Scott Kim
Scott Edward Kim (born 1955 in Washington, D.C.) is an American puzzle designer,[1] video game designer,[2] artist,[3] author,[4] and recreational mathematician.[1] He has published puzzles in various magazines, including Discover,[5] Scientific American, and Games.[4] He is a regular speaker on puzzle design, notably at the International Game Developers Conference, The Casual Games Conference and TED conferences.[6][7] Along with John Langdon he is one of the co-discoverers of ambigrams.[8]
From the 1970s onward, his puzzles were frequently published in Martin Gardner's "Mathematical Games" column in Scientific American.[9] He has been involved in organizing and participating in the Gathering 4 Gardner conferences from the first one in 1990.[10]
Kim has designed logos for Silicon Graphics, the Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellite, the Hackers Conference, the Computer Game Developers Conference, the Gathering 4 Gardner conference[9] and the Dylan programming language.[11]
Early life and education
[edit]Born in 1955 in Washington, D.C., and of Korean descent, Kim grew up in Rolling Hills Estates, California and developed early interests in mathematics, education, and art.[12] He attended Stanford University, receiving a BA in music in 1976, and a PhD in Computers and Graphic Design in 1987, with the dissertation "Viewpoint: Toward a Computer for Visual Thinkers" under Donald Knuth.[4]
Kim's ideas about art and computing are described in the book Programmers at Work, a collection of interviews published by Microsoft Press in 1986.
He started writing an occasional "Boggler" column for Discover magazine in 1990, and became an exclusive columnist in 1999.[5] He has created hundreds of puzzles for magazines such as Scientific American and Games,[4] as well as thousands of puzzles for computer games. He held the Harold Keables chair at Iolani School in 2008.[2]
Works
[edit]- Books[13]
- 1981 Inversions, Byte Books, ISBN 1-55953-280-7, a book of 60 original ambigrams
- 1989 Letterforms & Illusion, W. H. Freeman & Co., created with Robin Samelson, accompanies the book, Inversions.
- 2006 Brainteasers, Mind Benders, Games, Word Searches, Puzzlers, Mazes & More Calendar 2007, Workman Publishing Company, ISBN 0-7611-4079-4
- 2012 How Puzzles Improve Your Brain[12]
- Computer games[14]
- Heaven and Earth, Buena Vista / Disney
- The Next Tetris, Hasbro Interactive, PlayStation
- Obsidian, SegaSoft, Microsoft Windows, Mac OS
- Charlie Blast's Territory Nintendo 64
- Puzzles, toys and board games[15]
- 1969 Quintapaths, published by Kadon (tiling puzzle)
- 1998 Railroad Rush Hour, ThinkFun (toy)
Personal life
[edit]Kim lives in Burlingame, California with his wife Amy Jo, son Gabriel and daughter Lila Rose. Amy Jo Kim is the author of Community Building on the Web.[16]
References
[edit]- 1 2 Pierce, Scott (2009-05-20). "Typography Two Ways: Calligraphy With a Twist". Wired. Retrieved 2025-06-30.
- 1 2 Programmers at Work by Susan Lammers, Microsoft Press (1986), pp. 272-285, Interview with Kim
- ↑ Art of Scott Kim GeoCities
- 1 2 3 4 Get to Know Scott Kim, the “Escher of the Alphabet” American Academy of Neurology:Brain&Life Magazine, September/October 2009
- 1 2 The Discover Boggler, Discover Magazine
- ↑ Scott Kim: The Power of Puzzle Creation AMS Blogs, Posted on June 29, 2016
- ↑ Scott Kim TED Talks: Speaker Profile
- ↑ John Langdon Biography
- 1 2 Scott Kim’s rotational ambigrams for the Celebration of Mind
- ↑ About "Games for Gardner" Elwyn Berlekamp's Home Page, Department of Mathematics, UC Berkeley
- ↑ Logos Graphic Design by Scott Kim
- 1 2 Scott Kim Profile Books
- ↑ Books by Scott Kim Charlesbridge
- ↑ Scott Kim credited on 21 games Moby Games
- ↑ Think Fun Puzzles and Games Labyrinth Woodworks
- ↑ Amy Jo Kim author of Community Building On the Web, Peachpit Press, April 2000, O'Reilly Media
External links
[edit]- Personal website
- The art of puzzles TED Talk at the Entertainment Gathering Conference 2008
- Scott Kim at the Mathematics Genealogy Project
