Spotlight Awardee Karen Hsin ’06

In 2024, Karen Hsin (writing under the pen name Karrie [Shirou] Shao) released Pacific Drive, a supernatural driving game on PC, PlayStation 5 and Xbox, described as “Stephen King’s X-Files in a station wagon.” She was the game’s writer and narrative designer, creating the game’s main story and writing a script that explored themes about the price of pursuing science and technology at all costs, living with public and private failure and the legacy of what we leave behind as both people and scientists. The game has sold more than 1.5 million copies and was nominated for a BAFTA and a Nebula Award, one of the most prestigious science fiction writing awards. She was named a BAFTA Breakthrough talent and previously worked on League of Legends as one of the first women to write and produce at Riot Games.