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'''Brenda Brathwaite''' (born 12 October 1966) is an [[Irish-American]] [[game designer]] and [[video game developer|developer]] in the [[video game industry]] best known for her work on the Wizardry series of role playing games and, more recently, the non-digital series The Mechanic is the Message. She has worked in game development since 1981 and has credits on 22 game titles. Examples of her credits include the award-winning series ''[[Wizardry]]'' for which Brenda provided game design, level design, system design, writing and scripting.<ref name="Wizardry 8 on Mobygames">{{cite web|url=http://www.mobygames.com/game/windows/wizardry-8/credits |title=Game Credits for Wizardry 8 |publisher=Mobygames.com |date=2008-05-19 |accessdate=2010-03-14}}</ref> She also wrote the manuals and documentation for some products in the series.<ref name="Wizardry Gold on Mobygames">{{cite web|url=http://www.mobygames.com/game/wizardry-gold |title=Wizardry Gold |publisher=MobyGames |date= |accessdate=2010-03-14}}</ref> Brenda provided writing and documentation for the award-winning Jagged Alliance series.<ref name="Jagged Alliance on Mobygames">{{cite web|url=http://www.mobygames.com/game/jagged-alliance |title=Jagged Alliance |publisher=MobyGames |date=2004-06-25 |accessdate=2010-03-14}}</ref> Brenda also worked on other notable IPs including games such as ''[[Def Jam: Icon]]'', ''[[Playboy: The Mansion]]'', ''[[Dungeons & Dragons: Heroes]]'', etcetera. Brenda served as Chair of the Savannah College of Art and Design's Interactive Design and Game Development department until November 2009. She |
'''Brenda Brathwaite''' (born 12 October 1966) is an [[Irish-American]] [[game designer]] and [[video game developer|developer]] in the [[video game industry]] best known for her work on the Wizardry series of role playing games and, more recently, the non-digital series The Mechanic is the Message. She has worked in game development since 1981 and has credits on 22 game titles. Examples of her credits include the award-winning series ''[[Wizardry]]'' for which Brenda provided game design, level design, system design, writing and scripting.<ref name="Wizardry 8 on Mobygames">{{cite web|url=http://www.mobygames.com/game/windows/wizardry-8/credits |title=Game Credits for Wizardry 8 |publisher=Mobygames.com |date=2008-05-19 |accessdate=2010-03-14}}</ref> She also wrote the manuals and documentation for some products in the series.<ref name="Wizardry Gold on Mobygames">{{cite web|url=http://www.mobygames.com/game/wizardry-gold |title=Wizardry Gold |publisher=MobyGames |date= |accessdate=2010-03-14}}</ref> Brenda provided writing and documentation for the award-winning Jagged Alliance series.<ref name="Jagged Alliance on Mobygames">{{cite web|url=http://www.mobygames.com/game/jagged-alliance |title=Jagged Alliance |publisher=MobyGames |date=2004-06-25 |accessdate=2010-03-14}}</ref> Brenda also worked on other notable IPs including games such as ''[[Def Jam: Icon]]'', ''[[Playboy: The Mansion]]'', ''[[Dungeons & Dragons: Heroes]]'', etcetera. Brenda served as Chair of the Savannah College of Art and Design's Interactive Design and Game Development department until November 2009. She moved to San Francisco to consult as Creative Director for social media company Slide, Inc., and then became Creative Director of social media game company LOLapps, Inc. in May 2010. |
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"[[Next Generation Magazine]]" identified her as the woman with the longest continuous service in video game development.<ref name=yesteryear>{{cite web|url=http://www.next-gen.biz/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=6803&Itemid=2|title=Celebrating Female Game Devs of Yesteryear|accessdate=February 2009|quote=The longest-serving female game developer in the business will also be attending the WIGI Conference. Brenda Brathwaite...}}</ref> |
"[[Next Generation Magazine]]" identified her as the woman with the longest continuous service in video game development.<ref name=yesteryear>{{cite web|url=http://www.next-gen.biz/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=6803&Itemid=2|title=Celebrating Female Game Devs of Yesteryear|accessdate=February 2009|quote=The longest-serving female game developer in the business will also be attending the WIGI Conference. Brenda Brathwaite...}}</ref> |
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Revision as of 20:23, 18 May 2010
Brenda Brathwaite | |
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| File:Brenda scad 1.png | |
| Born | October 12, 1966 |
| Occupation | Video game designer |
Brenda Brathwaite (born 12 October 1966) is an Irish-American game designer and developer in the video game industry best known for her work on the Wizardry series of role playing games and, more recently, the non-digital series The Mechanic is the Message. She has worked in game development since 1981 and has credits on 22 game titles. Examples of her credits include the award-winning series Wizardry for which Brenda provided game design, level design, system design, writing and scripting.[1] She also wrote the manuals and documentation for some products in the series.[2] Brenda provided writing and documentation for the award-winning Jagged Alliance series.[3] Brenda also worked on other notable IPs including games such as Def Jam: Icon, Playboy: The Mansion, Dungeons & Dragons: Heroes, etcetera. Brenda served as Chair of the Savannah College of Art and Design's Interactive Design and Game Development department until November 2009. She moved to San Francisco to consult as Creative Director for social media company Slide, Inc., and then became Creative Director of social media game company LOLapps, Inc. in May 2010.
"Next Generation Magazine" identified her as the woman with the longest continuous service in video game development.[4] In 2006, Brathwaite was named one of the 100 most influential women in the game industry by "Next Generation" magazine and her peers. "Nerve" magazine cited her as a “New Radical” — one of “the 50 artists, actors, authors, activists and icons who are making the world a more stimulating place”.
