Where are they now? - Jennifer Sward

Jennifer Sward was Producer and Voice Director for the 1993 talkie version of Legend of Kyrandia

I'm a big fan of point 'n' click adventures, as you know, so I even managed to play some that weren't from the powerhouses of point 'n' click adventures at the time, namely Sierra On-Line and Lucasarts. In the early 1990s, Westwood Studios, a developer which would end up being remembered for its classic Real-Time Strategy series, Command & Conquer, actually started developing point 'n' click adventures (it's true!). The first of these that I remember is Legend of Kyrandia which was originally released in 1992 but I managed to play the 1993 "talkie" edition of it which included voice acting. Voice acting was a relatively new thing in computer games of the early 90s and for today's Where are they now? post we're going to cast a spotlight on the highlights of Jennifer Sward's career. You can find her nowadays teaching budding game developers at DigiPen Institute of Technology as she's an Associate Dean and lecturer there.

1978 - Started studying Electrical Engineering/Computer Science at the University of California, Davis.

1985 - Completes university education. Starts developing military software for the Navy

1989 - Gets her first job in the gaming industry at Lucasarts.

1992 - The "talkie" version of Loom is released which Sward worked on as Project Lead. It is the first example of a talkie video game to be released in the United States (i.e. a floppy-based game without voices that is converted into a CD-ROM game with voices)

Sward starts working for Realtime Associates as a producer on SNES, SEGA Genesis and PC CD-ROM games.

Sward also starts working at Westwood Studios, and produced and directed their first CD-ROM talkies.

1993 - Sward leaves Lucasarts.

The talkie version of The Legend of Kyrandia is released which Sward was a Producer and Voice Director for.

1994 - Sward leaves Realtime Associates and Westwood Studios

1995 - Sward starts work at Philips New Media Games as a Project Manager. She writes and approves game concepts and designs while working there.

1997 - Sward leaves Philips New Media Games and starts work at AIS Technology as a Marketing Manager.

1999 - Sward leaves AIS Technology and starts work at the educational toy company Leapfrog Enterprises as a Product Manager. She was responsible for developing website content and games.

2001 - Sward left Leapfrog Enterprises to start her career in teaching game development at DigiPen Institute of Technology. She is now an Associate Dean and Instructor for Game Software Design and Production and has been there for the past 14 years.

LINKS:
[ DigiPen: Jen Sward Bio ]
[ MobyGames: Jennifer Sward ]

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