Karen Clark, previously program manager at Playdom’s San Francisco office where she worked on the company's Facebook titles, has joined id co-founder John Romero's social game studio, Loot Drop.
As Loot Drop's new director of studio operations, Clark will work alongside the likes of creative director Laralyn McWilliams and chief operating officer Brenda Brathwaite at the company's San Mateo, CA studio.
Clark was also originally project manager on Bioware and EA's Dragon Age: Origins, before taking a role as senior project manager at Electronic Arts Redwood Shores to work on Mass Effect 2.
The industry veteran also co-founded GameMentorOnline, a game industry mentoring program, in a joint effort between Women in Games International and the IGDA.
She said of the move, "Working at Loot Drop was an easy choice for me. I have a lot of friends in the company who believe in the social space and the opportunities it presents to recapture some of the early magic of games where the gameplay was paramount."
"We’ve known Karen for years through her work in games, the IGDA and Women in Games International," said Loot Drop's COO Brenda Brathwaite. "We wanted to bring her ability to manage creative projects, online persistent worlds and groups here."
Brathwaite joined Loot Drop at the start of the year after already working with John Romero at LOLApps beforehand. Laralyn McWilliams, previously creative director on Sony Online Entertainment's free-to-play MMO Free Realms, joined a month later.
Loot Drop’s first game, Cloudforest Expedition, is set to be published this summer by social game company RockYou on Facebook.
