Gonzalo Alvarez is a Mexican-American Illustrator, Game Designer, and Creative Director/Founder of the video game studio Macua Studios. Born and raised in a low-income household within the small blue-collar community of Port Arthur, TX, he pursued a BFA in Drawing at Lamar University. Through comics, illustrations, and video games, Alvarez aims to animate the stories of his Mexican culture and bring it into pop culture entertainment.

 

 

After directing his first game Borders, a game about his parents immigration story, the game received international attention featuring on Univision, Washington Post and many others leading to its invitation to prestigious festivals such as Sheffield Doc/Fest Alternative Realities in the UK and Latin America and Indiecade’s Showcase at E3 2017. The game has been used for academic research in universities and has given panels worldwide.

 

His current project “The Legend of Polloman”, is a Mexican folklore adventure media series currently being adapted into a comic, game, and cartoon in an effort to inspire and entertain people about the rich folklore, culture, and history of Mexico that he grew up with.  Readers follow a timid boy journeying the underworld of Mictlan to vanquish terrifying Folklore Legends like La Llorona and El Cucuy, in order to return home. 

 

Polloman has featured at the Texas Latino Comic Con in 2017-18 and was invited to premiere at Worldcon76 for the Mexicanx Initiative by John Picacio. He has dedicated his life's work to creating culturally significant projects and the doors that have opened have brought him closer to his goal of becoming a full-time creative.