Robin Hunicke
Encyclopedia
Robin Hunicke is a video game designer and producer, currently working at thatgamecompany
. Hunicke began her career at Electronic Arts
, where she worked on multiple games, including Sims 2 and MySims
as a designer, and Boom Blox
and Boom Blox: Bash Party as a producer. She is currently leading the production of Journey, an upcoming online cooperative game for the PlayStation 3
.
Apart from her commercial career, Hunicke is finishing a PhD in Computer Science
at Northwestern University
, where she researches artificial intelligence
and game design
.
She is also recognized throughout the video game industry for her public support of independent game development
, experimentation in game design, research in Dynamic Difficulty Adjustment, and women in games.
at Maxis
where she was a designer on The Sims 2: Open for Business
after meeting famed game designer and Sims director Will Wright. Following her work on The Sims 2, Robin went on to become Lead Designer on MySims
for the Nintendo Wii, and later, was a Producer on Boom Blox
and its sequel, Boom Blox: Bash Party.
, Robin joined thatgamecompany
as producer. She joined the team in the early conceptual stages for the studio's third project Journey, a multiplayer cooperative adventure game set for release in early 2012.
, Marc LeBlanc
, Frank Lantz, Stone Librande, Clint Hocking and others. Robin is also an organizer of the Experimental Gameplay Sessions at GDC with Jonathan Blow
, Doug Church
, and Chris Hecker
. Many successful games have made their first public appearance at the session, including Jonathan Blow's Braid
and Valve's Portal. Hunicke is also an organizer of IndieCade
, an annual festival dedicated to independent game development.
Hunicke is a founding member of the IGDA Education SIG
, helps with the Global Game Jam
, teaches at USC
, and is a judge for the Independent Games Festival
.
Degree from the University of Chicago
and is finishing a PhD
in Artificial Intelligence
with a focus on Games and Game Design from Northwestern University
.
In her studies, Hunicke extensively researches Dynamic Difficulty Adjustment
. She is also highly interested in how "the notions of fate, meaning, and consequence can be communicated via video games".
, and Robert Zubeck created the Mechanics-Dynamics-Aesthetics framework
to focus and improve game analysis. The framework categorizes the many aspects of a game as Mechanics, Dynamics, or Aesthetics, and outlines the inverse perspectives of designer and player. From the perspective of the designer, the Mechanics generate Dynamics which generate Aesthetics. From the perspective of the player, the player experiences the game through the Aesthetics, which are provided by Dynamics that emerge from Mechanics.
awarded Hunicke the Women in Gaming Award for Design. She also earned a spot on the Hot 100 Game Developers of 2009 list by Edge Magazine
.
To date, the various titles Hunicke has worked on have garnered many awards, such as a BAFTA
award for "Best Casual Game of 2008" for Boom Blox.
Thatgamecompany
Thatgamecompany, stylized as thatgamecompany, is an American independent video game developer co-founded by University of Southern California students Kellee Santiago and Jenova Chen. The studio is currently a second-party developer for Sony Computer Entertainment, and is under contract to create...
. Hunicke began her career at Electronic Arts
Electronic Arts
Electronic Arts, Inc. is a major American developer, marketer, publisher and distributor of video games. Founded and incorporated on May 28, 1982 by Trip Hawkins, the company was a pioneer of the early home computer games industry and was notable for promoting the designers and programmers...
, where she worked on multiple games, including Sims 2 and MySims
MySims
MySims, formerly The Sims Wii and Nintendo Sims, is a video game developed by EA Redwood Shores and published by Electronic Arts as a spinoff to Maxis' The Sims franchise for the Nintendo DS and Wii in 2007, then re-released for Microsoft Windows and Mobile phone in 2008.It is the first game in the...
as a designer, and Boom Blox
Boom Blox
Boom Blox is a puzzle video game for the Wii console, mobile devices and N-Gage 2.0 developed by EA Los Angeles in conjunction with film director Steven Spielberg. The game was released on May 6, 2008, in North America and on May 9, 2008, in Europe...
and Boom Blox: Bash Party as a producer. She is currently leading the production of Journey, an upcoming online cooperative game for the PlayStation 3
PlayStation 3
The is the third home video game console produced by Sony Computer Entertainment and the successor to the PlayStation 2 as part of the PlayStation series. The PlayStation 3 competes with Microsoft's Xbox 360 and Nintendo's Wii as part of the seventh generation of video game consoles...
.
Apart from her commercial career, Hunicke is finishing a PhD in Computer Science
Computer science
Computer science or computing science is the study of the theoretical foundations of information and computation and of practical techniques for their implementation and application in computer systems...
at Northwestern University
Northwestern University
Northwestern University is a private research university in Evanston and Chicago, Illinois, USA. Northwestern has eleven undergraduate, graduate, and professional schools offering 124 undergraduate degrees and 145 graduate and professional degrees....
, where she researches artificial intelligence
Artificial intelligence
Artificial intelligence is the intelligence of machines and the branch of computer science that aims to create it. AI textbooks define the field as "the study and design of intelligent agents" where an intelligent agent is a system that perceives its environment and takes actions that maximize its...
and game design
Game design
Game design, a subset of game development, is the process of designing the content and rules of a game in the pre-production stage and design of gameplay, environment, storyline, and characters during production stage. The term is also used to describe both the game design embodied in a game as...
