Tracy Fullerton (born June 21, 1965) is an American game designer, educator and writer. She is a Professor in the

USC Interactive Media & Games Division 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 medi ...

of the

USC School of Cinematic Arts The University of Southern California School of Cinematic Arts (SCA) houses seven academic divisions: Film & Television Production; Cinema & Media Studies; John C. Hench Division of Animation + Digital Arts; John Wells Division of Writing for Sc ...

and Director of the Game Innovation Lab at USC. In 2014 she was named Director of the USC Games Program, an interdisciplinary collaboration between the

School of Cinematic Arts The University of Southern California School of Cinematic Arts (SCA) houses seven academic divisions: Film & Television Production; Cinema & Media Studies; John C. Hench Division of Animation + Digital Arts; John Wells Division of Writing for Sc ...

and the

Viterbi School of Engineering The USC Viterbi School of Engineering (formerly the USC School of Engineering) is the engineering school of the University of Southern California. It was renamed following a $52 million donation by Andrew J. Viterbi, co-founder of Qualcomm. ...

at USC. From 2010 to 2017, she served as Chair of the

Biography

In December 2008, she was installed as the holder of the Electronic Arts Endowed Chair of Interactive Entertainment at USC. Fullerton is the author of '' Game Design Workshop'', a textbook advocating a playcentric design process. She was also faculty advisor for the award-winning student games ''Cloud'' and ''

flOw Flow may refer to: Science and technology * Fluid flow, the motion of a gas or liquid * Flow (geomorphology), a type of mass wasting or slope movement in geomorphology * Flow (mathematics), a group action of the real numbers on a set * Flow (psych ...

'', and game designer for The Night Journey, a game/art project in production with media artist

Bill Viola Bill Viola ( , ; born 1951) is an American contemporary video artist whose artistic expression depends upon electronic, sound, and image technology in new media. His works focus on the ideas behind fundamental human experiences such as birth, d ...

, and Participation Nation, a game to teach Constitutional history being produced in collaboration with

KCET KCET (channel 28) is a secondary PBS member television station in Los Angeles, California, United States. It is owned by the Public Media Group of Southern California alongside the market's primary PBS member, Huntington Beach–licensed KOCE-TV ...

and

Activision 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 o ...

. Her project, '' Walden, a game'', was supported by a media arts grant from the National Endowment for the Arts, one of the first video game projects to be awarded such a grant, as well as the National Endowment for the Humanities. Prior to joining the USC faculty, she was president and founder of the interactive television game developer, Spiderdance, Inc. Spiderdance's games included NBC's ''Weakest Link'', MTV's ''

webRIOT ''webRIOT'' is a game show that debuted on MTV on November 29, 1999. It was hosted by Ahmet Zappa and Masasa Masasa Moyo is a Canadian television, film and voice actress. Filmography Film * '' Kingdom Come'' (2001) - Delightful Slocumb * ''Nos ...

'', The WB's No Boundaries, History Channel's ''

History IQ ''History IQ'' is a game show on The History Channel which premiered on October 2, 2000 and aired for two seasons. Marc Summers hosted and Harvey announced, reuniting the two from the Nickelodeon game show '' Double Dare''. ''History IQ'' was produ ...

'', Sony Game Show Network's ''

Inquizition ''Inquizition'' is an American game show created by Game Show Network and Sande Stewart Television that ran on the network's schedule from October 5, 1998 to October 19, 2001. The game, hosted by an unknown figure named "The Inquizitor", featur ...

'' and TBS's ''Cyber Bond''. Before starting Spiderdance, Fullerton was a producer and creative director at the New York design firm R/GA Interactive. While there, she created games and interactive products for clients including Sony, Intel, Microsoft, AdAge, Ticketmaster, Compaq, and Warner Bros. among many others. Her projects include Sony's Multiplayer Jeopardy! and Multiplayer Wheel of Fortune and MSN'
NetWits
an early multiplayer casual game launched in 1996. Additionally, Fullerton was Creative Director at the interactive film studio Interfilm, where she wrote and co-directed the "cinematic game" ''Ride for Your Life'', which starred Adam West and

Matthew Lillard Matthew Lyn Lillard (born January 24, 1970) is an American actor. His early film work includes Chip Sutphin in ''Serial Mom'' (1994), Emmanuel "Cereal Killer" Goldstein in ''Hackers'' (1995), Stu Macher in ''Scream'' (1996), Stevo in ''SLC Punk ...

. She began her career as a designer at Robert Abel's company Synapse, where she worked on the interactive documentary ''Columbus: Encounter, Discovery and Beyond'' and other early interactive projects. Fullerton's work has received numerous industry honors including an Emmy nomination for interactive television, best Family/Board Game from the

Academy of Interactive Arts & Sciences The Academy of Interactive Arts & Sciences (AIAS) is a non-profit organization of video game industry professionals. It organizes the annual Design Innovate Communicate Entertain summit, better known as D.I.C.E., which includes the presentation ...

