Alright, listen up people.
You see this person here? You see this amazing person right here?
This is Kim Swift, people.
You might be asking yourself, who’s Kim Swift? Well, let’s go into a little history:
In 2005, Swift made a game for a student project at her college by the name of Narbacular Drop. You’ve probably never heard of it, but I’m pretty sure almost all of you have heard of the game that it eventually became:
Yup. Gabe Newell was so impressed by the level design and game mechanics of Narbacular Drop that he immediately hired Swift to work at Valve, where she became the leader of the Portal development team and the level designer, and went on to win both the “Innovation” and “Game of the Year” awards at GDC 2007 along with Eric Walpaw. She worked on both games in the Left 4 Dead series, as well.
Oh, and she’s also one of the main people responsible for the design of GLaDOS. Mother. Fucking. GlaDOS.
How amazing is that?
So, why am I telling you all of this? Simple. I’ve seen tons and tons of Portal and GLaDOS appreciation posts on here, most of which with thousands of notes. And I figured you’d all wanna know about one of the awesome ladies that made them happen.
Plus, Kim Swift is honestly one of my inspirations as someone getting into software engineering and possibly wants to develop games at some point. And I think she could serve as an inspiration to anyone.
This has been a Kim Swift Appreciation Post™.