.
She is also recognized throughout the video game industry for her public support of independent game development
Indie game
Independent video game development is the process of creating video games without the financial support of a video game publisher. While large firms can create independent games, they are usually designed by an individual or a small team of as many as ten people, depending on the complexity of the...
, experimentation in game design, research in Dynamic Difficulty Adjustment, and women in games.
Electronic Arts
Robin began her work with Electronic ArtsElectronic Arts
Electronic Arts, Inc. is a major American developer, marketer, publisher and distributor of video games. Founded and incorporated on May 28, 1982 by Trip Hawkins, the company was a pioneer of the early home computer games industry and was notable for promoting the designers and programmers...
at Maxis
Maxis
Maxis is an American company founded as an independent video game developer in 1987. It is currently a subsidiary of Electronic Arts . Maxis is the creator of one of the best-selling computer games of all time, The Sims and its first sequel, The Sims 2...
where she was a designer on The Sims 2: Open for Business
The Sims 2: Open for Business
The Sims 2: Open for Business is the third expansion pack for The Sims 2, released on March 3, 2006, which allows Sims to run a home or community lot based business. Aspyr released a port of the game for Mac OS X on September 4, 2006...
after meeting famed game designer and Sims director Will Wright. Following her work on The Sims 2, Robin went on to become Lead Designer on MySims
MySims
MySims, formerly The Sims Wii and Nintendo Sims, is a video game developed by EA Redwood Shores and published by Electronic Arts as a spinoff to Maxis' The Sims franchise for the Nintendo DS and Wii in 2007, then re-released for Microsoft Windows and Mobile phone in 2008.It is the first game in the...
for the Nintendo Wii, and later, was a Producer on Boom Blox
Boom Blox
Boom Blox is a puzzle video game for the Wii console, mobile devices and N-Gage 2.0 developed by EA Los Angeles in conjunction with film director Steven Spielberg. The game was released on May 6, 2008, in North America and on May 9, 2008, in Europe...
and its sequel, Boom Blox: Bash Party.
thatgamecompany
Following her work at Electronic ArtsElectronic Arts
Electronic Arts, Inc. is a major American developer, marketer, publisher and distributor of video games. Founded and incorporated on May 28, 1982 by Trip Hawkins, the company was a pioneer of the early home computer games industry and was notable for promoting the designers and programmers...
, Robin joined thatgamecompany
Thatgamecompany
Thatgamecompany, stylized as thatgamecompany, is an American independent video game developer co-founded by University of Southern California students Kellee Santiago and Jenova Chen. The studio is currently a second-party developer for Sony Computer Entertainment, and is under contract to create...
as producer. She joined the team in the early conceptual stages for the studio's third project Journey, a multiplayer cooperative adventure game set for release in early 2012.
Conferences and events
Hunicke contributes to various video game industry conferences and events throughout the year. She is an organizer of the annual Game Design Workshop at the Game Developer's Conference, where she teaches with designers Doug ChurchDoug Church
Doug Church is an American computer game designer and producer. He attended MIT in the late 1980s, but left and went to work with Looking Glass Studios, when they were making primarily MS-DOS-based first-person adventure/shooter/roleplaying games, including Ultima Underworld, Ultima Underworld II,...
, Marc LeBlanc
Marc LeBlanc
Marc "Mahk" LeBlanc is an educator about and designer of video games.LeBlanc attended MIT where he received a B.S. and M.S. in Computer Science....
, Frank Lantz, Stone Librande, Clint Hocking and others. Robin is also an organizer of the Experimental Gameplay Sessions at GDC with Jonathan Blow
Jonathan Blow
Jonathan Blow is an independent video game developer. His game Braid won the "Game Design" award at the Independent Games Festival in 2006. He is currently developing The Witness, to be released in 2012....
, Doug Church
Doug Church
Doug Church is an American computer game designer and producer. He attended MIT in the late 1980s, but left and went to work with Looking Glass Studios, when they were making primarily MS-DOS-based first-person adventure/shooter/roleplaying games, including Ultima Underworld, Ultima Underworld II,...
, and Chris Hecker
Chris Hecker
-Biography:Hecker was a student at the Parsons School of Design in New York City, studying the fine arts towards work as an illustrator. An article in Byte Magazine sold him on programming and he dropped out of school to begin work on graphics and games....
. Many successful games have made their first public appearance at the session, including Jonathan Blow's Braid
Braid (video game)
Braid is a platform and puzzle video game developed by independent software developer Jonathan Blow. The game was released on August 6, 2008 for the Xbox 360's Xbox Live Arcade service. A Microsoft Windows version was released on April 10, 2009. Hothead Games ported and released the game to Mac OS...
and Valve's Portal. Hunicke is also an organizer of IndieCade
Indiecade
Indiecade or IndieCade is an international juried festival of independent video games. IndieCade is known as "the video game industry's Sundance". At IndieCade independent video game developers are selected to screen and promote their work at the annual IndieCade festival and showcase events...