She was born in Ogdensburg, New York and is a graduate of Clarkson University.
Career
Brenda Brathwaite began her career in 1981 at game maker Sir-tech Software, Inc., on the Wizardry role-playing team. She worked first as a tester,[4] and moved up through the design and content creation ranks to lead designer for the award-winning series. While at Sir-tech, Brathwaite also worked on the Jagged Alliance, Realms of Arkania series.
She was employed with Sir-tech for 18 years before moving on to game maker Atari where she worked on the Dungeons & Dragons series for consoles before joining Cyberlore Studios in 2003 to work on the Playboy: The Mansion game. Brenda's research for the game was ultimately published in a book, Sex in Video Games.
IGDA and activism
Brathwaite is an active member of the International Game Developers Association. In 2008, she was elected to the IGDA's Board of Directors.
She founded the International Game Developers Sex Special Interest group[4] in 2005. Since working on Playboy, she has studied adult and sexual content in video games and is regularly interviewed about the subject in the media. She has written a book on the subject, Sex in Video Games.
She is an anti-censorship activist and a proponent of parental rating awareness.
Academics
She is a regular speaker at universities and conferences including the Game Developers Conference, Austin Game Developers Conference, and Montreal International Games Summit. Some of her lectures have been held at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, The Guildhall at Southern Methodist University, and Clarkson University.
In the spring of 2007, she was awarded the Presidential Fellowship at Savannah College of Art and Design to develop an exhibit and presentation titled, “What You Don’t Know About Video Games…”. In April 2008, Brathwaite became Chair of the Interactive Design and Game Development department at the Savannah College of Art and Design. Brathwaite left SCAD in November 2009 to return to full-time commercial game development.
Mechanic is the Message
In February 2008, Brathwaite began work on a series of non-digital games known collectively as "The Mechanic is the Message." According to the series abstract,
"The Mechanic is the Message captures and expresses difficult experiences through the medium of a game. Much like photographs, paintings, literature and music are capable of transmitting the full range of the human experience from one human to another, so too can games. Due to their interactivity, the installation suggests that games are capable of a higher form of communication, one which actively engages the participant and makes them a part of the experience rather than a passive observer."[5]
The Mechanic is the Message is composed of six separate non-digital games that experiment with the traditional notion of the word “game”.
- The New World, 2008
- Síochán leat (aka “The Irish Game”), 2009
- Train, 2009
- Mexican Kitchen Workers – in prototype
- Cité Soliel - in concepting
- One Falls for Each of Us – in concepting
Of the six, Train has received the most attention, and won the Vanguard Award at Indiecade in October 2009 for "pushing the boundaries of game design and showing us what games can do."[6] Train was also featured in the Wall Street Journal[7] as well as on game industry sites including Gamasutra where it received accolades for its ability to evoke meaning through gestures,[8] the Escapist Magazine[9] and on Kotaku.[10]
Síochán leat (Gaelic for "peace by with you") chronicles the history of her children's heritage.[11] Brathwaite made the game following The New World, a game she originally made to teach her daughter about the slave trade. Síochán leat was a follow up designed to teach Brathwaite's daughter about her Irish heritage and traces the family's history from the Cromwellian invasion of Ireland to their ancestor's eventual immigration into the West Indies on the paternal side and Canada on the maternal side. The game features a burlap pillow simulating an earthen mound covered by 26 pieces of grass, each representing a county in Ireland. In a talk given at the Austin Game Developers Conference in September 2009, Brathwaite noted that the burlap was filled with mementos of her upbringing and her heritage, including photographs of her great grandfather, Paddy Donovan, and one of her mother's rosaries. On her blog, Brathwaite notes that "the game is signed in many ways and is highly autobiographical. It is my history and it also reveals my feelings about its present state." [12]
References
- ^ "Game Credits for Wizardry 8". Mobygames.com. 2008-05-19. Retrieved 2010-03-14.
- ^ "Wizardry Gold". MobyGames. Retrieved 2010-03-14.
- ^ "Jagged Alliance". MobyGames. 2004-06-25. Retrieved 2010-03-14.
- ^ a b c "Celebrating Female Game Devs of Yesteryear". Retrieved February 2009.
The longest-serving female game developer in the business will also be attending the WIGI Conference. Brenda Brathwaite...
{{cite web}}: Check date values in:|accessdate=(help) - ^ "The Mechanic is the Message". Mechanicmessage.wordpress.com. 2009-05-07. Retrieved 2010-03-14.
- ^ "applauds 2009 finalists and awardees! | IndieCade - International Festivals of Independent Games". IndieCade. Retrieved 2010-03-14.
- ^ Brophy, Jamin (2009-06-24). "Can You Make a Board Game About the Holocaust?: Meet "Train" - Speakeasy - WSJ". Blogs.wsj.com. Retrieved 2010-03-14.
- ^ "Sande Chen's Blog - Reflections on Train". Gamasutra. Retrieved 2010-03-14.
- ^ "The Escapist : TGC 2009: How a Board Game Can Make You Cry". Escapistmagazine.com. 2009-05-01. Retrieved 2010-03-14.
- ^ "In Defense Of The Classic Controller - Project Natal". Kotaku. 2009-06-29. Retrieved 2010-03-14.
- ^ "On Train and "The Irish Game" « Shambling Rambling Babbling". Caseyodonnell.org. 2009-07-29. Retrieved 2010-03-14.
- ^ by bbrathwaite (2009-07-26). "Sign Your Work « Applied Game Design". Bbrathwaite.wordpress.com. Retrieved 2010-03-14.