Kellee Santiago

Last updated
Kellee Santiago
Kellee Santiago - Game Developers Conference 2010 - Day 1.jpg
Santiago at the Game Developers Conference in 2010
Born
Caracas, Venezuela
Occupation(s)Game designer, producer
Known for Thatgamecompany
Notable work Cloud , Flow , Flower , Journey
SpouseMike Stein
Website kelleesantiago.com

Kellee Santiago is a Venezuelan American video game designer and producer. She is the co-founder and former president of thatgamecompany. Santiago was born in Caracas, Venezuela, and raised in Richmond, Virginia, where Santiago played video games from a young age and was encouraged by her software engineer father to experiment with computers. While attending New York University's Tisch School of the Arts, she became active in experimental theater, planning to pursue it after earning a master's degree in the Interactive Media Program of the School of Cinematic Arts at the University of Southern California. However, Santiago became involved in video game design and produced Cloud, a game developed by Jenova Chen and a student team. Its success sparked her and Chen to found thatgamecompany upon graduating, and she became the president.

Contents

Santiago produced the studio's first two games, Flow and Flower, moving more into her president role during the development of the third game, Journey. In addition to her work at thatgamecompany, Santiago is one of the backers of the Indie Fund. Indie Fund is a group that invests in the development of independent video games and is a TED fellow. She married the fellow University of Southern California graduate Mike Stein in 2010. After the release of Journey in 2012, Santiago left the company; since then, Santiago has served on several advisory boards and worked for Ouya and Google Play Games in several roles. In 2019, she joined Niantic as the head of developer relations.

Biography

Santiago was born in Caracas, Venezuela, and was raised in Richmond, Virginia. [1] She played video games from a young age, cooperatively playing them with her younger brother; one of her earliest games was Sleuth , which she describes as "simple, but so effective and so evocative" in instilling emotion in the player. [2] Her father, a software engineer, had a computer in the house from when she was young, and encouraged Santiago to experiment with it. [2] She moved to New York City at the age of 18 to attend the Tisch School of the Arts of New York University, [3] where she was involved in amateur theater. She focused in theater on developing new works, rather than adapting older ones, and was especially drawn towards incorporating interactive digital media into her works. She ascribes this to her father's work in software engineering and her experiments with computers, which drove her into using them in her performances as she had more experience than the others in her group. [4]

She moved to Los Angeles in 2003 when she was 24, and studied towards a master's degree in the Interactive Media Program of the School of Cinematic Arts at the University of Southern California. [1] Her intention was to remain in theater, but in her second semester took a class taught by Tracy Fullerton on the history of game design, which inspired her to focus her studies on video game design instead. [4] The class caused her to realize "how much hadn't been done" in the realm of communication and expression in video games and the lack of established structure and rules as to how it was best to make games, which appealed to the part of her that was interested in experimental theater. [5] While at school she produced the award-winning game Cloud , a videogame that depicts a story that explores the ideas of an out-of-body experience and was developed by Jenova Chen and a student team, [6] [7] and also worked on other video games such as Darfur is Dying . [8]

Cloud was intended as an experiment by the group to see if they could create a game that "expressed something different than video games had in the past", as well as determine the level of interest in the gaming community for video games of that nature. The game received over 400,000 downloads in the first four months after release, "more than every single person in every single theater [she] had ever worked in," which convinced Santiago to remain in the video game industry indefinitely. [2] The strong response to the game, released in 2005, inspired her and Chen to consider founding their own company to continue making games like it after they left school—where the design was based on the emotions they wanted to inspire rather than gameplay mechanics. [9]

thatgamecompany

Upon graduating, Santiago and Chen founded thatgamecompany in May 2006, with a contract with Sony Computer Entertainment to develop three games for the PlayStation Network. In addition to her role as president of the company, she also initially served as the producer for the studio. Despite her job title, she was still involved in the design of the games as well. [10] The first game by the studio was Flow , an adaptation of a game that Chen had made for his thesis at USC, which was released in 2007. The game caused the studio to be noted as a key figure of independent video game development; in 2008, Gamasutra recognized the studio as one of the "20 Breakthrough Developers" of the year, emphasizing Santiago's key role. [11] [12] The second game for the studio, and the first to be completely original to the company, was Flower , released in 2009. Both titles were heavily praised by critics and received several awards, as well as garnering high sales. [13] [14] For the studio's third game, Journey , thatgamecompany hired Robin Hunicke as the producer, allowing Santiago to focus more on directing the company as a whole. [15] Journey was released on March 13, 2012; two weeks later on March 29, 2012, Santiago announced her departure from thatgamecompany, not specifying what her plans were for the future. [16]