, ''I.D. Magazine'''s Interactive Design Review,

Communication Arts ''Communication Arts'' is the largest international trade journal of visual communications.Au ...

Interactive Design Annual, several New Media Invision awards, iMix Best of Show, the Digital Coast Innovation Award,

IBC IBC is an initialism that can stand for: Broadcasting *Intercontinental Broadcasting Corporation, Channel 13, Philippines * International Beacon Project, Worldwide network of radio propagation beacons *International Broadcast Centre *International ...

's Nombre D'Or, ''Time'' Magazine's Best of the Web, IndieCade's Festival of Independent Games, ''

The Hollywood Reporter ''The Hollywood Reporter'' (''THR'') is an American digital and print magazine which focuses on the Cinema of the United States, Hollywood film industry, film, television, and entertainment industries. It was founded in 1930 as a daily trade pap ...

''s Women in Entertainment Power 100 and Fortune's 10 Powerful Women in Videogames. Fullerton appeared in

Danny Ledonne Danny A. Ledonne (born January 18, 1982) is an American film director and former video game developer. From 2011 to 2014, he worked as a professor in Film and Media Arts at American University, served on the board of the Southern Colorado Film ...

's documentary ''

Playing Columbine ''Playing Columbine'' is a 2008 American documentary film produced and edited by American independent filmmaker Danny Ledonne. The film follows the video game ''Super Columbine Massacre RPG!'' in which players experience the Columbine High School m ...

''. She is the cousin to

Charlotte Fullerton Charlotte Louise Fullerton (born March 20) is an American writer of television, novels, comic books and video games. Biography Fullerton graduated with a BA in cinema-television/production from the University of Southern California, and starte ...

''Walden, a game ''

In '' Walden, a game'', Tracy Fullerton designed a conceptual, experiential game that simulates the philosophy of living the simplified experience articulated by Transcendental author,

Henry David Thoreau Henry David Thoreau (July 12, 1817May 6, 1862) was an American naturalist, essayist, poet, and philosopher. A leading Transcendentalism, transcendentalist, he is best known for his book ''Walden'', a reflection upon simple living in natural su ...

. It puts Thoreau's ideas about life into playable form. The game exemplifies Fullerton's design methods, where she encourages designers to find inspiration in ideas and activities that have meaning to them and then see where that leads rather than rely on standard genres and design solutions. She says "Serendipity is a great design strategy, and letting yourself recognize that you've found something great even though you weren't looking for it." ''Walden, a game'' was released on Itch.io on July 4, 2017 and subsequently named Game of the Year and Most Significant Impact at the 2017

Games for Change Games for Change (also known as G4C) is a nonprofit organization. The organization provides support, visibility, and shared resources to individuals and organizations using serious games for social change. It also runs the G4C Student Challenge ...

awards.

Writings

* Fullerton, Tracy. '' Game Design Workshop: A Playcentric Approach to Creating Innovative Games''. A K Peters/CRC Press, 2018.

Awards

*Game of the Year and Most Significant Impact for ''Walden, a game'' at

2017 *Ambassador Award at

Game Developers Choice Awards The Game Developers Choice Awards are awards annually presented at the Game Developers Conference for outstanding game developers and games. Introduced in 2001, the Game Developers Choice Awards were preceded by the Spotlight Awards, which were ...

2016 *Game Changer award at

2015 *Trailblazer award at

IndieCade IndieCade is an international juried festival of independent games. IndieCade is known as "the video game industry's Sundance."Fritz, Ben"IndieCade, the video game industry's Sundance" Los Angeles Times, October 1, 2009, accessed July 21, 2011 ...

2013 *Impact award for ''Reality Ends Here'' at

2012 (game designer) *Sublime Experience award for ''The Night Journey'' at

2008 (game designer) *

Time Time is the continued sequence of existence and events that occurs in an apparently irreversible succession from the past, through the present, into the future. It is a component quantity of various measurements used to sequence events, to ...

's Best of the Web

References

External links

TracyFullerton.com
- Fullerton's portfolio site
Game Innovation Lab
site
USC Games Program
site
USC School of Cinematic Arts, Interactive Media & Games Division
blog
USC School of Cinematic Arts, Interactive Media & Games Division
info site
Game Design Workshop, 3rd Edition site
3rd Edition site with archived content from old editions. {{DEFAULTSORT:Fullerton, Tracy University of Southern California faculty American video game designers American women writers 1965 births Living people University of California, Santa Cruz alumni USC School of Cinematic Arts alumni Video game researchers Women video game developers Women video game designers Game Developers Conference Ambassador Award recipients American women academics 21st-century American women