as many people’s faces as possible. He likes weird games, so if you have any out-there suggestions, make sure to let them know! The more unhinged the better :3

Favorite Game: No More Heroes | Neon White

Xavier Pastor

Xavier Pastor

Xavier is a Senior at George Mason pursuing a BA in Music Technology and minoring in Computer Game Design. They write lots of music, develop small video games, and make videos for their video game music remixing channel. If you want to increase your social link with them, talk baking, coffee, and accessible design in games!

Favorite Game: Xenoblade 3

Douglas H

Douglas H
Design Director

dhale5@gmu.edu

Douglas is a transfer Junior(?) majoring in 'Applied Computer Science with a Concetration in Computer Game Design' because it was the longest degree title they could find. They think video games are sort of neat so they decided to dedicate their entire future around making them. They have participated in over a dozen game jams, some of which involved the creation of decent(?) games! Their favorite kinds of games involve unique concepts, interesting/funny writing, and banger soundtracks. They have been known to have hobbies on occasion like TTRPGs, music, and game development, although sources on this are dubious. They hope to land a career at the nearby Dollar General. A job as a game developer at a small/medium sized game company as a engineer/designer/writer would be pretty cool too.

Favorite Game: Disco Elysium | Fallout: New Vegas | Undertale | Persona 3-5

Alex Xayavong

Alex Xayavong
Game Director

axayavon@gmu.edu

Alex is a freshman at GMU majoring in Computer Game Design. He likes to work hard towards a goal and appreciates the kindness of others. He has a deep interest in the mystical worlds of “Anime and Genshin Impact”. He hopes that he can expand his knowledge of Computer Game Design to improve needed skills within the industry and possible find a career.

Favorite Game: Roboquest || Genshin Impact || Muse Dash || HoloCure - Save the Fans

Zachary Kim

Zachary Kim
Treasurer in Training

zkim2@gmu.edu

Zach is a Freshman at GMU majoring in business. He has a love for Board games, tabletop roleplay/dungeons and dragons, the gym, baking, and reading. He also has a deep appreciation for storytelling, character creation, and unique, weird ideas. He hopes that in the future he can work for the business and/or creative design of the game industry.

Favorite Game: Cuphead | Paper Mario | Fantasy Life | Stardew Valley

Miles Tison

Miles Tison
Sound Director

Miles is a film major going into his 3rd year at Mason with a directing concentration. He has a passion for all things audio visual and has been involved in music for over a decade.

Favorite Game: Undertale | The Last of Us | The Sims 3