During the development of Journey, in 2009, Santiago became a TED fellow, giving a talk at a USC conference where she discussed whether video games were art, which was responded to a year later by Roger Ebert. [17] Santiago was one of the backers of the Indie Fund, started in March 2010, a group which invests in the development of independent video games. [18] In October 2010, Santiago married Mike Stein, whom she met while they were both at the University of Southern California. [19] In 2011 she was named as one of the top 100 most influential women in technology by the Magazine Fast Company focusing on design, technology and business. [20]

Developer relations

In March 2013, Santiago joined Ouya, a microconsole which allows the owner to be a developer in order to lead developer relations. [21] She also joined the Women in Games International advisory board in May 2014. [22] In this time period, she also became an official advisor for Night Light Interactive. [23] In October 2015, following the sale and dissolution of the company, Santiago left Ouya for Google Play Games. [24] In 2019, she left Google to become the head of developer relations at Niantic. [25] [26]

Influences and philosophy

External videos
Kellee Santiago - 2006.jpg
Nuvola apps kaboodle.svg The Art of Video Games: Interview with Kellee Santiago, Jenova Chen, and Robin Hunicke, Smithsonian American Art Museum [27]

Santiago described her work at thatgamecompany as creating emotional responses, in order to demonstrate that video games can create a wider range of experiences than are typically shown. [5] She felt that thatgamecompany's goal during her tenure there was "to create games that push the boundaries of videogames as a communicative medium, and to create games that appeal to a wide variety of people." Through this she hopes to change the rest of the industry to also approach making videogames as a "creative medium" rather than a product. [4] She, both independently with the Indie Fund and through thatgamecompany has tried to support the independent video game development industry by funding and connecting independent game developers. [15]

Related Research Articles

The University of Southern California's School of Cinematic Arts's Interactive Media & Games Division first accepted M.F.A. students in 2002. The division currently offers both undergraduate (B.A.) and graduate (M.F.A.) programs in interactive media and game design. The programs include courses in game design, development, audio, animation, and user research as well as experimental work in gestural and immersive interfaces, transmedia design, and interactive cinema.

<i>Cloud</i> (video game) 2005 video game

Cloud is a 2005 puzzle video game developed by a team of students in the University of Southern California's (USC) Interactive Media Program. The team began development of the game for Microsoft Windows in January 2005 with a US$20,000 grant from the USC Game Innovation Lab; the game was released as a free download that October. By July 2006, the hosting website had received 6 million visits, and the game had been downloaded 600,000 times.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Jenova Chen</span> Chinese video game designer

Xinghan Chen, known professionally as Jenova Chen, is a Chinese video game designer. He is the designer of the award-winning games Cloud, Flow, Flower, and Journey, and is co-founder of Thatgamecompany.

<i>Flow</i> (video game) 2006 indie video game

Flow is an independent video game created by Jenova Chen and Nicholas Clark. Originally released as a free Flash game in 2006 to accompany Chen's master's thesis, it was reworked into a 2007 PlayStation 3 game by his development studio, Thatgamecompany, with assistance from Santa Monica Studio. SuperVillain Studios developed a PlayStation Portable version of the game in 2008, and PlayStation 4 and PlayStation Vita versions in 2013. In Flow, the player navigates a series of two-dimensional (2D) planes with an aquatic microorganism that evolves by consuming other microorganisms. The game's design is based on Chen's research into dynamic difficulty adjustment at the University of Southern California's Interactive Media Division, and on psychologist Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi's theoretical concept of mental immersion or flow.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Thatgamecompany</span> American video game developer

Thatgamecompany, Inc. is an American independent video game development company founded by University of Southern California students Jenova Chen and Kellee Santiago in 2006. The company was a developer for Sony Computer Entertainment, contracted to create three downloadable games for the PlayStation 3's PlayStation Network service, and has since secured independent funding. The first of their games is a remake of Chen's award-winning Flash title Flow, with enhanced visuals and sound, added multiplayer modes and compatibility with the PlayStation 3's motion-sensitive controller. The title was released on the PlayStation Store in 2007. The company's second PlayStation 3 game, Flower, was released on the PlayStation Store in 2009, and their third game, Journey, was released in March 2012 on the PlayStation Store. Their fourth game, Sky: Children of the Light, was released in July 2019 on iOS and in April 2020 on Android. Later, it released on the Nintendo Switch in June 2021 and on PlayStation 4 in December 2022.

<i>Game Design Workshop</i>

Game Design Workshop is a book on game design by Tracy Fullerton, originally published by CMP Books in 2004. It has been updated and released in four subsequent editions, the latest by A K Peters/CRC Press in 2023.

