Deborah Todd is an American game designer, writer

Writer

A writer is a person who produces literature, such as novels, short stories, plays, screenplays, poetry, or other literary art. Skilled writers are able to use language to portray ideas and images....

, and producer who began her career in the entertainment industry in 1991 writing cartoons for MGM/UA's new Pink Panther Saturday morning cartoon

Saturday morning cartoon

A Saturday morning cartoon is the colloquial term for the animated television programming that has typically been scheduled on Saturday mornings on the major American television networks from the 1960s to the present; the genre's peak in popularity mostly ended in the 1990s while the popularity of...

 series. She is known for her pioneering work in children's interactive media, and as one of the first women game designer-writers in the industry, working with many of the early video game
icons including Ron Gilbert

Ron Gilbert

Ron Gilbert is an American computer game designer, programmer, and producer, best known for his work on several classic LucasArts adventure games, including Maniac Mansion and the first two Monkey Island games. Gilbert was also co-founder of Humongous Entertainment and its sister company Cavedog...

 and Humongous Entertainment, Broderbund, the Discovery Channel

Discovery Channel

Discovery Channel is an American satellite and cable specialty channel , founded by John Hendricks and distributed by Discovery Communications. It is a publicly traded company run by CEO David Zaslav...

, Disney Interactive, 20th Century Fox

20th Century Fox

Twentieth Century Fox Film Corporation — also known as 20th Century Fox, or simply 20th or Fox — is one of the six major American film studios...

, Houghton Mifflin

Houghton Mifflin

Houghton Mifflin Harcourt is an educational and trade publisher in the United States. Headquartered in Boston's Back Bay, it publishes textbooks, instructional technology materials, assessments, reference works, and fiction and non-fiction for both young readers and adults.-History:The company was...

 Interactive, McGraw Hill, Warner Bros.

Warner Bros.

Warner Bros. Entertainment, Inc., also known as Warner Bros. Pictures or simply Warner Bros. , is an American producer of film and television entertainment.One of the major film studios, it is a subsidiary of Time Warner, with its headquarters in Burbank,...

, and the Starlight Children's Foundation.

She is a member of the IGDA and the Writers Guild of America, west

Writers Guild of America, west

Writers Guild of America, West is a labor union representing film, television, radio, and new media writers. The Guild was formed in 1954 from five organizations representing writers, which include the Screen Writers Guild...

, and is a New Media Council Board Delegate of the Producers Guild of America

Producers Guild of America

Producers Guild of America is a trade organization representing television producers, film producers and New Media producers in the United States. The PGA's membership includes over 4,700 members of the producing establishment worldwide...

. Todd is also the author of several books including an algebra book, an astronomy book, and the industry book Game Design: From Blue Sky to Green Light

Game Design: From Blue Sky to Green Light

Game Design: From Blue Sky to Green Light was written by Deborah Todd and published in 2007 by AK Peters. The book debuted at the 2007 Game Developers Conference, and was named one of the top five industry books of the year by Game Developer magazine.- External links :* Official Site * The...

, which includes a forward by film producer Jon Landau

Jon Landau

Jon Landau is an American music critic, manager and record producer, most known for his association in all three capacities with Bruce Springsteen.He is currently the head of the nominating committee for the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame....

.

Television and video games

Todd's early career began in the Hanna-Barbera

Hanna-Barbera

Hanna-Barbera Productions, Inc. was an American animation studio that dominated North American television animation during the second half of the 20th century...

 animation writing program. Within months of graduating from the program she made her first sale to MGM, writing for the Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Animation

Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Animation

Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Animation, or MGM Animation for short, was the animation division of the Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer motion picture studio in Hollywood, California, USA that specializes in animated productions for theatrical features and television...

