David C. Savage

Summary

Senior AAA content designer with 13+ years of experience creating open-world, cinematic, and narrative gameplay for flagship PlayStation and Call of Duty titles. Skilled in mission ownership, encounter design, proprietary scripting systems, and cross-discipline leadership from concept through ship.

Experience

1. Senior Staff Content Designer

   September 2017 – Present

   Sucker Punch Productions · Bellevue, Washington

   Shipped: Ghost of Tsushima, Ghost of Tsushima Director's Cut, Ghost of Yōtei, Ghost of Yōtei Complete Edition

   • Ghost of Yōtei Complete Edition: Came up with and prototyped the Most Wanted mode.
   • Ghost of Yōtei: Created many well-received missions. Came up with the left-handed dual-wield minigame in The Way of Dual Katana, which got a strong player response.
   • Ghost of Yōtei: Golden Path missions The Way of Dual Katana and Shogun of the North (the first confrontation with Lord Saito). Mythic Tales The Storm Blade (Jin Sakai), Takezo the Unrivaled, and The Spider Lily General.
   • Ghost of Tsushima: Designed and built numerous missions for Sony's fastest selling new IP. Pitched the horse's death in Honor and Ash, the Golden Path prison-break mission.
   • Ghost of Tsushima: Golden Path missions Honor and Ash and The Broken Blacksmith (the rescue of Taka). Handled the back half of Sensei Ishikawa's tales and built a lot of open-world content, including bronze missions.
   • Created many of the open-world encounters and experiences on Iki Island for the Director’s Cut.

2. Game Designer

   July 2014 – September 2017

   Infinity Ward · Woodland Hills, CA

   Shipped: Call of Duty: Infinite Warfare

   • My role involved planning missions, combats, and moments and then scripting that gameplay. I worked in a non-visual scripting language to do everything from core combat loops to special one-off mechanics and scenes. I saw content through from initial prototype to shipping-on-disc.
   • Pitched and served as design point-person for Operation Dark Quarry (rogue asteroid mission). The mission came mostly from my own ideas. Oversaw its team and did heavy scripting on every part of it.
   • Worked on the first four missions. One of the main designers on Black Sky (Geneva) and Operation Port Armor (Moon). On Operation Burn Water (Titan), built the walk alongside the giant robot and the building sequence as the ships fly by.
   • Created the main Easter Egg for the zombies map Shaolin Shuffle (puzzles built on Morse code and Mandarin), plus the bonus "David Savage Billionaire Quest" and many smaller Easter Eggs.
   • Built the skeleton attacks and encounter work for the zombies map Rave in the Redwoods.

3. Game Designer

   April 2013 – April 2014

   Neversoft Entertainment · Woodland Hills, CA

   Shipped: Call of Duty: Ghosts

   • Main scripter on the space portion of Call of Duty: Ghosts' opening mission, the ODIN sequence. My first game.

4. Animation Design Scripter Intern

   January 2013 – April 2013

   Neversoft Entertainment · Woodland Hills, CA

5. Level Design Student

   January 2011 – December 2012

   The Guildhall at SMU · Plano, TX

   • While working on my master’s degree, I developed many vital skills as a level designer. Iterative design, rapid prototyping, and making fun experiences are some of the tools in my arsenal.

Education

1. Master's in Interactive Technology, Video Game Level Design

   2011 – 2012

   Southern Methodist University

2. BA, RTVF, English

   2005 – 2008

   University of North Texas

Skills

Design

• Mission ownership
• Encounter design
• Proprietary scripting systems
• Cross-discipline leadership

Tools

• After Effects
• Photoshop
• Microsoft Office