Portal lead dev leaves Valve for Airtight Games

Brian Ambrozy 7 Dec, 2009 at 6:55pm ET Article published in Gaming

Airtight Games announced today that they have hired Kim Swift from Valve; Kim was the project lead for Portal. Besides her work on Portal, Kim also worked on Left 4 Dead and Left 4 Dead 2.

Airtight Games is best known for developing Dark Void for Capcom. They show current job listings for Senior Programmer and Lead Game Designer on their website, which we can only assume is outdated now that they’ve picked up Swift.

As for what game Swift will be working on? That is unknown, but according to the job listings, whatever they’re working on is probably going to be using the Unreal Engine 3.

Airtight was formed in 2004 by former members of FASA Studio, Microsoft, and Wil Vinton Studios. Many of the founders were core members of the team that shipped Crimson Skies: High Road to Revenge for Xbox, which was a cult hit.

Dark Void is Capcom’s upcoming aerial combat/action title feature jetpack-centered flight and a new vertical cover system. In addition to the game, there will be a feature film based on the IP.

Comments

7 Dec 2009 ~ 6:57pm Winfrey So the cake was a lie?
7 Dec 2009 ~ 10:19pm John The cake wasn't a lie you little nerd. If you beat portal you would know that.
7 Dec 2009 ~ 11:29pm primesuspect Winfrey's not that little.
7 Dec 2009 ~ 11:30pm Canti

John wrote:

The cake wasn't a lie you little nerd. If you beat portal you would know that.
7 Dec 2009 ~ 11:34pm Thrax

John wrote:

The cake wasn't a lie you little nerd. If you beat portal you would know that.
8 Dec 2009 ~ 12:33am TiberiusLazarus

John wrote:

The cake wasn't a lie you little nerd. If you beat portal you would know that.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C3njjD41f48
8 Dec 2009 ~ 2:11am Koreish I didn't think anyone would actually ever leave valve. They seem like a bunch of fun loving dudes and dudettes.
8 Dec 2009 ~ 2:11am kormgar Err...actually the cake was a lie

Sure, cake existed but you weren't going to get any of it.

Instead, all you were gonna get was a kisser full of hot burning lava. Which is just a wee bit less tasty than cake
8 Dec 2009 ~ 10:59am Cliff_Forster Hard for any of us to speculate what her motivation may have been to leave Valve. What I do know is that Portal is one of those rare gaming experiences, a real gem, an instant classic. I'd go so far as to say its one of the ten finest games ever created, and considering how much input Swift had, Capcom seems to have signed one of the finest free agents on the market.