David Banner (game designer)

Dr
David Banner
MBE
David Banner at Buckingham Palace 2018
Born (1972-11-01) 1 November 1972
Rhondda, Wales
OccupationsVideo games and interactive film designer, producer, director and entrepreneur
Known forCo-founder of Wales Interactive, Co-creator for Maid of Sker, Sker Ritual and Soul Axiom. Executive Producer for The Complex, Five Dates and Ten Dates.

David Banner MBE (born November 1972) is a Welsh video games and interactive film designer, producer, director and entrepreneur. He is also known in the video games and interactive film industries as “Dai”.[1][2]

He is the co-founder and CEO of video game and interactive film developer and publisher Wales Interactive.[3][4]

Biography

Banner was born on 1 November 1972 in Rhondda, Wales.[5][6] He attended Treorchy Comprehensive School and Tonypandy Comprehensive School, then Mid Glamorgan Centre for Art, Design and Technology.[7][8][9] He then received a Graphic Design degree at De Montfort University, Leicester, where he graduated in 1995 with a first-class honour.[10] After graduating, Banner started his professional video game career in London as an artist and designer for video game developer and publisher Domark, which later became Eidos Interactive.[10][11][12]

In 2007 Banner became a visiting lecturer at University of Glamorgan (now University of South Wales).[10] With his participation at the University of South Wales, a separate course for a degree in game art was created.[13]

Banner established the company Wales Interactive in 2012 with his business partner Richard Pring. The company develops video games across PlayStation, Xbox and Nintendo platforms.[14][15][16][13]

In 2017, he won the St David Awards for Enterprise.[3] In 2018, he was made a Member of the Order of the British Empire (MBE) for service to the video game industry.[13][3][12]

In 2018, Banner won Digital Ambassador of the Year at the Wales Online Awards and the Pride of De Montfort University Alumni Award.[17][16]

In 2020 Banner was awarded the title of Honorary Doctor of Technology from De Montfort University.[3][18] Banner was appointed by Welsh Government as Creative Wales Non-Executive Board Member in 2020.[3]

His combined portfolio of games has achieved in excess of 10 million downloads worldwide.[16][19]

He is co-creator and co-director of Sker Ritual and Maid of Sker games, both global hits based on Welsh folklore.[20][21][22]

Banner has contributed to the re-invention of the interactive film genre with titles such as Late Shift, which won the BAFTA Cymru game award in 2018 and, The Complex, which received 7 nominations in the British Film Festival Awards, going on to win in two categories.[23][24]

Games

Interactive films

  • The Bunker (2016)
  • Late Shift (2017)
  • The Shapeshifting Detective (2018)
  • The Complex (2020)
  • Five Dates (2020)
  • Night Book (2021)
  • I Saw Black Clouds (2021)
  • Bloodshore (2021)
  • Who Pressed Mute on Uncle Marcus? (2022)
  • Ten Dates (2023)
  • Mia and the Dragon Princess (2023)
  • The Isle Tide Hotel (2023)

References

  1. ^ "David Banner". IMDb. Retrieved 23 May 2023.
  2. ^ "Develop Awards Partner Spotlight: Wales Interactive". MCV. 15 May 2019. ISSN 1469-4832. Retrieved 23 May 2023.
  3. ^ a b c d e "First Non-Executive Board for Creative Wales announced". Welsh Government (Press release). 9 November 2020. Retrieved 23 May 2023.
  4. ^ "Wales winners crowned in Cardiff". Fresh Business Thinking. 29 October 2019. Archived from the original on 21 March 2023. Retrieved 23 May 2023.
  5. ^ Barry, Sion (8 June 2018). "WalesOnline Digital Awards 2018 winners revealed". WalesOnline. Retrieved 23 May 2023.
  6. ^ Smith, Mark (7 August 2013). "It's game on for Bridgend firm as PlayStation goes Welsh". WalesOnline. Retrieved 23 May 2023.
  7. ^ "Winter graduations 2020: Citation - David Banner MBE". www.dmu.ac.uk. Retrieved 23 May 2023.
  8. ^ "Video game entrepreneur offers five life lessons for DMU graduates". www.dmu.ac.uk. Retrieved 23 May 2023.
  9. ^ "BAFTA winning games company founder awarded first ever". www.dmu.ac.uk. Retrieved 23 May 2023.
  10. ^ a b c Caines, Matthew (14 July 2017). "You don't have to be in London or LA to develop great games". Telegraph.co.uk.
  11. ^ Smith, Mark (7 August 2013). "It's game on for Bridgend firm as PlayStation goes Welsh". WalesOnline. Retrieved 23 May 2023.
  12. ^ a b Handrahan, Matthew (11 June 2018). "Wales Interactive co-founder David Banner to receive MBE". GamesIndustry.biz. Retrieved 23 May 2023.
  13. ^ a b c "Queen's Birthday Honours 2018: MBE for video game entrepreneur". BBC News. 8 June 2018. Retrieved 23 May 2023.
  14. ^ "Wales winners crowned in Cardiff". Fresh Business Thinking. 29 October 2019. Archived from the original on 21 March 2023. Retrieved 23 May 2023.
  15. ^ "Wales Interactive makes full motion move". Insider Media Ltd. 4 June 2021. Retrieved 23 May 2023.
  16. ^ a b c Barry, Sion (13 June 2018). "Gaming Tycoon Takes Top Digital Award". Western Mail. Retrieved 23 May 2023 – via PressReader.
  17. ^ "Penarth business 'chuffed' to win prestigious award". Penarth Times. 18 June 2022. Retrieved 23 May 2023.
  18. ^ "Winter graduations 2020: Citation - David Banner MBE". www.dmu.ac.uk. Retrieved 23 May 2023.
  19. ^ Barry, Sion (8 June 2018). "WalesOnline Digital Awards 2018 winners revealed". WalesOnline. Retrieved 23 May 2023.
  20. ^ "Gaming: Wales zombie survival thriller enjoys chart success". BBC News. 1 May 2024. Retrieved 15 May 2024.
  21. ^ "Home-grown Welsh zombie horror shooter tops international gaming charts". www.gov.wales. 30 April 2024. Retrieved 15 May 2024.
  22. ^ Reid, Lucinda (28 July 2020). "Video game based on Welsh folklore launches and it features a spooky Calon Lân". Wales Online. Retrieved 15 May 2024.
  23. ^ "Wales Interactive: a new way of making Games". Creative Cardiff. Retrieved 23 May 2023.
  24. ^ Mark (15 October 2018). "2018 British Academy Cymru Awards: Winners Announced". Cardiff Times. Retrieved 23 May 2023.
This article is issued from Wikipedia. The text is available under Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 4.0 unless otherwise noted. Additional terms may apply for the media files.