Kim Swift, well known for her design work at Valve on both the original Portal and the Left 4 Dead series, has departed from Amazon Game Studios to join up with EA-owned Motive Studios as design director.
“Motive has a mission to innovate and pioneer new ways to play and create worlds that allow for relentless discovery,” said studio founder Jade Raymond in a post announcing Swift’s position. “I couldn’t think of a better person than Kim to help us achieve those ambitions.”
Swift first joined Valve in 2005 to create the original Portal and stayed with the company until leaving in 2009 to join Murdered: Soul Suspect developer Airtight Games. Following the 2014 closure of Airtight, Swift was hired on by Amazon Game Studios as a senior designer to work on still-unannounced projects.
Neither Swift nor Motive Studios has specified the exact projects she’ll be involved with in her new role as design director.
“I could not be more excited to welcome an all-star like Kim, who shares our enthusiasm for building exceptional games,” continued 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.”