Laralyn McWilliams (born 25 February 1965 in

Vicenza, Italy Vicenza ( , ; ) is a city in northeastern Italy. It is in the Veneto region at the northern base of the ''Monte Berico'', where it straddles the Bacchiglione River. Vicenza is approximately west of Venice and east of Milan. Vicenza is a thr ...

) is an American game designer and video game producer. She was creative director for Free Realms, a massively multiplayer virtual world for teens and 'tweens. In 2010, she was recognized by Massive Online Gaming as one of the most influential people in MMOs, sharing the #1 slot with Sony Online president John Smedley. Citing her role as both designer and as spokesperson for Free Realms, she was "instrumental in building awareness, visibility, and interest.". McWilliams was lead designer, producer or

game director A video game producer is the top person in charge of overseeing game development, development of a video game. History The earliest documented use of the term ''producer'' in games was by Trip Hawkins, who established the position when he found ...

for games for Disney and

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. She was also lead designer for Full Spectrum Warrior at Pandemic Studios, and worked with John Singleton and

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on the canceled game Fear & Respect. McWilliams was listed as one of the ''Top Women in MMOs in 2010'', and was also one of the ''Gamasutra 20 for Women in Games''. Laralyn wrote a post-mortem of Free Realms that was published in the April 2010

Game Developer Magazine ''Game Developer'' was a magazine for video game creators, originally started in March 1994 by Miller Freeman, Inc as quarterly, later bimonthly, and finally monthly. In each issue, industry leaders and experts shared technical solutions, reviewed ...

. In March 2011, McWilliams left SOE in San Diego. She has a B.A. in Psychology from Vassar College, and a J.D. from St. Louis University School of Law. In 2021, McWilliams' enduring legacy in the game industry was recognized by her peers with a Lifetime Achievement Award at the

21st Game Developers Choice Awards The ''21st Game Developers Choice Awards'' was an annual awards ceremony by Game Developers Choice Awards for outstanding game developers and video games held on July 21, 2021. The awards ceremony was held alongside the Independent Games Festival ...

, which recognizes the career and achievements of a developer who has made an indelible impact on the craft of game development and games as a whole.

Game credits

Laralyn's game credits list is partially listed on the site MobyGames. * '' Free Realms'' (2009), Sony Online Entertainment Inc. * '' Over the Hedge'' (2006),

Activision Publishing, Inc. Activision Publishing, Inc. is an American video game publisher based in Santa Monica, California. It serves as the publishing business for its parent company, Activision Blizzard, and consists of several subsidiary studios. Activision is one ...

* '' Full Spectrum Warrior'' (2004),

THQ Inc. THQ Inc. was an American video game company based in Agoura Hills, California. It was founded in April 1990 by Jack Friedman, originally in Calabasas, and became a public company the following year through a reverse merger takeover. Initia ...

* '' Sid Meier's Pirates!'' (2004), Atari, Inc. * '' Disney's Stitch: Experiment 626'' (2002), Buena Vista Games, Inc. * '' Sid Meier's Alpha Centauri'' (1999), Electronic Arts, Inc. * '' The Elder Scrolls: Daggerfall'' (1996), Bethesda Softworks LLC

References

External links

Personal website

Eluminarts

Laralyn McWilliams
at

MobyGames MobyGames is a commercial website that catalogs information on video games and the people and companies behind them via crowdsourcing. This includes nearly 300,000 games for hundreds of platforms. The site is supported by banner ads and a small ...

{{DEFAULTSORT:McWilliams, Laralyn 1965 births Living people American video game designers Video game developers Vassar College alumni Women video game developers