Tracy Fullerton

Tracy Fullerton, M.F.A., is a game designer, educator and writer. She began her career in 1991 as a designer at Bob Abel’s company Synapse, where she worked on the interactive documentary Columbus: Encounter, Discovery and Beyond and other interactive media projects.

From September 1993 until March 1995, Fullerton was Creative Director at the interactive film studio Interfilm, where she wrote and co-directed the cinematic game Ride for Your Life, starring Adam West and Matthew Lillard.

In May 1995 she was a founding member of the New York design firm R/GA Interactive. As a producer and creative director she created games and interactive products for clients including Sony, Intel, Microsoft, AdAge, Ticketmaster, Compaq, and Warner Bros. among many others. Notable projects include Sony’s Jeopardy! Online and Wheel of Fortune Online and MSN’s NetWits, the first multiplayer casual game.

Fullerton was founder and president of the interactive television game developer Spiderdance Inc. in 1998. The company's games include NBC’s Weakest Link, MTV’s webRIOT, The WB’s No Boundaries, History Channel’s History IQ, Sony Game Show Network’s Inquizition and TBS’s Cyber Bond.

She is currently a professor in the Interactive Media & Games Division of the USC School of Cinematic Arts where she serves as Director of the Game Innovation Lab and directs the cross-campus USC Games Program.

Fullerton is the author of Game Design Workshop: Designing, Prototyping and Playtesting Games, a design textbook in use at game programs worldwide. Credits include faculty advisor for the award-winning student game Cloud, and game designer for The Night Journey, a game/art project with media artist Bill Viola as well as designer/director of Walden, a game, which was awarded Game of the Year and Most Significant Impact at the 2017 Games for Change Festival and Developers Choice at the 2017 IndieCade Festival.

Her work has received numerous industry honors including an Emmy nomination for interactive television, best Family/Board Game from the Academy of Interactive Arts & Sciences, ID Magazine’s Interactive Design Review, Communication Arts Interactive Design Annual, several New Media Invision awards, iMix Best of Show, the Digital Coast Innovation Award, IBC’s Nombre D’Or, Time Magazine’s Best of the Web, Hollywood Reporter’s Women in Entertainment Power 100, IndieCade's Trailblazer Award, Games for Change Game Changer Award, Game Developers Choice Ambassador Award, and Los Angeles Magazine's Woman of the Year.