Kimberly Swift (born ) is an American video game designer best known for her work at

Valve A valve is a device or natural object that regulates, directs or controls the flow of a fluid (gases, liquids, fluidized solids, or Slurry, slurries) by opening, closing, or partially obstructing various passageways. Valves are technically Pip ...

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. She was described in ''

Mental Floss ''Mental Floss'' (stylized as ''mental_floss'') is an American online magazine and digital, print, and e-commerce media company focused on millennials. It is owned by Minute Media, an international digital media publisher based in London, Engla ...

'' as one of the most recognized women in the industry and by ''

Wired Wired may refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media Music * ''Wired'' (Jeff Beck album), 1976 * ''Wired'' (Hugh Cornwell album), 1993 * ''Wired'' (Mallory Knox album), 2017 * "Wired", a song by Prism from their album '' Beat Street'' * "Wired ...

'' as "an artist that will push the medium forward".

Career

A graduate of DigiPen, Kim Swift and a group of her fellow graduates developed ''

Narbacular Drop ''Narbacular Drop'' is a 2005 Puzzle video game, puzzle-platform game developed by Nuclear Monkey Software. It was the senior game project of students attending DigiPen Institute of Technology. The gameplay consists of navigating a dungeon using ...

'', a portal-based game that was later presented to Valve, which led to

Gabe Newell Gabe Logan Newell (born November 3, 1962), also known by his nickname Gaben, is an American video game developer and businessman. He is the president and co-founder of the video game company Valve Corporation. Newell was born in Colorado and ...

personally offering to hire them so that they could create the critically acclaimed game ''Portal''. Kim Swift was the leader of the Portal team as well as a level designer. She was credited along with writer Erik Wolpaw in ''Portals

Game Developers Choice Awards The Game Developers Choice Awards are awards annually presented at the Game Developers Conference for outstanding video game developer, game developers and video game, games. Introduced in 2001, the Game Developers Choice Awards were preceded by ...

for design, innovation, and game of the year. 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. In December 2009, Swift left Valve to join Airtight Games. There, in cooperation with

Square Enix is a Japanese Multinational corporation, multinational holding company, video game publisher and entertainment conglomerate. It releases role-playing video game, role-playing game franchises, such as ''Final Fantasy'', ''Dragon Quest'', and '' ...

, she led the team that developed '' Quantum Conundrum'', which released in 2012. In a 2012, in an interview with ''

'', Swift expressed the opinion that the most important impact of video games is that they are "a socially acceptable way for adults to imagine". Amazon announced in April 2014 that they had brought Swift in to help build games in their internal studio. Swift described her role as senior designer for as yet undisclosed projects. In January 2017,

Electronic Arts Electronic Arts Inc. (EA) is an American video game company headquartered in Redwood City, California. Founded in May 1982 by former Apple Inc., Apple employee Trip Hawkins, the company was a pioneer of the early home computer game industry ...

announced they have hired Swift as a design director within their Motive Studios, who developed '' Star Wars Battlefront II''. Swift had been part of the

Google Stadia Stadia was a cloud gaming service developed and operated by Google. Known in development as Project Stream, the service debuted through a Software release life cycle#closed beta, closed beta in October 2018, and publicly launched in November 20 ...

internal development studio, Stadia Games & Entertainment, as a game design director, until Google closed down the studio in February 2021. By June 2021, Swift had been hired by

Xbox Game Studios Xbox Game Studios (previously known as Microsoft Studios, Microsoft Game Studios, and Microsoft Games) is an American video game publisher based in Redmond, Washington. It was established in March 2000, spun out from an internal Games Group, fo ...

Publishing as the senior director of cloud gaming. Swift hosted the 20th Game Developers Choice Awards ceremony on March 18, 2020.

Games

* ''

'' (2005) * '' Half-Life 2: Episode One'' (2006) * '' Portal'' (2007) * '' Half-Life 2: Episode Two'' (2007) * '' Portal: Still Alive'' (2008) * '' Left 4 Dead'' (2008) * '' Left 4 Dead 2'' (2009) * '' Quantum Conundrum'' (2012) * ''PIXLD'' (2012) * '' Soul Fjord'' (2014) * '' Star Wars Battlefront II'' (2017)

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Swift, Kim 1983 births Amazon (company) people American video game designers Electronic Arts employees Living people Valve Corporation people American women video game designers Place of birth missing (living people)