Global Grads Presents: Jose Villarroel and Benji Pliego

Welcome to our Global Grads Presents series starring Full Sail international grads from all around the world as they reconnect to give back to YOU!Today's panelists:Jose VillarroelLinkedInJose Villarroel is Lead Animation Programmer at Epic Games, working remotely from Idaho. Born and raised in Santa Cruz de la Sierra, Bolivia, Jose pursued a Game Development degree at Full Sail University. His graduation project, Inanis, was invited to the DreamHack Anaheim Student Showcase.After graduating, Jose fulfilled his dream of joining Epic Games, the studio behind his favorite game, Gears of War 2. He landed an internship that evolved into a full-time role.Since 2019, he has played a key role developing animation systems in Fortnite and Unreal Engine.Benji PliegoBenji Pliego is a Game Design Generalist at Spaceboy. He joined Full Sail University in 2023 to pursue a Master's Degree in Game Design.He joined CelleC Games as a part of his Degree and collaborated in the development of 4 released games. He also worked on an indie title called "Abstemius" on his own.These efforts helped him land his role at Spaceboy where he is currently developing VR, PC, Console and Mobile games.He also landed a freelance role as a game writer for GameCoder Studios for an upcoming AAA game called "Selene".Since his graduation in 2024, Benji has been developing economies, stories, levels and environments for a wide variety of clients in the indie games industry. We hope you will enjoy two gaming graduates as they share their experiences post graduation and their career trajectory.