 Saturday morning cartoon series The Pink Panther

The Pink Panther

The Pink Panther is a series of comedy films featuring the bungling French police detective Jacques Clouseau that began in 1963 with the release of the film of the same name. The role was originated by, and is most closely associated with, Peter Sellers...

 featuring the voice of Matt Frewer

Matt Frewer

Matthew "Matt" Frewer is a Canadian American stage, TV and film actor. Acting since 1983, he is known for portraying the 1980s icon Max Headroom and the retired villain Moloch in the film adaptation of Watchmen.-Life and career:...

. Her television and children's writing background paved the way to write, design, and produce her first game, an interactive storybook

Interactive storybook

An interactive storybook is a children's story packaged with animated graphics, sound or other interactive elements...

 for the Discovery Channel based on the children's television show Professor Iris. Her next two projects were with Gilbert at Humongous Entertainment, writing two of the three Junior Field Trips

Junior Field Trips

The Junior Field Trips series is a collection of point-and-click children's computer games released by Humongous Entertainment in conjunction with Random House...

 titles. She returned years later to work with Humongous again, this time on the Blue's Clues

Blue's Clues

Blue's Clues is an American children's television show airing on the Nickelodeon family of channels. The show premiered on September 8, 1996 and airs on Nick Jr. and other channels, although production of new episodes ceased by 2006. Versions of the show have been produced in other countries,...

 1-2-3 Time early math game in conjunction with Nickelodeon

Nickelodeon (TV channel)

Nickelodeon, often simply called Nick and originally named Pinwheel, is an American children's channel owned by MTV Networks, a subsidiary of Viacom International. The channel is primarily aimed at children ages 7–17, with the exception of their weekday morning program block aimed at preschoolers...

.

Todd was the writer on the first Curious George

Curious George

Curious George is the protagonist of a series of popular children's books by the same name, written by Hans Augusto Rey and Margret Rey. The books feature a curious brown monkey named George, who is brought from his home in Africa by "The Man with The Yellow Hat" to live with him in a big city.When...

 CD-ROM, Curious George Comes Home, which was honored with the ABA Book Seller's Choice New Media Award, and the ComputEd Best Interactive Story Award. Todd's other children's titles include the Anastasia CD-ROM game released in conjunction with the Anastasia (1997 film)

Anastasia (1997 film)

Anastasia is a 1997 American animated musical film produced and directed by Don Bluth and Gary Goldman. It was the first feature film to be released by Fox Animation Studios....

 animated feature by 20th Century Fox

20th Century Fox

Twentieth Century Fox Film Corporation — also known as 20th Century Fox, or simply 20th or Fox — is one of the six major American film studios...

, and 101 Dalmatians: Escape from DeVil Manor

101 Dalmatians: Escape from DeVil Manor

101 Dalmatians: Escape from DeVil Manor is a computer game created by Disney Interactive.The game was based on the 1996 live-action movie 101 Dalmatians rather than the original Disney animated film One Hundred and One Dalmatians, although the character design's were based on the animated film.The...

 released with the live-action feature starring Glenn Close

Glenn Close

Glenn Close is an American actress and singer of theatre and film, known for her roles as a femme fatale Glenn Close (born March 19, 1947) is an American actress and singer of theatre and film, known for her roles as a femme fatale Glenn Close (born March 19, 1947) is an American actress and...

.

In addition to young children's titles, Todd created projects designed specifically for the teen market. A computer-based training project for new drivers was created with independent developer Interactive Masters for Adept Driving, and has been in use since 1995. It is currently the American Automobile Association

American Automobile Association

AAA , formerly known as the American Automobile Association, is a federation of 51 independently operated motor clubs throughout North America. AAA is a not-for-profit member service organization with more than 51 million members. AAA provides services to its members such as travel, automotive,...

 TeenSmart Driving Course, which claims the product has resulted in a decrease in the crash rates of 16-19 year olds by 30%.

