Daniel Savage

About Work Experience Personal Works Contact

About

Picutre of Daniel Savage at a cafe

Game developer, designer, and programmer living in Vancouver, Canada.

Video games are a unique medium, walking the (often blurry!) line between technology and art. Professionally, I have an interest in the patterns of how we author games and what enables people to make impactful work. This manifests in areas such as scripting, designer workflows, and the ergonomics of tooling.

I've developed small games on my personal time as well. If you happen to try any of my work on itch.io, I'd love to hear your feedback.

Work Experience

For a PDF file of my resume, please click here.

Present Work

Currently a Senior Technical Designer at Treyarch on the Call of Duty franchise.

Minecraft Legends (2018 - 2023)

Minecraft Legends screenshot

Minecraft Legends is an action/strategy game for PC and consoles. I did programming and design work on the game.

During initial development, I implemented the JavaScript runtime for game scripting as well as various elements of gameplay programming, including scripted trigger volumes, tutorial development, and UX improvements.

I was the designer for two of the game's monthly DLC episodes, The Legend of the Llama and Creeper Clash. This involved setting vision, procedural level design, and working with various stakeholders across an interdisciplinary team.

Rise of Nations: Extended Edition (2017)

Rise of Nations screenshot

Porting for Rise of Nations: Extended Edition for Steam and Xbox.

Updating the network layer for a determinstic RTS simulation, as well as integrating legacy interface elements with Xbox Live's cert requirements.

Having a cross-play game work between two different platforms with different build environments was challenging work, but interesting.

Age of Empires II: Rise of the Rajas (2016)

Age of Empires II screenshot

Programming work for Age of Empires II's 2016 downloadable content.

Programmed gameplay elements for new units and civilizations. Implemented script bindings for AI and level design. Added functionality for user-generated campaigns. Profiled game code and improved performance.

Age of Empires II has a very old C++ codebase, with a variety of paradigms and retrofitted changes over the years. It was a lovely learning experience.

Halo 5: Forge (2016, 2018)

Halo 5: Forge screenshot

UI programming and debugging for Halo 5 Forge, a PC port of the game.

Also did some brief help with reproogramming C++ UI elements for 4K displays on Halo 5: Guardians.

Personal Works

Boils, Otters, Valor, and Death

Boils, Otters, Valor, and Death screenshot

Boils, Otters, Valor, and Death is an action game. The player controls sorcerers driving a minivan in a castle of violent otters. The game takes inspiration from Final Fantasy's ATB system and 13 Sentinels: Aegis Rim's gameplay.

Programming, art, music, and level design.

An original comission game for issue #46 of Indiepocalypse.

Wizard of the Board

Wizard of the Board screenshot

Action-puzzle game for the Nintendo 64. Manipulate chess pieces via the controller's C-buttons to strike enemies and solve puzzles.

C programming, level design, music composition, 2D/3D art.

First place finalist in the 2021 N64Brew Game Jam.

Download here on itch.io.

Spectres of the Cold

Spectres of the Cold screenshot

Narrative stealth game made with web technologies. Made in two months where myself and another game developer swapped assets.

Made in two months where myself and another game developer swapped assets. Programming, audio, and level design.

Purchase here on itch.io.

Super Radish Witch

Super Radish Witch screenshot

Platforming game made with web technologies. Design cues take inspiration from Famicom titles such as Mega Man II and Kirby's Adventure. I was curious about a 1:1 aspect ratio, and how that influenced 2D spaces for platforming.

Made over the course of four months on my spare time. Programming, sound effects, art, and level design.

Purchase here on itch.io.

Contact