These Latino gamers are blazing a path for the next generation of game designers

Growing up in Mexico City, Fernando Reyes Medina was involved in video games "every step of the way."

As a teen, Medina — now an award-winning game designer at 343 Industries, the Microsoft studio that creates Halo games — and his friends would rent an Xbox for 50 cents an hour at internet cafes to play Halo 2 split-screen. After connecting to Xbox Live, Microsoft’s online multiplayer gaming service, he saw how gaming served as a tool to connect people from across the world. As a result, his passion for Halo and gaming grew into a career ambition.

But with few visible Latino gaming figures to draw inspiration from and limited gaming-related pipelines in Mexico, Medina's dream of working for the Halo franchise seemed increasingly out of reach.

“I didn’t understand how difficult the path was going to be,” he told NBC News. “I was just like, this is the thing I want to do and I just don’t see myself doing anything else.”