Kim Swift, a prolific game designer known best for her work at Valve on Left 4 Dead and Portal, has left Amazon Game Studios to work at EA’s motive Studios as design director.
Once we know what she’s working on, we can add it to our upcoming PC games list.
“It’s with great pleasure that I welcome Kim Swift to Motive Studios and EA as design director,” says Jade Raymond, group general manager at Motive Studios and Visceral Games.
“Well known for her innovative work on the Portal and Left for Dead Franchises, Kim has already had a huge impact on the Game Industry. Motive has a mission to innovate and pioneer new ways to play and create worlds that allow for relentless discovery. I couldn’t think of a better person than Kim to help us achieve those ambitions.”
Swift has won a bunch of awards for her work, and has been named as “one of the most recognised women in the industry”. EA say they’re devoted to building up the team at Motive with some of the industry’s best talent, “to work on our new IP and Star Wars projects”.
“I could not be more excited to welcome an all-star like Kim, who shares our enthusiasm for building exceptional games,” continues Raymond. “Her first question to me: ‘When can I set up the Frostbite engine and start prototyping?’ shows a hands-on approach that we value here at Motive. The team is buzzing with new ideas and I can’t wait to see what we can bring to life together.”
There’s been some speculation that Swift will be working with Visceral on Amy Hennig’s third-person Star Wars game, but the line about her wanting to prototype makes me think she’ll be working on something that’s not already deep into development. Surely it would be more exciting to get a completely new game from Swift anyway, leaving Star Wars in Hennig’s capable hands.