Elan Lee

Elan Lee
Elan Lee designing Tombstone Hold 'Em (2005) with a golf ball attached to his head
Born	(1975-01-26) January 26, 1975 (age 42) Los Angeles, California, United States
Occupation	Alternate Reality Game Designer

Elan Lee (born 1975) is a game designer who works in the genre of alternate reality games.

Lee started his career as a character designer at Industrial Light and Magic, where he worked on several motion pictures. In 1998 he became lead game designer at Microsoft Game Studios, designing and directing games for the PC and Xbox. While working for Microsoft he was the lead designer for The Beast, an alternate reality game (ARG) that promoted the Steven Spielberg film A.I. Artificial Intelligence.

In 2003 he co-founded 42 Entertainment, a design company in the new field of alternate reality games (ARGs). 42 has created multiple ARGs, including, I Love Bees to promote the Xbox game Halo 2, and Year Zero, to promote the Nine Inch Nails album Year Zero.

In 2006, he co-founded (with Dawne Weisman) edoc laundry, a company designed to produce ARGs using clothes as the primary platform. Consumers deciphered codes hidden within garments and entered the results into the game's main website to reveal pieces of a story about the murder of a band manager.

In 2007, he founded Fourth Wall Studios, an entertainment studio aiming to develop and publish entertainment experiences of varying scopes.

In 2013, he returned to Microsoft as the Chief Design Officer for Xbox Entertainment Studios.

In 2015, he partnered with Matthew Inman (The Oatmeal) and Shane Small to create the card game 'Exploding Kittens', funded on Kickstarter.

In 2016, he partnered again with Matthew Inman (The Oatmeal) and Carly McGinnis to create the card game 'Bears vs. Babies', currently being funded on Kickstarter.