## Game credits - ### Designer - \ \ Portal](/content/games/portal "Read the Dbljump article on Portal."/index.html) - \ \ Narbacular Drop](/content/games/narbacular-drop "Read the Dbljump article on Narbacular Drop."/index.html) - ### Artist - \ \ Left 4 Dead](/content/games/left-4-dead "Read the Dbljump article on Left 4 Dead."/index.html) - \ \ Left 4 Dead 2](/content/games/left-4-dead-2 "Read the Dbljump article on Left 4 Dead 2."/index.html) - ### Creative Director - \ \ Quantum Conundrum](/content/games/quantum-conundrum "Read the Dbljump article on Quantum Conundrum."/index.html) ## Personal details | Born | United States | ## Personal life ### Birth and nationality Swift is American and was born around 1983, according to a profile at _IEEE Spectrum_. ## Education ### Degree at DigiPen Swift is a 2005 graduate of the Bachelor of Science in Real-Time Interactive Simulation program at the DigiPen Insititute of Technology in Washington, USA. She told _Eurogamer_: "I was in my Junior year of high school and I knew that I really wanted to make videogames... I was talking to my Dad about possibly going into a Computer Science programme somewhere so I could maybe break into the games industry one day. He had heard about DigiPen from a coworker and suggested I apply there." ## Career ### GCD Awards host Swift hosted the 20th Game Developers Choice Awards ceremony in 2020. ### Hiring by Valve Swift's first job was at [Valve Corporation](/content/companies/valve-corporation/index.html). She was hired "on the spot" by Valve boss [Gabe Newell](/content/people/gabe-newell/index.html) after she and her team demonstrated a game prototype named [Narbacular Drop](/content/games/narbacular-drop/index.html), which was Swift's senior college project at DigiPen. Narbacular Drop became the foundation for the highly acclaimed puzzle game [Portal](/content/games/portal/index.html). Swift also worked as an artist on [Left 4 Dead](/content/games/left-4-dead/index.html) and [Left 4 Dead 2](/content/games/left-4-dead-2/index.html) while at Valve. ### Roles after Valve After leaving Valve, Swift joined the small development team [Airtight Games](/content/companies/airtight-games/index.html) before moving on to roles at large gaming companies. - **Airtight Games:** Swift was creative director on the first-person physics puzzler [Quantum Conundrum](/content/games/quantum-conundrum/index.html), which was developed by a team of 17 people and published by [Square Enix](/content/companies/square-enix/index.html), and the [Ouya](/content/platforms/ouya/index.html)-exclusive dungeon crawler [Soul Fjord](/content/games/soul-fjord/index.html). - **Amazon Game Studios:** Swift was hired by Amazon as a senior designer when the company opened [its gaming division](/content/companies/amazon-games/index.html) in 2014. - **Electronic Arts:** Swift joined [EA](/content/companies/electronic-arts-inc/index.html)'s Motive Studios as a design director in 2017. - **Google:** [Google](/content/companies/google-inc/index.html) hired Swift as design director of its cloud-based game streaming platform [Google Stadia](/content/platforms/stadia/index.html). - **Microsoft:** Swift was hired by [Microsoft](/content/companies/microsoft-corporation/index.html) in 2021 "to build a team focused on new experiences in the cloud" with the goal of building cloud-native games, according to a _Polygon_ article quoting [Xbox Game Studios](/content/companies/xbox-game-studios/index.html) publishing head Peter Wyse. ## Personal views ### Making players feel smart Swift has said that good puzzle design makes players feel smart. She told _Game Developer_: "You get a really good endorphin rush from the satisfaction of feeling smart... You have a problem in front of you, and if you can solve it, and figure it out, it just makes you feel really smart, and really clever. After people play our game, I want them to feel clever." ### Approach as creative director In a _Game Developer_ interview in 2012, Swift described her role as a creative director as follows: "I like to do a little bit of everything, and I have a background in programming, and I have a background in art as well as design... more than anything else, I like contributing to the project." ### Call to female game developers Swift called on women in the industry to make themselves more visible in a 2013 blog post, as reported by _GamesIndustry.biz_. "Be everything