Kellee Santiago

Lore & Background

Born in Caracas, Venezuela, Santiago was raised in Richmond, Virginia. She played video games from a young age and was encouraged by her software engineer father to experiment with computers. She attended New York University's Tisch School of the Arts and later earned a master's degree in the Interactive Media Program of the School of Cinematic Arts at the University of Southern California. While at USC, she produced the award-winning game Cloud, developed by Jenova Chen and a student team. Its success led her and Chen to found thatgamecompany in May 2006 upon graduating, and she became its president. Santiago produced the studio's first two games, Flow (2007) and Flower (2009), and moved more into her president role during the development of the third game, Journey (2012). She married fellow USC graduate Mike Stein in 2010. After Journey's release, she left thatgamecompany in March 2012. She later worked for Ouya, Google Play Games, Niantic, and E-Line Media in several roles. She is also a backer of the Indie Fund and a TED fellow.

In Their Own Story

The studio is quiet after hours. A single desk lamp casts a warm cone over a whiteboard still covered in half-erased sketches of wind patterns and petal physics. Santiago sits cross-legged on the floor, a controller in one hand, the PS3 humming softly. On screen, a lone petal tumbles through a field of impossible green, catching updrafts, spiraling, shedding a trail of smaller petals that cling to it like a living garland. She tilts the analog stick two degrees left. The petal banks. She exhales. 'That's it,' she murmurs. 'That's the feeling.' She saves the build, pulls up the next frame, and starts again. The city outside is loud. In here, it is only wind, color, and the slow accumulation of a flower.

Reader's Guide

Santiago's work at thatgamecompany focused on creating emotional responses in video games, aiming to demonstrate that games can create a wider range of experiences. She has supported independent game development through the Indie Fund and her roles at various companies.

Did You Know?

• Santiago co-founded thatgamecompany with Jenova Chen, not John Bumford.
• Thatgamecompany's first game was Flow (2007), not Flower.
• Santiago left thatgamecompany in 2012, not 2019, and is still alive according to the source.
• She was president of thatgamecompany, not CEO.