Annie VanderMeer

Who is Annie VanderMeer?

Annie VanderMeer is an American video game designer best known for her writing work on the 2008 PC title Neverwinter Nights 2: Storm of Zehir and her design work on the 2012 PC MMORPG Guild Wars 2 and upcoming zombie survival RPG Dead State.

Annie VanderMeer attended Macalester College and earned an Honors B.A. in English in 2003, writing about Science Fiction and Fantasy in Contemporary American Literature. While there, she spent her spare time with the local gaming society, further inspiring her. After the discovery that there are limited opportunities to study and teach English/gaming in graduate school, she started her path back to the games that she'd always loved.

After a brief stint at a local GameStop, VanderMeer started work at Papaya Studio in the summer of 2004, where she worked on Taxi Driver, the ill-fated videogame "sequel" to the film of the same name. Soon after the game was cancelled in October 2005, VanderMeer joined Obsidian Entertainment in January 2006, beginning work on "Project New Jersey".

When Project New Jersey was cancelled, VanderMeer joined the Neverwinter Nights 2 team, where she worked on handling the in-game items, and presented on NWN2 at PAX 2006. After NWN2 was released, VanderMeer began work as a writing assistant on Alpha Protocol, working with creative lead Brian Mitsoda, where she was credited with helping create some of the characters. While working on Alpha Protocol, VanderMeer assisted with additional design for the first expansion to Neverwinter Nights 2. Mask of the Betrayer.