Kim Swift

Kimberly Swift (born 1983) is an American video game designer best known for her work at Valve with games such as Portal and Left 4 Dead. Swift was featured by Fortune as one of "30 Under 30" influential figures in the video game industry.[3] She was described in Mental Floss as one of the most recognized women in the industry[4] and by Wired as "an artist that will push the medium forward".[3]

Kim Swift
Swift at the 2010 Game Developers Conference
Born
Kimberly Swift[1]

1983 (age 37–38)[2]
NationalityAmerican
OccupationVideo game designer

Career

A graduate of DigiPen, Kim Swift and a group of her fellow graduates developed Narbacular Drop, a portal-based game that was later presented to Valve, which led to Gabe Newell personally offering to hire them so that they could create the critically acclaimed game Portal.[5] Kim Swift was the leader of the Portal team as well as a level designer. She was credited along with writer Erik Wolpaw in Portal's Game Developers Choice Awards for design, innovation, and game of the year.[4]

Besides Portal, Swift has been involved in other Valve projects, most notably Left 4 Dead and its sequel, Left 4 Dead 2, where she also played a leading role in development.[6]

In December 2009, Swift left Valve to join Airtight Games. There, in cooperation with Square Enix, she led the team that developed Quantum Conundrum.[7]

Amazon announced in April 2014 that they had brought Swift in to help build games in their internal studio.[8] Swift described her role as senior designer for as yet undisclosed projects.[7] In January 2017, Electronic Arts announced they have hired Swift as a design director within their Motive Studios, who developed Star Wars Battlefront II.[9]

Swift hosted the 20th Game Developers Choice Awards ceremony on March 18, 2020.[10]

Games

References
  1. "Narbacular Drop". DigiPen. Retrieved 5 October 2019.
  2. Dodson, Joe (2007-10-13). "By Design - Half-Life 2: Orange Box". GameSpot. Retrieved 2014-12-16.
  3. "Games That Changed Everything: The Most Wired Games of the Generation". WIRED. November 21, 2013. Retrieved October 26, 2015.
  4. Erbland, Kate (October 14, 2013). "Kim Swift, the Woman Behind Portal". Mental Floss. Retrieved October 26, 2015.
  5. "Kim Swift". MobyGames. 2009-12-20. Retrieved 2012-07-20.
  6. "Left 4 Dead 2 Interview with Kim Swift" Left 4 Dead 2 Website Nov. 13, 2009. Ret Mar. 2014 "Archived copy". Archived from the original on 2014-03-10. Retrieved 2014-03-09.CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)
  7. McWhertor, Michael (April 2, 2014). "Amazon Game Studios hires Portal designer Kim Swift, Splinter Cell designer Clint Hocking". Polygon. Retrieved October 26, 2015.
  8. Shrieier, Chris (2014-04-02). "Amazon Hires Portal's Kim Swift, Far Cry 2's Clint Hocking". Kotaku. Retrieved 2014-04-02.
  9. Makuch, Eddie (January 19, 2017). "Portal, Left 4 Dead Developer Kim Swift Joins EA". GameSpot. Retrieved January 19, 2017.
  10. "Death Stranding leads the pack of 2020 Game Developers Choice Awards nominees". Gamasutra. January 8, 2020. Retrieved January 8, 2020.
  11. "PIXLD". Airtight Mobile. 2012-10-24. Retrieved 2013-06-20.
  12. "Soul Fjord". Airtight Mobile. Retrieved 2014-01-28.
  13. https://www.mobygames.com/game/xbox-one/star-wars-battlefront-ii_/credits


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