Scott Kim is an American puzzle and video game designer, artist, and author of

Korean Korean may refer to: People and culture * Koreans, ethnic group originating in the Korean Peninsula * Korean cuisine * Korean culture * Korean language **Korean alphabet, known as Hangul or Chosŏn'gŭl **Korean dialects and the Jeju language ** ...

descent. He started writing an occasional "Boggler" column for ''

Discover Discover may refer to: Art, entertainment, and media * ''Discover'' (album), a Cactus Jack album * ''Discover'' (magazine), an American science magazine Businesses and brands * DISCover, the ''Digital Interactive Systems Corporation'' * Di ...

'' magazine in 1990, and became an exclusive columnist in 1999, and created hundreds of other puzzles for magazines such as ''

Scientific American ''Scientific American'', informally abbreviated ''SciAm'' or sometimes ''SA'', is an American popular science magazine. Many famous scientists, including Albert Einstein and Nikola Tesla, have contributed articles to it. In print since 1845, it i ...

'' and ''

Games A game is a structured form of play, usually undertaken for entertainment or fun, and sometimes used as an educational tool. Many games are also considered to be work (such as professional players of spectator sports or games) or art (such ...

'', as well as thousands of puzzles for computer games. He was the holder of the Harold Keables chair at

Iolani School Iolani is a masculine Hawaiian name meaning "royal '' hawk''." It comes from the Hawaiian words ''ʻio'', meaning "Hawaiian hawk," and ''lani'', meaning "royal." It may refer to: *ʻIolani School, a private school located in Hawaii *ʻIolani Pala ...

in 2008. Kim was born in 1955 in

Washington D.C. ) , image_skyline = , image_caption = Clockwise from top left: the Washington Monument and Lincoln Memorial on the National Mall, United States Capitol, Logan Circle, Jefferson Memorial, White House, Adams Morgan, Na ...

and grew up in

Rolling Hills Estates, California Rolling Hills Estates is a city in Los Angeles County, California, United States. On the northern side of the Palos Verdes Peninsula, facing Torrance, Rolling Hills Estates is mostly residential. Incorporated in 1957, Rolling Hills Estates has ...

. He had an early interest in mathematics, education, and art, and attended

Stanford University Stanford University, officially Leland Stanford Junior University, is a private research university in Stanford, California. The campus occupies , among the largest in the United States, and enrolls over 17,000 students. Stanford is consider ...

, receiving a BA in music, and a PhD in Computers and Graphic Design under

Donald Knuth Donald Ervin Knuth ( ; born January 10, 1938) is an American computer scientist, mathematician, and professor emeritus at Stanford University. He is the 1974 recipient of the ACM Turing Award, informally considered the Nobel Prize of computer sc ...

. In 1981, he created a book called ''Inversions'', words that can be read in more than one way. His first puzzles appeared in ''Scientific American'' in

Martin Gardner Martin Gardner (October 21, 1914May 22, 2010) was an American popular mathematics and popular science writer with interests also encompassing scientific skepticism, micromagic, philosophy, religion, and literatureespecially the writings of Lewis ...

's "

Mathematical Games A mathematical game is a game whose rules, strategies, and outcomes are defined by clear mathematical parameters. Often, such games have simple rules and match procedures, such as Tic-tac-toe and Dots and Boxes. Generally, mathematical games ne ...

" column and he said that the column inspired his own career as a puzzle designer. Kim is one of the best-known masters of the art of

ambigrams An ambigram is a calligraphic design that has several interpretations as written. The term was coined by Douglas Hofstadter in 1983. Most often, ambigrams appear as visually symmetrical words. When flipped, they remain unchanged, or they mutate ...

. Kim designed logos for

Silicon Graphics, Inc. Silicon Graphics, Inc. (stylized as SiliconGraphics before 1999, later rebranded SGI, historically known as Silicon Graphics Computer Systems or SGCS) was an American high-performance computing manufacturer, producing computer hardware and soft ...

GOES Goes () is a city and municipality in the southwestern Netherlands on Zuid-Beveland, in the province of Zeeland. The city of Goes has approximately 27,000 residents. History Goes was founded in the 10th century on the edge of a creek: de Korte ...

The Hackers Conference The Hackers Conference is an annual invitation-only gathering of designers, engineers and programmers to discuss the latest developments and innovations in the computer industry. On a daily basis, many hackers only interact virtually, and therefore ...

, the

Computer Game Developers Conference The Game Developers Conference (GDC) is an annual conference for video game developers. The event includes an expo, networking events, and awards shows like the Game Developers Choice Awards and Independent Games Festival, and a variety of tutori ...