She also created three teen-centric online games for the National Endowment for Financial Education, and wrote Grade Builder: Algebra 1 for the Learning Company, which won a U.S. News & World Report

U.S. News & World Report

U.S. News & World Report is an American news magazine published from Washington, D.C. Along with Time and Newsweek it was for many years a leading news weekly, focusing more than its counterparts on political, economic, health and education stories...

 Top 12 Titles of the Year award. Other projects within the Serious Games segment of the industry include an Astronomy

Astronomy

Astronomy is a natural science that deals with the study of celestial objects and phenomena that originate outside the atmosphere of Earth...

 reference title for software publisher Mindscape

Mindscape

Mindscape is an international software publishing company, previously part of The Learning Company. They are now affiliated with EA . As of 2004, the group has offices in Europe, Asia, Australia and South America. It has an annual turnover of €38 million and employs 150 people. Mindscape...

, and MyBrainGames, a cognitive exercise game for Multiple Sclerosis patients.

Another serious game written, produced, and directed by Todd was a First-person shooter

First-person shooter

First-person shooter is a video game genre that centers the gameplay on gun and projectile weapon-based combat through first-person perspective; i.e., the player experiences the action through the eyes of a protagonist. Generally speaking, the first-person shooter shares common traits with other...

 entitled The Monkey Wrench Conspiracy, designed to teach engineers how to use CAD software. This game was developed in conjunction with the CEO of think3, Joseph Costello

Joseph Costello

Joseph Costello is a prominent person in electronic design automation industry.He was president and COO of SDA Systems from 1987–1988 and CEO of Cadence Design Systems, which became the largest EDA company under his tenure, from 1988–1997....

, and learning expert Marc Prensky

Marc Prensky

Marc Prensky is an American writer and speaker on learning and education. He is best known as the inventor and popularizer of the terms "digital native" and "digital immigrant" which he described in a 2001 article in ....

, best known for coining the terms "digital native

Digital native

A digital native is a person who was born during or after the general introduction of digital technology, and through interacting with digital technology from an early age, has a greater understanding of its concepts...

" and "digital immigrant." The company shipped more than 1 million copies of the game. It has been a little known fact that the voice of the computer in the game is Todd's, who recorded at the urging of Costello.

Books

Todd is the author of Algebra Handbook, and lead author of The A to Z of Scientists in Space and Astronomy, both published by Facts on File.

Todd's Game Design was published by AK Peters in 2007. Game Design was a Frontline Award finalist and named one of the top five industry books of 2007 by the video game industry periodical Game Developer.

Publications include:

• Game Design: From Blue Sky to Green Light, AK Peters 2007
• Enhanced WebAssign, Thomson Higher Education 2007
• Smart Start Guide for Students, Thomson Higher Education 2006
• Smart Start Guide for Instructors, Thomson Higher Education 2006
• A to Z of Scientists in Space & Astronomy, w/Joe DiAngelo, Facts on File 2005
• Algebra Handbook, Facts on File 2003

Gameography

• MiniMonos, MiniMonos
• BioArcade, Redhill Studios and PBS
• MyBrainGames, Redhill Studios and Multiple Sclerosis Technology Collaborative
• Professor Iris' Animal Safari, Discovery Channel
• The Monkey Wrench Conspiracy, Think 3/Corporate Gameware
• Curious George Comes Home, Houghton Mifflin
• 101 Dalmatians: Escape from DeVil Manor, Disney Interactive
• Anastasia, Fox Interactive
• Let's Explore the Airport, Random House and Humongous Entertainment
• Let's Explore the Farm, Random House and Humongous Entertainment
• Grade Builder: Algebra 1, The Learning Company
• The Universe Beyond, Mindscape
• Adept Driving, Interactive Masters and Adept
• Read-It, Soliloquy Learning
• Buying a Car, National Endowment for Financial Education
• Job Hunt, National Endowment for Financial Education
• Good Credit, National Endowment for Financial Education
• Guide to Multimedia, Asymetrix

External links

• IMDB