Portal designer Kim Swift hired as design director at EA's Motive Studios

Jade Raymond, Group General Manager Motive Studios and Visceral Games, has revealed on the EA Motive Studios website that the developer has brought on another veteran to help lead design efforts. Kim Swift, famous for her work on hits like Portal and Left 4 Dead, has been hired as design director.

"Motive has a mission to innovate and pioneer new ways to play and create worlds that allow for relentless discovery. I couldn't think of a better person than Kim to help us achieve those ambitions," says Raymond.

"We've devoted much of the past year at Motive to building a team of amazingly talented people to work on our new IP and Star Wars projects. I could not be more excited to welcome an all-star like Kim, who shares our enthusiasm for building exceptional games. Her first question to me: 'When can I set up the Frostbite engine and start prototyping?' shows a hands-on approach that we value here at Motive. The team is buzzing with new ideas and I can't wait to see what we can bring to life together."

More recently, Swift was working as a senior designer for Amazon Game Studios, and prior to that she was creative director at Airtight Games. Swift has been a vocal proponent for women in games, noting in 2013 that she'd like to see more female developers become more visible. "We need to change the make up of our industry, because games are a reflection of their creators," she said at the time. With Jade Raymond, Amy Hennig and Kim Swift now working together, EA certainly has a strong core of all-star women leading game design at Motive and Visceral.

Motive has yet to reveal its new IP currently in development.