, an annual festival dedicated to independent game development.
Hunicke is a founding member of the IGDA Education SIG
International Game Developers Association
International Game Developers Association is the professional society for over 10,000 video and computer game developers worldwide.It is incorporated in the United States as a non-profit organization....
, helps with the Global Game Jam
Global Game Jam
The Global Game Jam is an annual event in which participants design and create digital and non-digital games over the course of one weekend. Inspired by the Nordic Game Jam, and organized by the International Game Developers Association...
, teaches at USC
University of Southern California
The University of Southern California is a private, not-for-profit, nonsectarian, research university located in Los Angeles, California, United States. USC was founded in 1880, making it California's oldest private research university...
, and is a judge for the Independent Games Festival
Independent Games Festival
The Independent Games Festival is an annual festival at the Game Developers Conference, the largest annual gathering of the indie video game industry. It was founded in 1998 to assist and inspire innovation in video game development and to recognize the best independent video game developers...
.
Education and research
Robin Hunicke holds a B. A.Bachelor of Arts
A Bachelor of Arts , from the Latin artium baccalaureus, is a bachelor's degree awarded for an undergraduate course or program in either the liberal arts, the sciences, or both...
Degree from the University of Chicago
University of Chicago
The University of Chicago is a private research university in Chicago, Illinois, USA. It was founded by the American Baptist Education Society with a donation from oil magnate and philanthropist John D. Rockefeller and incorporated in 1890...
and is finishing a PhD
PHD
PHD may refer to:*Ph.D., a doctorate of philosophy*Ph.D. , a 1980s British group*PHD finger, a protein sequence*PHD Mountain Software, an outdoor clothing and equipment company*PhD Docbook renderer, an XML renderer...
in Artificial Intelligence
Artificial intelligence
Artificial intelligence is the intelligence of machines and the branch of computer science that aims to create it. AI textbooks define the field as "the study and design of intelligent agents" where an intelligent agent is a system that perceives its environment and takes actions that maximize its...
with a focus on Games and Game Design from Northwestern University
Northwestern University
Northwestern University is a private research university in Evanston and Chicago, Illinois, USA. Northwestern has eleven undergraduate, graduate, and professional schools offering 124 undergraduate degrees and 145 graduate and professional degrees....
.
In her studies, Hunicke extensively researches Dynamic Difficulty Adjustment
Dynamic game difficulty balancing
Dynamic game difficulty balancing, also known as dynamic difficulty adjustment or dynamic game balancing , is the process of automatically changing parameters, scenarios and behaviors in a video game in real-time, based on the player's ability, in order to avoid them becoming bored or frustrated...
. She is also highly interested in how "the notions of fate, meaning, and consequence can be communicated via video games".
MDA framework
In 2008, Robin Hunicke, Marc LeBlancMarc LeBlanc
Marc "Mahk" LeBlanc is an educator about and designer of video games.LeBlanc attended MIT where he received a B.S. and M.S. in Computer Science....
, and Robert Zubeck created the Mechanics-Dynamics-Aesthetics framework
MDA framework
In game design the Mechanics-Dynamics-Aesthetics framework is a tool used to analyze games. It formalizes the consumption of games by breaking them down into three components - Mechanics, Dynamics and Aesthetics...
to focus and improve game analysis. The framework categorizes the many aspects of a game as Mechanics, Dynamics, or Aesthetics, and outlines the inverse perspectives of designer and player. From the perspective of the designer, the Mechanics generate Dynamics which generate Aesthetics. From the perspective of the player, the player experiences the game through the Aesthetics, which are provided by Dynamics that emerge from Mechanics.
Awards and recognition
On May 21, 2008, Robin was chosen for Gamasutra's "Gamasutra 20", "honoring the Top 20 women working in the video game industry". In 2009, MicrosoftMicrosoft
Microsoft Corporation is an American public multinational corporation headquartered in Redmond, Washington, USA that develops, manufactures, licenses, and supports a wide range of products and services predominantly related to computing through its various product divisions...
awarded Hunicke the Women in Gaming Award for Design. She also earned a spot on the Hot 100 Game Developers of 2009 list by Edge Magazine
Edge (magazine)
Edge is a multi-format computer and video game magazine published by Future Publishing in the United Kingdom. It is known for its industry contacts, editorial stance, distinctive anonymous third-person writing style, yearly awards and longevity....
.
To date, the various titles Hunicke has worked on have garnered many awards, such as a BAFTA
British Academy of Film and Television Arts
The British Academy of Film and Television Arts is a charity in the United Kingdom that hosts annual awards shows for excellence in film, television, television craft, video games and forms of animation.-Introduction:...
award for "Best Casual Game of 2008" for Boom Blox.
External links
- Robin Hunicke official website
- Robin Hunicke on ThatgamecompanyThatgamecompanyThatgamecompany, stylized as thatgamecompany, is an American independent video game developer co-founded by University of Southern California students Kellee Santiago and Jenova Chen. The studio is currently a second-party developer for Sony Computer Entertainment, and is under contract to create...