Laralyn McWilliams won the Lifetime Achievement award at the Game Developers Choice Awards in 2021.
Laralyn McWilliams won the Lifetime Achievement award at the Game Developers Choice Awards in 2021.
Categories

Game designer Laralyn McWilliams passes away

  • Posted byby Dean Takahashi
  • Updated
  • 1 min

Laralyn McWilliams, a pioneering and influential game designer, has passed away.

McWilliams was creative director on games such as Free Realms, and for her work she received the Lifetime Achievement Award at the Game Developers Choice Awards at the GDC summer event in July 2021, during the pandemic.

Unlock premium content and VIP community perks with GB M A X! Join now to enjoy our free and premium perks. 

Join now →

Sign in to your account.

Written by

Dean Takahashi

Dean Takahashi is editorial director for GamesBeat. He has been a tech journalist since 1988, and he has covered games as a beat since 1996. He was lead writer for GamesBeat at VentureBeat from 2008 to April 2025. Prior to that, he wrote for the San Jose Mercury News, the Red Herring, the Wall Street Journal, the Los Angeles Times, and the Dallas Times-Herald. He is the author of two books, "Opening the Xbox" and "The Xbox 360 Uncloaked." He organizes the annual GamesBeat Next, GamesBeat Summit and GamesBeat Insider Series: Hollywood and Games conferences and is a frequent speaker at gaming and tech events. He lives in the San Francisco Bay Area.