About Me
Hey there, I‘m Dan!
You may know me from such ventures as BioShock Infinite, Heroes of the Storm, and this webpage. I’ve been in the games industry since 2007, working at AAA studios across genres, generations, and US states. As a game designer, my main interests are in meta systems (particularly social systems like matchmaking and guilds/clans) and narrative design.
I started in games in 2007 at Kaos Studios as part of a small, ambitious team working on the multiplayer shooter Frontlines: Fuel of War. From there I headed to Boston and Harmonix, where I worked on multiple Rock Band titles and realized that design was the game discipline that really made my gears spin.
I joined Irrational Games in the middle of full production on BioShock Infinite. After a year or so of prototype testing and test plan creation, I took on the role of a scripter for the audio team, where I was responsible for implementing VO across the game via Unreal3’s Kismet visual scripting language. I pitched and built my first game system: a reminder VO system that improved player experience, implementation, and stability. I then killed my first game system when production determined we didn’t have time for the additional scope the narrative team wanted to build for it.
After BioShock shipped, I went to Turbine to work on Infinite Crisis, then on to Bungie to help get Destiny across the finish line. Since 2014, I’ve been a UI & game systems analyst at Blizzard Entertainment, working on StarCraft 2, Heroes of the Storm, and World of Warcraft. I collaborated with other developers to build test suites for major features like Heroes‘ tournament mode and WoW‘s auction house revamp.
Beyond my professional duties, I have collaborated with other Blizzard employees in a board game prototype class taught by former senior WoW designer Craig Morrison. I participated in game jams with the Heroes and WoW teams, and have recently started assembling this portfolio site. You can see some of my work on the Design page.
Design Portfolio
Games, prototypes, design treatments, and other ideas of varying reality.
Other Games
Recent and current games I’m thinking about
Survival Crafters
It seems like everyone is making a survival crafter these days, and I’ve found myself playing a lot of them in various stages of development: Nightingale, Enshrouded, Voyagers of Nera, Fera: The Sundered Tribes, even a recent return to Subnautica.
It’s a challenging design space, asset- and tech-heavy but (I’ve found) often underbaked in terms of gameplay mechanics. As the genre matures, player expectations only get higher. “You couldn’t make Minecraft today,” as the meme goes.
I think there’s still a lot of unexplored design space in the genre, and I hope teams get the runway they need to see their grand ideas to fruition.
RNGameplay
I’ve been crushing hard on procedural generation and emergent systems for years now. I haven’t dug too far into Hades 2 – waiting for 1.0 – but Supergiant continues to Crush It. Pacific Drive and Windblown have also been great explorations of linear narrative layered over procedural content.
For a curveball, I’m going to include Monster Hunter here. It’s not procedurally generated, but the map and ecology design in MH:World constantly create unexpected emergent (usually Deviljho-shaped) scenarios that keep every hunt fresh.
I’m excited and afraid to dive into Shadows of Doubt and Caves of Qud next.
Soulslikes
While I’ve yet to try the DLC, I did take a couple months this year to finally beat and then platinum Elden Ring. I’ve often credited my interest in systems design to Bastion’s Bullhead Shield – alongside Dark Souls in 2011, putting block and parry on the same button created a fantastic risk/reward system that dozens of games have since adopted.
Along with Elden Ring, I spent some time this year with No Rest For The Wicked as well as the aforementioned Windblown and Enshrouded, which also pull from From’s example in their combat design if not their progression models.
Not So Cozy
“Cozy” is a fraught label, a claim that I think is supported by the number of recent releases that could be called cozy but betray the word in so many interesting ways. Dredge is a fishing game about unspeakable horrors.
Animal Well has no combat but I’d put it closer to Dark Souls than Outer Wilds because its world *does not care about you*. A Highland Song is the most stressed I’ve ever been about hiking and singing. Meanwhile, En Garde!
is a tight action adventure game that’s cozy as hell. Potionomics will gut you if you’re not playing to win.
Genuinely cozy? Many recent releases that are more toys or tools than games: Townscaper, Tiny Glade, Spirit City: Lo-fi Sessions.
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