Brenda Laurel, born on Novermber 20, 1950, is a interaction designer who has worked on computer interaction, computer science, and video games. Laurel earned a Bachelor of Arts at DePauw University and a ph.D from Ohio State.
In 1989, Laurel co-founded Telepresence Research, a virtual reality research and development company. She and her team worked on the “Placeholder Virtual Reality Project,” a project that allowed for exploration of people in a virtual interaction atmosphere. This research company made Brenda Laurel interested in virtual reality and the psychology behind games and people.
In 1992, Brenda Laurel worked at Interval Research which was founded by Paul Allen and David Liddle. This company focused on product applications and services for the internet. With her time at Interval Research, Laurel worked on research investigating why games are not built for girls. She wanted to find out the reason why girls do not play games as much as boys. This led her to form her own company with the help and support of Interval Research.
As a female game designer, Brenda Laurel founded Purple Moon, a girls video game based company, in 1996. The goal of Purple Moon was to empower young girls and give them an outlet to enjoy video games. One of Purple Moon’s works called Rockett’s New School was a visual novel that focused on the school life of a 8th grade girl. The game was built with the idea of having young girls interact with each other, learning about real world encounters and the emotions they will form. The formula of a visual novel was very powerful for the idea Brenda Laurel was aiming towards. It allowed the player to decide their fate in the game and express themselves with their in-game choices. “Were not trying to tell them who they ought to be” (Brenda Laurel TED1998). After creating many sequels to the Rockett Series and other spin-off games, Purple Moon closed in 1999, ceasing development for future titles.
After the closing of Purple Moon, Brenda Laurel worked as the chair of the California College of Arts from 2006 to 2012. Currently, Brenda Laurel works at U.C. Santa Cruz as a professor in the Computer Science Department. She is also a member of the Board of Directors for IxDA Global.
Sources:
Laurel, Brenda. “Why Not Make Video Games for Girls?” TED, www.ted.com/talks/brenda_laurel_why_not_make_video_games_for_girls?language=my.
“Brenda Laurel: Keynote.” Women Talk Design, womentalkdesign.com/talks/brenda-laurel-keynote/.
Brenda Laurel, www.tauzero.com/Brenda_Laurel/.
Bass, Thomas A. “Think Tanked.” Wired, Conde Nast, 4 June 2017, www.wired.com/1999/12/interval/.
“Brenda Laurel.” Atariwomen, 14 May 2019, www.atariwomen.org/stories/brenda-laurel/.
Nice research and I really like their approach to the game which focused on learning about real world encounters and the emotions they will form.
Clearly well researched and thought out! It’s always nice to hear about how your identity shapes your work, and Laurel creating a video game company specifically for women empowerment is cool to see.