<i>Flower</i> (video game) 2009 video game

Flower is a video game developed by Thatgamecompany and published by Sony Computer Entertainment. It was designed by Jenova Chen and Nicholas Clark and was released in February 2009 on the PlayStation 3, via the PlayStation Network. PlayStation 4 and PlayStation Vita versions of the game were ported by Bluepoint Games and released in November 2013. An iOS version was released in September 2017, and a Windows version was released in February 2019, both published by Annapurna Interactive. The game was intended as a "spiritual successor" to Flow, a previous title by Chen and Thatgamecompany. In Flower, the player controls the wind, blowing a flower petal through the air using the movement of the game controller. Flying close to flowers results in the player's petal being followed by other flower petals. Approaching flowers may also have side-effects on the game world, such as bringing vibrant color to previously dead fields or activating stationary wind turbines. The game features no text or dialogue, forming a narrative arc primarily through visual representation and emotional cues.

VVVVVV is a 2010 puzzle-platform game created by Terry Cavanagh. In the game, the player controls Captain Viridian, who must rescue their spacecrew after a teleporter malfunction caused them to be separated in Dimension VVVVVV. The gameplay is characterized by the inability of the player to jump, instead opting on controlling the direction of gravity, causing the player to fall upwards or downwards. The game consists of more than 400 individual rooms, and also supports the creation of user-created levels.

<i>Journey</i> (2012 video game) 2012 video game

Journey is an indie adventure game developed by Thatgamecompany, published by Sony Computer Entertainment, and directed by Jenova Chen. It was released for the PlayStation 3 via PlayStation Network in March 2012 and ported to PlayStation 4 in July 2015. It was later ported to Windows in June 2019 and iOS in August 2019.

<i>Bastion</i> (video game) Action role-playing video game

Bastion is an action role-playing video game developed by independent developer Supergiant Games and originally published in 2011 by Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment. In the game, the player controls "the Kid" as he moves through floating, fantasy-themed environments and fights enemies of various types. It features a dynamic voiceover from a narrator, and is presented as a two-dimensional game with an isometric camera and a hand-painted, colorful art style. Bastion's story follows the Kid as he collects special shards of rock to power a structure, the Bastion, in the wake of an apocalyptic Calamity.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Robin Hunicke</span> American video game designer and producer (born 1973)

Robin Hunicke is an American video game designer and producer. She is a professor of game design at UC Santa Cruz and the co-founder of Funomena.

The Indie Fund is an organization created by several independent game developers to help fund budding indie video game development. The Indie Fund was created in early 2010, its purpose aimed "to encourage the next generation of game developers" by providing them funding for development of these games without the terms that would normally be associated with publication agreements.

<i>Broken Age</i> 2015 video game

Broken Age is a point-and-click adventure video game developed and published by Double Fine. Broken Age was game director Tim Schafer's first return to the genre since 1998's Grim Fandango, and was released for Microsoft Windows, macOS, Linux, iOS, Android, PlayStation 4, PlayStation Vita, and Xbox One platforms. The game was developed in two acts; the first was released on January 28, 2014, and the second was released on April 28, 2015. A retail version of the complete game for Windows, macOS, and Linux, published by Nordic Games, was released on April 28, 2015. A Nintendo Switch version was released on September 13, 2018.

The Critical Path Project is a video archive of interviews with video game designers and developers.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Microconsole</span> Type of video game console

A microconsole is a home video game console that is typically powered by low-cost computing hardware, making the console lower-priced compared to other home consoles on the market. The majority of microconsoles, with a few exceptions such as the PlayStation TV and OnLive Game System, are Android-based digital media players that are bundled with gamepads and marketed as gaming devices. Such microconsoles can be connected to the television to play video games downloaded from an application store such as Google Play.

<i>TowerFall</i> 2013 action video game

TowerFall is an action indie video game created by Maddy Thorson through her company Maddy Makes Games. In the game, players control up to four archers in a multiplayer platform fighter. It was released on the Ouya microconsole in June 2013 and was later ported to PlayStation 4, Xbox One, Linux, OS X, and Windows as TowerFall Ascension and to the Nintendo Switch under its original title of TowerFall.

<i>That Dragon, Cancer</i> 2016 video game

That Dragon, Cancer is an art video game created by Ryan and Amy Green, Josh Larson, and a small team under the name Numinous Games. The game is an autobiography based on the Greens' experience of raising their son Joel, who was diagnosed with terminal cancer at twelve months old. Though only given a short time to live, Joel survived for four more years before succumbing to the cancer in March 2014.

<i>Thralled</i> Video game

Thralled is a platform puzzle video game about an 18th-century runaway slave and her baby escaping the Portuguese slave trade. The game began as a senior project in the USC Interactive Media & Games Division and later became an Ouya exclusive after being discovered by Kellee Santiago.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Night Light Interactive</span>

Night Light Interactive, LLC is an American video game company founded in 2012 and based in North Hills, California that has developed the video game Whispering Willows.

