Tracy Fullerton is an American game designer, educator and writer. She is currently an Associate Professor in the USC Interactive Media Division

USC Interactive Media Division

The University of Southern California's School of Cinematic Arts's Interactive Media Division first accepted students in 2002. In addition to coursework in film production, screenwriting, and animation, students in the division study across three disciplines within interactive media: immersive...

 of the USC School of Cinematic Arts

USC School of Cinematic Arts

The USC School of Cinematic Arts, until 2006 named the School of Cinema-Television , is a film school within the University of Southern California in Los Angeles, California. It is the oldest and largest such school in the United States, established in 1929 as a joint venture with the Academy of...

 and Director of the Electronic Arts Game Innovation Lab. In December of 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

Game Design Workshop

Game Design Workshop, 2nd Edition: A Playcentric Approach to Creating Innovative Games is a book on game design by Tracy Fullerton, originally published by CMP Books in 2004 was updated and released as a new edition by Morgan Kaufmann in 2008....

, a textbook advocating a playcentric design process. She was also faculty advisor for the award-winning student games Cloud

Cloud (computer game)

Cloud is a 2005 indie puzzle video game developed by a team of students in the University of Southern California's Interactive Media Program. The team began development of Cloud in January 2005 with a US$20,000 grant from the USC; the game was released as a free download that October...

 and flOw

FlOw

Flow is an indie video game created by Jenova Chen and Nicholas Clark. Originally released as a free Flash game in 2006 to accompany Chen's master's thesis, it was reworked into a 2007 PlayStation 3 game by his development studio, Thatgamecompany. SuperVillain Studios released a PlayStation...

, and game designer for The Night Journey, a unique game/art project currently in production with media artist Bill Viola

Bill Viola

Bill Viola is a contemporary video artist. He is considered a leading figure in the generation of artists whose artistic expression depends upon electronic, sound, and image technology in New Media...

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

KCET

KCET, channel 28, is an independent, non-commercial public television station licensed to Los Angeles, California, USA. KCET's studio is located on West Sunset Boulevard in Hollywood, and its transmitter is atop Mount Wilson. Al Jerome is the current CEO and President, serving since 1996.KCET was...

 and Activision

Activision

Activision is an American publisher, majority owned by French conglomerate Vivendi SA. Its current CEO is Robert Kotick. It was founded on October 1, 1979 and was the world's first independent developer and distributor of video games for gaming consoles...

.

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

Weakest Link

The Weakest Link is a British television quiz show, currently broadcast on BBC Two. It was devised by Mr Wilton and Euan Green and Cathy Dunning, and developed for television by the BBC Entertainment Department. It has since been replicated around the world. The UK version is hosted by Anne...

, MTV’s webRIOT

WebRIOT

webRIOT was a game show that debuted on MTV in December 1999. It was hosted by Ahmet Zappa and Masasa served as the announcer. The gameplay consisted of contestants answering multiple-choice music trivia questions while accompanying music videos played. After the question was read, four choices...

, The WB’s No Boundaries, History Channel’s History IQ

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. History IQ was produced by Glow in the Dark Productions....

, Sony Game Show Network’s Inquizition

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.-Gameplay:...

 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’s NetWits, the first multiplayer casual game. 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

Adam West

William West Anderson , better known by the stage name Adam West, is an American actor best known for his lead role in the Batman TV series and the film of the same name...

 and Matthew Lillard

Matthew Lillard

Matthew Lyn Lillard is an American actor and producer. He is best known for his roles as Stu Macher in Scream, Stevo in SLC Punk , and Shaggy Rogers in the Scooby-Doo film series and the Animated reboot series.-Early life:Lillard was born in Lansing, Michigan, and grew up in Tustin, California...

. 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

Academy of Interactive Arts & Sciences

The Academy of Interactive Arts & Sciences , founded in 1996, is a non-profit organization that promotes computer and video game entertainment with the annual D.I.C.E. Summit event, where its Interactive Achievement Awards ceremony has been held annually since 1998...

, I.D. Magazine

I.D. (magazine)

I.D. was a magazine covering the art, business and culture of design. It was published eight times a year by F+W Media....

’s Interactive Design Review, Communication Arts

Communication Arts

Communication Arts is the largest international trade journal of visual communications. Founded in 1959 by Richard Coyne and Robert Blanchard, the magazine’s coverage includes graphic design, advertising, photography, illustration and interactive media. The magazine continues to be edited and...

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

International Broadcasting Convention

The International Broadcasting Convention, more commonly known by its acronym IBC, is an annual trade show for broadcasters, content creators/providers, equipment manufacturers, professional and technical associations, and other participants in the Broadcasting industry...

’s Nombre D’Or, Time

Time (magazine)

Time is an American news magazine. A European edition is published from London. Time Europe covers the Middle East, Africa and, since 2003, Latin America. An Asian edition is based in Hong Kong...

 Magazine’s Best of the Web, IndieCade's Festival of Independent Games and The Hollywood Reporter

The Hollywood Reporter

Formerly a daily trade magazine, The Hollywood Reporter re-launched in late 2010 as a unique hybrid publication serving the entertainment industry and a consumer audience...

’s Women in Entertainment Power 100.

Tracy Fullerton appeared in Danny Ledonne

Danny Ledonne

Danny Ledonne is an American film director. He is a 2004 graduate of Emerson College's film program in Boston, Massachusetts. He is known for creating the controversial video game Super Columbine Massacre RPG! that replayed the events of the Columbine High School massacre...

's documentary Playing Columbine

Playing Columbine

Playing Columbine is a 2008 American documentary film produced and edited by Danny Ledonne, an American independent filmmaker. The film follows the video game Super Columbine Massacre RPG! in which players experience the Columbine High School massacre through the eyes of the killers, Eric Harris...

.

Writings

• Fullerton, Tracy, Christopher Swain, and Steven Hoffman. Game Design Workshop: A Playcentric Approach to Creating Innovative Games
  Game Design Workshop
  Game Design Workshop, 2nd Edition: A Playcentric Approach to Creating Innovative Games is a book on game design by Tracy Fullerton, originally published by CMP Books in 2004 was updated and released as a new edition by Morgan Kaufmann in 2008....
  
  . Amsterdam: Elsevier Morgan Kaufmann, 2008. ISBN 978-0240809748

External links

• TracyFullerton.com - Fullerton's portfolio
• Ludicidal Tendencies - Fullerton's research blog
• USC School of Cinematic Arts, Interactive Media Division site