Let’s Talk
Dan is a game design director attempting to stay dry with his lovely wife and daughter in Seattle.
Dan also loves finding good music, Sharp Writing, passionate people, and the Palm desert.
Biography
I care about deconstructing the essence of each moment. I care about assembling new ideas from those disparate parts. Most of all, I care about delivery over theory. I started off like most children of my generation, making internet videos at the dawn of the millennium. After graduating from film school, I decided to further my education by attending Savannah College of Art & Design. In 2010, I graduated from Savannah College of Art and Design with a Master of Fine Arts degree in motion media design.
Immediately after getting my degree, my life took a swift left turn, and I was whisked off to Seattle, Washington to work at Microsoft for 12 years. First, marketing Halo, then creating apps and new technology for Xbox, then directing the Halo Infinite story across trailers, levels, cinematics, and emergent experiences.
Now, I work on a brand new I.P. with the hopes of creating enigmatic worlds to explore and new characters to love. With every opportunity, I aim for elegance, wonder, and depth. I service the story through design, the spoken word, and the desire to keep the audience feeling considered and crucial to the unfolding narrative. I service moments. I service the drive to find the larger meaning, the larger story, all for the larger good. Let's make moments more resonant, more inspired, more understood. Let's make ideas into mythology. Let's make something beautiful together.
PRESENT
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Game Experience Director
UNANNOUNCED Game \\
Jar of Sparks. Seattle, WA
October 2022 – Present
Story, Cinematics, and Level Design Director
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NARRATIVE EXPERIENCE DIRECTOR
Halo FPS Shooter Team \\
343 Industries (Microsoft). Seattle, WA
August 2017 – September 2022
Created plans, specifications, and pre-visualizations for Halo Infinite's narrative experiences across cinematics and gameplay. Oversaw all cinematic narrative sequences, ensuring optimal performance. Served as a voice-over director for select talent. Directed the creation of all in-game narrative sequences, including their artistry, technical design, sound design, music, lighting, and special effects representations. Reviewed and consistently provided feedback throughout the writing and pre-visualization phases. Wrote narrative design specifications for discrete levels during the pre-production and production stages of development. Collaborated with the creative director to establish the pacing of dialogue and audio throughout the single-player campaign. Generated extensive documentation outlining narrative goals and methodologies for casting directors, actors, UI team, graphics team, QA team, and the entire studio across the narrative production pipeline. Guided the entire narrative cinematic presentation daily until the game's release.
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Creative DIRECTOR . EXPERIENCE DESIGNER
Halo Transmedia Team \\
343 Industries (Microsoft). Seattle, WA
May 2015 – July 2017
I led an incubation team to determine the direction and experiential facets of future projects for the Halo Transmedia Team. This effort manifested as interactive TV app development, short-story creation, and creative direction for an Xbox VR project.
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Director
Halo Transmedia Team \\
343 Industries (Microsoft) + Scott FreE. Seattle, WA
February 2014 – December 2014
Lived in Iceland and Ireland for 2 months to direct, edit, create motion graphics and accompanying sound design for 15 short films that sat alongside the Ridley Scott produced Halo: Nightfall production. These videos were a part of a complimentary interactive experience for the Halo Channel. Upon watching the film, the narrative would branch to short films that helped color the overall film narrative.
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Creative Lead + Experience Designer
Halo Transmedia Team \\
343 Industries (Microsoft). Seattle, WA
December 2012 – May 2015
As briefly mentioned above in the Transmedia Team section, I led the Creative Direction for an interactive television experience (app) for the Halo franchise. The aim was to create a new passive experience adjacent to gaming in preparation for the Halo TV show. The goal was to utilize premium content and analytics to create a viewing experience that seamlessly integrated players' statistics with brand new content in a high-quality wrapper.
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Lead Video Motion Designer & Editor
Halo Transmedia Team \\
343 Industries (Microsoft). Seattle, WA
January 2011 – December 2012
I created all the behind-the-scenes documentary materials and 90% of all motion graphic materials for Halo Anniversary and Halo 4.
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Staff Designer
Imaginary Forces. New York, NY
September 2010 - January 2011
Full-Time Staff Designer / Animator. Rebranded Canadian W Network, along with Spike TV. Created the logo for Dreamworks film ‘Real Steel.’ Designed numerous internal branding projects.
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Designer
King and Country,Santa Monica, CA
June 2009 - August 2009
Modeled 3D elements for the Comedy Central Roast of Joan Rivers. Designed pitch boards for Comedy Central Roast of Joan Rivers. Did the same type of work for Kellogg's Fiber Plus and the Oprah Winfrey Network (OWN).
_09
Designer
Loyalkaspar. New York, NY
June 2008 - September 2008
Animated Disney XD bumpers. Constructed billboard print ads. Spearheaded the real-world motion graphic transitions for Disney XD. Assembled, animated and designed a Loyalkaspar internal video for their 5th year anniversary.
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Designer / Editor
Major League Gaming. New York, NY
July 2006 - October 2007
Assembled, animated, shot, and 3D modeled over 15 different web promotional videos that premiered on Major League Gaming’s stages along with G4TV and ESPN.com.
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Assistant Editor
Film Oasis / Bungie StudioS. Kirkland, WA
July 2006 - August 2006
Spearheaded pre-production on the Halo 3: ViDoc’s. Captured early-game footage for ‘Et Tu Brute?’ video documentary. Assembled first Bungie podcast.
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Intern
Film Oasis. Santa Monica, CA
June 2004 - September 2004
I captured game footage for the Halo 2 Documentary. I edited and constructed the 'First Look' featurette on the DVD. I assembled rough edits for use with DVD commentary.