List of notable women in the video game industry

This is a list of notable women in the video game industry.

Notable women in the video game industry

• Amy Hennig, is a video game director and script writer, formerly for the video game company Naughty Dog. She began her work in the industry on the Nintendo Entertainment System, with her design debut on the Super Nintendo Entertainment System game Michael Jordan: Chaos in the Windy City. She later went to work for Crystal Dynamics, working primarily on the Legacy of Kain series as the Writer and Director. With Naughty Dog, her work has been on two primary series: Jak and Daxter and Uncharted. Hennig believes that the creative direction of a script holds more importance than the graphics of the game. She has been called one of the most influential women in the video game industry by Edge magazine.
• Bonnie Ross, American video game developer and head of 343 Industries, the studio that manages the Halo video game franchise.
• Carla Meninsky, video game designer during the early years of the Atari 2600
• Carol Shaw is noted as the first female video game designer, breaking the ice for other women in the video game industry. Shaw began as an Atari employee, designing and programing 3-D Tic-Tac-Toe (1979) for the Atari 2600.^[1] Shaw later joined Activision where she designed Happy Trails for the Intellivision and River Raid for the Atari 800 and Atari 5200 for which she is most widely known. Additionally, she designed an unreleased Polo game in 1978 and worked on the game Super Breakout.^[2] Now retired, Shaw lives in California with her husband, Ralph Merkle.^[3]
• Corrinne Yu, American game programmer who started her career with the King's Quest series for the Apple II. Yu wrote the original engine for the Spec Ops series, and was a founding member of Microsoft's Direct 3D Advisory Board.
• Danielle Bunten Berry, American game designer and programmer, known for the 1983 game M.U.L.E. (one of the first influential multiplayer games), and 1984's The Seven Cities of Gold. She was the recipient of a Lifetime Achievement Award from the Computer Game Developers Association.^[4]
• Heather Kelley is a media artist and video game designer, most famous as the founder of Perfect Plum, a start-up specializing for software for women. Kelley also came up with the well-known iPhone app OhMiBod Remote. Kelly is also a co-founder of the Kokoromi experimental game collective for which she curates the annual Gamma social gaming event which showcases the best current indie games.^[5] Kelley has also worked as a game design researcher at the Hexagram institute and previously was a “Game Life artist” at the Firehouse center for the Arts. She also served as the creative director at the Emergent Media center at Champlain College.^[6] Additionally, Kelley has been involved in game-based efforts to put a stop to gender violence and held the role of co-chair at the IGDA Women in Games Development Special Interest Group.^[7]
• Jade Raymond, Canadian video game executive, founder of Electronic Arts' Motive Studios and former Managing Director of Ubisoft Toronto
• Jane Jensen, video game designer most known of the popular and critically acclaimed Gabriel Knight series of adventure games
• Jennifer Hale, voice actress best known for her work in video game franchises including Baldur's Gate, Mass Effect, Metroid Prime, Metal Gear Solid, Soulcalibur, Spider-Man, Bioshock Infinite, and Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic. In 2013, she was recognized by Guinness World Records for "the most prolific videogame voice actor (female)"
• Kellee Santiago is a video game designer and producer. While studying at the Interactive Media Program of the School of Cinematic Arts at the University of Southern California, Santiago produced the game Cloud which was developed by Jenova Chen and a team of students. After graduating, Santiago and Chen founded Thatgamecompany, and Santiago took on the role of president. The studio's first two games, which Santiago produced, are Flow and Flower (2009). Flower ranked among Sony's top 10 PlayStation games for two years in a row and the PlayStation 3 follow-up game, Journey (2012), won several video game awards as well as a Grammy nomination for Best Original Soundtrack.^[8] Santiago announced in 2012 that she would leave Thatgamecompany. Additionally she is a backer for the Indie Fund, which invests in independent video games, is a TED fellow, and is the head of developer relations for OUYA.^[9]
• Roberta Williams is an American video game designer, writer and a co-founder of Sierra On-Line (later known as Sierra Entertainment). She is known for her pioneering work in the field of graphic adventure games, with titles such as Mystery House, the King's Quest series, and Phantasmagoria, and is viewed as one of the most influential PC game designers of the eighties and nineties.^[10] She has been credited with creating the graphic adventure genre.^[11]
• Tasha Harris, American animator, artist, video game designer
• Yoko Shimomura, Japanese video game composer and pianist

References

1. "The Most Important Women in the History of Video Games – About Classic Video Games". Classicgames.about.com. Retrieved 2015-04-09.
2. "VC&G | VC&G Interview: Carol Shaw, The First Female Video Game Developer". Vintagecomputing.com. 2011-10-12. Retrieved 2015-04-09.
3. "Ralph Merkle's Home Page". Merkle.com. 1998-05-21. Retrieved 2015-04-09.
4. "Danielle Bunten Berry (1949–1998)". The Encyclopedia of Arkansas History & Culture. Retrieved February 11, 2016.
5. "Meet the 5 Most Powerful Women in Gaming". Inc.com. Retrieved 2015-04-08.
6. "Former Faculty & Staff Members | Emergent Media Center". Champlain.edu. 2014-11-05. Retrieved 2015-04-08.
7. Eaton, Kit (2011-01-10). "The Most Influential Women in Technology 2011 – Heather Kelley | Fast Company | Business + Innovation". Fastcompany.com. Retrieved 2015-04-08.
8. "Meet the 5 Most Powerful Women in Gaming". Inc.com. Retrieved 2015-04-09.
9. "TED Fellow, Game Developer, Partner At Indie Fund". Kelleesantiago.com. 2014-06-20. Retrieved 2015-04-08.
10. "Computer Gaming World – Hall of Fame". Computer Gaming World. Retrieved July 6, 2013.
11. Jong, Philip (July 16, 2006). "Roberta Williams Interview". Adventure Classic Gaming. Retrieved July 14, 2015.