Sande Chen, a double major in Economics (14) and in Writing and Humanistic Studies (21W), has spent her career blending these two seemingly disparate paths. After MIT, as the recipient of the American Friends of the London School of Economics Scholarship, she earned an M.Sc in Economics at the LSE. At the same time, she pursued her creative writing through the University of London Convocation Award and entered the School of Cinema-Television at the University of Southern California the following year. While still a film student, she was nominated for a 1995 Grammy in Music Video Direction. Afterwards, she received a M.F.A. in Cinema-Television with an emphasis on screenwriting.

After designing a location-based space combat game with Karen Tung’90, her writing partner at the time, Sande wrote for the award-winning space combat role-playing PC game, TERMINUS. Since then, she has worked on several titles, including the Top 10 downloadable mobile game SCRABBLE, in her capacity as a game writer, designer, producer, or consultant. Her most recently published game credit was on THE BLACKWELL LEGACY from the newly formed Wadjet Eye Games, a finalist in this year’s Game Developers Choice Awards for Best New Studio. She and writing partner Anne Toole (who graduated from that other school, Harvard), known as the Writers Cabal, are currently writing for a major release, a dark fantasy role-playing PC game to be released this year.

At this year’s Game Developers Conference (GDC), Sande will be moderating the panel, Pirates of the Caribbean: Writing Across Game Platforms. In previous years, she has been a speaker at the Serious Games Summit D.C., Women’s Game Conference, and the Game Developers Conference. She is a member of the New Media Caucus of the Writers Guild of America, west, and a steering committee member of the International Game Developers Association (IGDA) Writers Special Interest Group.

In 2003, Sande became the director of the non-profit Girls in Games, Inc., which sought to interest young women and girls in game development. Girls in Games, Inc. directed attention to women’s issues in the game industry through its “Attracting Women to Game Development” roundtables. For this volunteer work, Sande was listed in Next Gen’s list of the 100 Most Influential Women in the Game Industry. She is also a steering committee member of affiliated group, Women in Games International.

As a journalist, she continues to write for mainstream and industry press outlets. She is the co-author of the book, Serious Games: Games That Educate, Train, and Inform, and was a contributor to Secrets of the Game Business on the topic of online business models.

Currently, Sande works as a Lead Producer at Boonty, Inc., one of the world’s largest platforms for online casual games. Its product, Café.com, which launched an open beta last week, will earn its keep primarily through microtransactions. She finds that games, as systems, often do tap into economic models, especially in design. At the same time, design requires a creative side. In the future, she hopes to contribute to more games, especially those that appeal to women.

To email Sande Chen about her recent work: sande@alum.mit.edu