Speakers
Irene Cortes, Founder, Gata Games, Gata Games
Irene Cortes founded Gata Games after an abbess in Mongolia rejected her ordination—a stunning reversal after decades training in bodhicitta, a formal invitation to join the nunnery, and traveling halfway across the world to begin her life as a nun. To process the grief of losing the life she believed she'd have, she began creating operas exploring her contemplative training. After building an audience across six staged performances, she received an investment to adapt her opera, The Gata, into a video game. Eight years of R&D—voice tech, ML, various gameplay styles, thousands of hours of playtesting—produced FLOWR: a game that clinically reduces mind-wandering and depression. Validated through health outcomes research, she's realized why she was rejected: to bring these teachings into the modern world, delivering measurable relief of suffering through games.