that the younger versions of us could've pointed to and proudly said: 'Girls make games too,'" wrote Swift. "When I blather endlessly about a game I'm working on... I hope that there's a little girl out there that realises her dreams are achievable." ## Recognition and commentary ### GDC Award wins for Portal Swift received the "Innovation" and "Game of the Year" awards at the GDC Awards for her work as lead designer on [Portal](/content/games/portal/index.html). Portal's lead writer [Erik Wolpaw](/content/people/erik-wolpaw/index.html) was a co-recipient. ### Forbes list _Forbes_ included Swift in its 2012 list of "30 Under 30" high-profile young game creators. ### Industry prominence Swift has featured on numerous lists of the most prominent women working in the games industry, including those published by _The New York Times_, _Game Developer_, and _Kotaku_. ## References 01. Karlin, S.(2011, December 28). Profile: Kim Swift. IEEE Spectrum. IEEE. [https://spectrum.ieee.org/profile-kim-swift](https://spectrum.ieee.org/profile-kim-swift). 02. DigiPen(2012, January 30). DigiPen Graduate Kim Swift Featured in IEEE Spectrum Magazine. [https://www.digipen.edu/showcase/news/graduate-kim-swift-featured-in-ieee-spectrum-magazine](https://www.digipen.edu/showcase/news/graduate-kim-swift-featured-in-ieee-spectrum-magazine). 03. Walker, J.(2009, December 20). Narbacular Drop. Eurogamer. Gamer Network Limited. [https://www.eurogamer.net/narbacular-drop-interview](https://www.eurogamer.net/narbacular-drop-interview). 04. Edwards, N.(2021, February 15). A Celebration Of Women In The Video Games Industry. GameByte. [https://www.gamebyte.com/a-celebration-of-women-in-the-video-games-industry/](https://www.gamebyte.com/a-celebration-of-women-in-the-video-games-industry/). 05. Campbell, C.(2012, June 20). Being Kim Swift. IGN. Ziff Davis, Inc.[https://www.ign.com/articles/2012/06/20/being-kim-swift](https://www.ign.com/articles/2012/06/20/being-kim-swift). 06. Hollister, S.(2021, June 21). Microsoft will build native Xbox games for the cloud, and the woman behind Portal will lead. The Verge. Vox Media, LLC. [https://www.theverge.com/2021/6/21/22544018/microsoft-xbox-hire-portal-developer-kim-swift-cloud-native-games](https://www.theverge.com/2021/6/21/22544018/microsoft-xbox-hire-portal-developer-kim-swift-cloud-native-games). 07. Nutt, C.(2012, May 4). The Inclusive Design of Kim Swift. Game Developer. Informa PLC. [https://www.gamedeveloper.com/design/the-inclusive-design-of-kim-swift](https://www.gamedeveloper.com/design/the-inclusive-design-of-kim-swift). 08. McKeand, K.(2017, January 20). Portal designer Kim Swift joins EA’s Motive “to work on our new IP and Star Wars projects”. PCGamesN. Publisher Collective. [https://www.pcgamesn.com/kim-swift-ea-motive-studios](https://www.pcgamesn.com/kim-swift-ea-motive-studios). 09. Schreier, J.(2014, April 2). Amazon Hires Portal's Kim Swift, Far Cry 2's Clint Hocking. Kotaku. G/O Media. [https://kotaku.com/amazon-hires-portals-kim-swift-far-cry-2s-clint-hock-1557091175](https://kotaku.com/amazon-hires-portals-kim-swift-far-cry-2s-clint-hock-1557091175). 10. Weber, R.(2013, January 3). Kim Swift's call to arms for female devs. GamesIndustry.biz. Gamer Network Limited. [https://www.gamesindustry.biz/kim-swifts-call-to-arms](https://www.gamesindustry.biz/kim-swifts-call-to-arms). 11. Rigney, R.(2013, November 21). Games That Changed Everything: The Most Wired Games of the Generation. Wired. Condé Nast. [https://www.wired.com/2013/11/most-wired-games/](https://www.wired.com/2013/11/most-wired-games/). 12. Suellentrop, C.(2014, August 19). Saluting the Women Behind the Screen. The New York Times. . [https://www.nytimes.com/2014/08/20/arts/video-games/those-underappreciated-female-video-game-pioneers.html](https://www.nytimes.com/2014/08/20/arts/video-games/those-underappreciated-female-video-game-pioneers.html). 13. Ruberg, B.(2008, May 22). Women in Games: The Gamasutra 20. Game Developer. Informa PLC. [https://www.gamedeveloper.com/business/women-in-games-the-gamasutra-20](https://www.gamedeveloper.com/business/women-in-games-the-gamasutra-20). 14. Schwimmer, T.(2010, January 1). The Ten Most Influential Women In Games Of The Past Decade. Kotaku. G/O Media. [https://kotaku.com/the-ten-most-influential-women-in-games-of-the-past-dec-5438346](https://kotaku.com/the-ten-most-influential-women-in-games-of-the-past-dec-5438346).