This Brazilian pie maker sold everything to learn game design — and her Oculus Rift game is incredible

It’s a brave decision to start again and leave behind your family, your friends, and everything you’ve worked for. It’s often easier, and safer, to accept the mundane aspects of everyday life and kick your true passions to the curb.

But Ana Ribeiro decided to pursue her dream of making games; she quit her steady government job in Brazil, sold her car, and abandoned her flourishing empada business. “Starting a life from zero,” as she described it in our Skype chat earlier this week. Ribeiro travelled nearly 5,000 miles to London so she could study programming and video game design, and if you play her incredible Oculus Rift title, Pixel Rift, you’ll have to agree that it was worth the journey.