David Wessman

Developer BIO

David Wessman entered the game industry in 1991 as a tester at Lucasfilm Games, (later known as LucasArts), where he worked on Indiana Jones and the Fate of Atlantis, LeChuck's Revenge ( Monkey Island 2), and Secret Weapons of the Luftwaffe and its 4 add-on campaign disks. In 1992 and 1993 he was a contract tester for Spectrum Holobyte, (later renamed MicroProse) where he worked on patches and expansions for Falcon 3.0, Tetris Classic for Windows and Chessmeister 5 Billion and 1.

In 1992 he joined Larry Holland's independent development group to work on X-Wing where he led internal testing, wrote documentation and did mission design, eventually becoming the game play and story lead on TIE Fighter and all subsequent products in the series.

From 2000 to 2002 he worked at Stormfront Studios, where he was the lead game designer on Blood Wake, a fast action boat combat game that was published by Microsoft as an Xbox launch title. It became a Platinum Series Hit.

In the summer of 2003 he worked at Starbreeze Studios, where he contributed to the design of The Chronicles of Riddick: Escape from Butcher Bay, published by Vivendi-Universal for Xbox and PC. He is also credited with voice work on Knights of the Temple published by TDK Mediactive on PS2, Xbox, GameCube and PC. Also, in 2003 he founded Politically Incorrect Games, LLC to pursue small independent projects.

From December 2003 through April 2005 he was a senior designer at Volition, Inc., where he worked on Saint's Row, an Xbox 360 title published by THQ, and did a small amount of voice over work for The Punisher.

From August 2005 to August 2006 he was a senior designer at Backbone Entertainment where he was one of the lead designers on Death Jr. 2: Root of Evil for the Sony PSP. He was also the uncredited audio lead on that project, (studio policy allowed only one credit.)

From January 2007 to February 2008 he was a senior game designer at the Raleigh, NC location of Destineer Studios where he worked on an unannounced next gen title and a training simulation for the U.S. Intelligence Community as well as consulting on the (as yet unpublished) Six Days in Fallujah.

In May of 2008 Mr. Wessman accepted a position as a professor of game design and development at the University of Advancing Technology in Tempe, AZ where he teaches over a dozen different courses in game design and development. In addition, he directs multiple student projects involving distributed teams of up to 28 members and offers internship experience through Politically Incorrect Games. In September 2012 he was appointed a Guest Professor at the Jilin Animation Institute in Changchun, China. Previously he taught game design at the Art Institute in California - San Francisco and was a guest lecturer at schools such as the UC Berkeley and E'xpressions College of New Media. Mr. Wessman has also consulted on game design curricula for several schools.

Outstanding student game projects he has been/is involved with include: Aquaphobia: Mutant Brain Sponge Madness, WPB, StarFist, Gravity, and Tellus: Save the Earth (which won the IEEE Committee on Earth Observation's SaveEarthGame competition.)

Not limiting himself to just electronic game development, David also finds time to assist in the development of historical board wargames including Hell's Forest, 2e., Germany's Gettysburg: The Battle of Königgrätz, Cobra, 3e., Wacht am Rhein, 2e., The Cossacks are Coming, 2e., When Dragons Fight: If China Invades Taiwan and War of 1812.

David is a long-standing member of the IGDA and was a founding member of the San Francisco chapter. He has been a frequent speaker at industry conferences such as the Game Developers Conference.

Also Known As

• Dave Wessman

Websites

• Gamasutra's Geek of the Week -- Q & A with David Wessman May 15, 1998
• Blood Wake Developer Diary -- Blood Wake's Lead Designer David Wessman speaks about his role in creating Stormfront's vehicular-combat game for the Xbox.
• LinkedIn -- David Wessman's profile

Games Credited

• Monkey Island 2: LeChuck's Revenge - Special Edition (2010), LucasArts
• Death Jr. II: Root of Evil (2006), Konami Digital Entertainment, Inc.
• Saints Row (2006), THQ Inc.
• The Chronicles of Riddick: Escape from Butcher Bay (2004), Vivendi Universal Games, Inc.
• Knights of the Temple: Infernal Crusade (2004), TDK Mediactive, Inc.
• Blood Wake (2001), Microsoft Corporation
• Star Wars: X-Wing Vs. TIE Fighter + Balance of Power (2000), LucasArts Entertainment Company LLC
• Star Wars: X-Wing Alliance (1999), LucasArts Entertainment Company LLC
• Star Wars: X-Wing Collector Series (1998), LucasArts Entertainment Company LLC
• Star Wars: X-Wing Vs. TIE Fighter (1997), LucasArts Entertainment Company LLC
• Star Wars: X-Wing Vs. TIE Fighter - Balance of Power Campaigns (1997), LucasArts Entertainment Company LLC
• Star Wars: TIE Fighter (Collector's CD-ROM) (1995), LucasArts Entertainment Company LLC
• Star Wars: TIE Fighter (1994), Softgold Computerspiele GmbH
• Star Wars: TIE Fighter - Defender of the Empire (1994), LucasArts
• Star Wars: X-Wing (Collector's CD-ROM) (1994), LucasArts Entertainment Company LLC
• National Lampoon's Chess Maniac 5 Billion and 1 (1993), Spectrum Holobyte, Inc.
• Star Wars: X-Wing (1993), U.S. Gold Ltd.
• Star Wars: X-Wing - B-Wing (1993), LucasArts Entertainment Company LLC
• Star Wars: X-Wing - Imperial Pursuit (1993), LucasArts
• Do 335 Pfeil Tour of Duty (1992), Lucasfilm Games LLC
• Falcon 3.0: Operation: Fighting Tiger (1992), MicroProse Ltd.
• He 162 Volksjäger Tour of Duty (1992), LucasArts
• Indiana Jones and the Fate of Atlantis (1992), Lucasfilm Games LLC
• Falcon 3.0 (1991), Spectrum Holobyte, Inc.
• Monkey Island 2: LeChuck's Revenge (1991), U.S. Gold Ltd.
• P-38 Lightning Tour of Duty (1991), LucasArts
• P-80 Shooting Star Tour Of Duty (1991), LucasArts