, and Dylan. Kim is a regular speaker on puzzle design, such as at the International Game Developers Conference and Casual Games Conference. His wife,

Amy Jo Kim Amy is a female given name, sometimes short for Amanda, Amelia, Amélie, or Amita. In French, the name is spelled ''"Aimée"''. People A–E * Amy Acker (born 1976), American actress * Amy Vera Ackman, also known as Mother Giovanni (1886– ...

, is the author of ''Community Building on the Web''. He lives in

Burlingame, California Burlingame () is a city in San Mateo County, California. It is located on the San Francisco Peninsula and has a significant shoreline on San Francisco Bay. The city is named after diplomat Anson Burlingame and is known for its numerous eucalyp ...

with his wife

, son Gabriel and daughter Lila Rose.

Works

* ''Inversions'', 1981, Byte Books, , a book of 60 original ambigrams * "Letterforms & Illusion", 1989, W. H. Freeman & Co., created with Robin Samelson, accompanies the book, ''Inversions''. * ''Quintapaths'', 1969 (tiling puzzle), published by Kadon since 1999. * '' Heaven and Earth'', Buena Vista / Disney (computer game) * ''

Obsidian Obsidian () is a naturally occurring volcanic glass formed when lava extrusive rock, extruded from a volcano cools rapidly with minimal crystal growth. It is an igneous rock. Obsidian is produced from felsic lava, rich in the lighter elements s ...

'', SegaSoft (computer game) * '' MetaSquares'', 1996 (computer game, created with

Kai Krause Kai Krause (born March 14, 1957) is a German software and graphical user interface designer, best known for founding MetaCreations Corp., his Kai's Power Tools series of products, and for his contributions to graphical user interface design. B ...

, Phil Clevenger, and Ian Gilman). * ''The Next Tetris'', Hasbro Interactive, PlayStation * ''Railroad

Rush Hour A rush hour (American English, British English) or peak hour (Australian English) is a part of the day during which traffic congestion on roads and crowding on public transport is at its highest. Normally, this happens twice every weekday: on ...

'',

ThinkFun ThinkFun, formerly known as Binary Arts, is a toy and board game company founded in 1985 by Bill Ritchie and Andrea Barthello. The two started the company from the basement of their home in Virginia, with a product base that initially consisted of ...

(toy) * ''

Charlie Blast's Territory ''The Bombing Islands'' ( in Japan) is a puzzle video game developed and published by Kemco for the PlayStation. It was later re-released for Nintendo 64 as ''Charlie Blast's Territory'' (whose working title was ''Charlie Blast's Challenge'') in N ...

'' (Nintendo 64 game) * ''The NewMedia Puzzle Workout'' - collection of Kim's magazine puzzles * ''Scott Kim's Puzzle Box'' (monthly Shockwave puzzles at JuniorNet.com) * ''Brainteasers, Mind Benders, Games, Word Searches, Puzzlers, Mazes & More Calendar 2007'', Workman Publishing Company,

Contributed works

* Harry Abrams. ''Escher Interactive'' (computer game) *

Elonka Dunin Elonka Dunin (; born December 29, 1958) is an American video game developer and cryptologist. Dunin worked at Simutronics Corp. in St. Louis, Missouri from 1990–2014, and in 2015 was Senior Producer at Black Gate Games in Nashville, Tennes ...

, ''The Mammoth Book of Secret Code Puzzles'', 2006, Constable & Robinson, *

Popcap Games PopCap Games, Inc. is an American video game developer based in Seattle, and a subsidiary of Electronic Arts. The company was founded in 2000 by John Vechey, Brian Fiete and Jason Kapalka. Originally founded under the name "Sexy Action Cool", ...

, ''

Bejeweled 2 ''Bejeweled 2'' (also referred as ''Bejeweled 2 Deluxe'' in some releases) is a tile-matching puzzle video game developed and published by PopCap Games. Released as a sequel to ''Bejeweled'', ''Bejeweled 2'' introduces new game mechanics such as ...

'', design of Puzzle Mode puzzles

References

Neurology Now
Biographical article from 2009.
Scott Kim: Puzzlemaster
- Kim's website * Dan Burstein, ''Secrets of Angels & Demons'', 2004, CDS Books. * ''Discover'' magazine "Boggler" column.

* Susan Lammers, ''Programmers at Work'' (Microsoft Press, 1986), 272-285. Interview with Kim.

- at the Entertainment Gathering Conference 2008 {{DEFAULTSORT:Kim, Scott 1955 births American male writers American writers of Korean descent American video game designers Living people Puzzle designers Recreational mathematicians Mathematics popularizers Toy inventors Stanford University alumni People from Rolling Hills Estates, California