References

  1. 1 2 Santiago, Kellee. "Kellee Santiago". Archived from the original on 2009-06-04. Retrieved 2011-02-01.
  2. 1 2 3 Herro, Alanna (2010-10-08). "Fellows Friday with Kellee Santiago". TED . Sapling Foundation. Archived from the original on 2010-10-20. Retrieved 2011-03-10.
  3. ↑ Santiago, Kellee (May 2006). "Thesis Paper Excerpts A" (PDF). kelleesantiago.com. Archived from the original (PDF) on 2008-11-20. Retrieved 2011-03-15.
  4. 1 2 3 "Dopamin statt Adrenalin: der sensationelle Erfolg von Thatgamecompany". Innovation Stuntmen. 2010-10-07. Archived from the original on 2011-05-03. Retrieved 2011-02-02.
  5. 1 2 Young, Nora (2010-12-22). "Full Interview: Kellee Santiago". CBC Radio One. Archived from the original on 2011-05-03. Retrieved 2011-02-04.
  6. ↑ "Cloud Creation". University of Southern California. Archived from the original on 2011-05-03. Retrieved 2011-01-20.
  7. ↑ Shamoon, Evan (July 2006). "Check Out My Flow". Wired . Vol. 14, no. 7. ISSN   1059-1028. Archived from the original on 2010-03-26. Retrieved 2011-01-05.
  8. ↑ Santiago, Kellee. "CV". Archived from the original on 2009-06-04. Retrieved 2011-02-01.
  9. ↑ Elliot, Phil (2010-02-07). "Thatgamecompany's Kellee Santiago". Eurogamer . Retrieved 2011-02-02.
  10. ↑ Dugan, Patrick (2010-01-26). "Interview: ThatGameCompany's Santiago, Hunicke, On Designing For The Love". Gamasutra. Archived from the original on 2010-10-20. Retrieved 2011-03-14.
  11. ↑ Jongewaard, Dana (2008-08-13). "The Gamasutra 20: 2008's Breakthrough Developers". Gamasutra. Archived from the original on 2010-05-13. Retrieved 2009-03-14.
  12. ↑ France, Lisa Respers (2009-03-23). "Developer explores the softer side of video games". CNN. Archived from the original on 2009-05-01. Retrieved 2011-02-01.
  13. ↑ "2008 Interactive Achievement Awards". Academy of Interactive Arts & Sciences. Archived from the original on 2011-05-16. Retrieved 2011-01-12.
  14. ↑ "AIAS Annual Awards > 13th Annual Awards". Academy of Interactive Arts and Sciences. 2010-02-18. Archived from the original on 2011-05-03. Retrieved 2010-02-19.
  15. 1 2 Sheffield, Brandon (2009-07-01). "Interview: Kellee Santiago Talks Thatgamecompany's Road Ahead". Gamasutra. Archived from the original on 2010-05-09. Retrieved 2011-02-01.
  16. ↑ Alexander, Leigh (2012-03-29). "Changes at Thatgamecompany: Santiago departs, new game underway". Gamasutra. Archived from the original on 2012-04-01. Retrieved 2012-03-29.
  17. ↑ Santiago, Kellee (2010-04-19). "My Response To Roger Ebert, Video Game Skeptic". Kotaku . Retrieved 2011-03-10.
  18. ↑ Carless, Simon (2010-03-10). "Independent Game Luminaries Announce Indie Fund". Gamasutra. Archived from the original on 2010-10-17. Retrieved 2011-02-01.
  19. ↑ "Kellee & Mike - Our Story". 2010-03-25. Archived from the original on 2011-05-03. Retrieved 2011-01-13.
  20. ↑ Dishman, Lydia (10 January 2011). "Most Influential Women in Technology - Kellee Santiago". Fast Company . Retrieved 2012-10-26.
  21. ↑ Johnson, Erik. "Thatgamecompany's Kellee Santiago joins Ouya team". MCV . Retrieved 2015-01-06.
  22. ↑ Gera, Emily (2014-05-16). "Former Thatgamecompany president joins Women in Games International advisory board". Polygon . Archived from the original on 2014-05-16. Retrieved 2014-05-16.
  23. ↑ "Credits". nightlightinteractive.com. Archived from the original on 2017-03-31. Retrieved 2017-03-30.
  24. ↑ Johnson, Erik (2015-10-08). "Kellee Santiago leaves Ouya, joins Google Play Games". MCV . Archived from the original on 2015-10-16. Retrieved 2015-10-17.
  25. ↑ "Kellee Santiago". LinkedIn . Retrieved 2021-01-28.
  26. ↑ "Q&A: Niantic's Kellee Santiago talks video game development". The Mercury News . 2020-01-24. Retrieved 2021-01-28.
  27. ↑ "The Art of Video Games: Interview with Kellee Santiago, Jenova Chen, and Robin Hunicke". American Art Museum . Retrieved February 19, 2013.

This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.