David ArnspigerDeveloper BIOEighteen years in QA? Where did he go wrong? Lots of people think Dave was crazy for staying in this line for so long and not making the leap to Production. He says they are wrong. His role in QA has had a positive effect on the hundreds of titles he has worked on in those eighteen years. He stumbled into the job. He was collecting Disney Images on BBS' and FIDOnet and found one that listed the Disney Software BBS. He logged in, made friends, and in a month or two he was working as a QACS Representative at Disney Software in 1991. Between 1991 and 1995 when he left, he had established the first true online presence by a Disney company across multiple services, Prodigy, Compuserve, AOL and a full Internet link on the Disney Software BBS which he expanded from 1 to 16 lines supporting 10,000 plus users. The guy who started the Disney Internet Group came to meet with him shortly before they became an entity. He should have jumped when he had the chance. In 1995 he jumped over to Activision as a full QA Manager. Disney wouldn't give him the title due to his lack of a degree, so he left. That was a great move. He managed a base staff of 120 people. His teams released some of the first Windows 95 products, and had one of the first PlayStation titles to pass certification on the first pass. It was a great time. Things were really taking off in gaming. He got to work on some amazing titles like Quake 2, MechWarrior 2, Dark Reign, Battlezone, Heavy Gear, Zork: Grand Inquisitor, and many others. Then in 1999 a Senior Producer named Frank Evers went to Disney Interactive to take over production. One of his first products on the slate was a TRON game. He knew Dave was a major TRON fan, and called him about taking over QA there. So in 1999 he moved back to Disney Software/Interactive, now renamed to Buena Vista Games. During that term he managed multiple teams in an external production model dealing with both vertical and licensed titles. His teams released over 2000 separate SKUs in 5 years ranging from demos, to full PC, console, and handheld products. His pride and joy was Tron 2.0 for the PC and the Game Boy Advance version. He had nothing to do with the Xbox version, but wishes he'd been allowed to. Unfortunately, a new VP of Production took over in his last two years at BVG and let's just say they were never in each other's fan clubs. Dave got sacked in December of 2005, three days after Christmas to make room for a new QA regime. After mulling over a change of direction and getting out of gaming, Dave bounced right back and landed at THQ Wireless. His wife Jan had spotted a listing for a QA Manager, and he thought that games for mobile phones might be a neat sideline for a while. He was bored with PC and Console. He really wanted out of QA, but he needed a gig, and this fit. In a way, that VP at Disney did Dave a huge favor, because he landed a great job, and it grew to be something he truly loved to do. He had one of the greatest teams he has ever had working for him, and the 24 of them cranked out from 100 to 300 ports per week at peak times. He even took his first step into Production in 2006 when he managed the Porting process for six months. In early 2007, he was a Production/QA Manager, but after a new regime took over in late 2006 he stepped back to just handling QA as people took over his role at the new THQ Wireless headquarters in Chaska, Minnesota. Then they announced in Q2 of 2007 that THQ Wireless was moving to San Diego. Luckily, a call came in from Alex Plachowski at 2K Games about a job as a Test Manager at 2K Games. After talking with Alex over lunch he was convinced that going back to the console world was the right thing to do. He needed to prove to himself that he still had the skills to work at that level. Turns out that he did have what it takes and he is currently doing very well at 2K Games running the Sports teams in QA. So Dave is back doing what he does best, running big teams and shipping big projects. Who knows where he'll be in three years, but for right now he's happy building Test Leads, teams and great games. Also Known As
Websites - Traumantic Studios -- Dave's person homepage for his Photography Studio and ever expanding entrepreneurial interests.
Games CreditedBioShock (2008), 2K Games
Major League Baseball 2K8: Fantasy All-Stars (2008), 2K Sports
NBA 2K9 (2008), 2K Sports
Sid Meier's Civilization IV: Colonization (2008), 2K Games
Top Spin 3 (2008), 2K Sports
Disney's Aladdin Chess Adventures (2004), Sierra Entertainment, Inc.
Disney's Home on the Range (2004), Buena Vista Games, Inc.
Kim Possible 2: Drakken's Demise (2004), Disney Interactive, Inc.
Disney's Brother Bear (2003), Disney Interactive
Disney's Brother Bear (2003), Disney Interactive, Inc.
Disney's The Lion King 1 ½ (2003), THQ Inc.
Piglet's Big Game (2003), Disney Interactive, Inc.
Pirates of the Caribbean (2003), Bethesda Softworks LLC
Tron 2.0 (2003), Buena Vista Interactive
Disney Learning Adventure: Search for the Secret Keys (2002), Disney Interactive, Inc.
Disney/Pixar's Monsters Inc.: Pinball Panic Mini Game (2002), Buena Vista Games, Inc.
Disney•Pixar's Monsters Inc. Scare Island (2002), Buena Vista Games, Inc.
Disney/Pixar's Monsters Inc.: Wreck Room Arcade - Bowling for Screams (2002), Buena Vista Games, Inc.
Disney•Pixar's Monsters Inc.: Wreck Room Arcade: Eight Ball Chaos (2002), Buena Vista Games, Inc.
Disney/Pixar's Monsters Inc.: Wreck Room Arcade: Monster Tag (2002), Buena Vista Games, Inc.
Disney's Kim Possible: Revenge of Monkey Fist (2002), Disney Interactive, Inc.
Disney's Lilo & Stitch (2002), Disney Interactive, Inc.
Disney's Stitch: Experiment 626 (2002), Buena Vista Games, Inc.
Disney's Treasure Planet (2002), SCEE
Playhouse Disney's Stanley: Wild for Sharks! (2002), Disney Interactive, Inc.
Disney•Pixar Monsters, Inc.: Scream Team Training (2001), Disney Interactive Studios
Disney's Cinderella's Dollhouse (2001), Disney Interactive, Inc.
Disney's Extremely Goofy Skateboarding (2001), Disney Interactive, Inc.
Disney's Mickey Saves the Day: 3D Adventure (2001), Disney Interactive, Inc.
Playhouse Disney's: Stanley Tiger Tales (2001), Disney Interactive, Inc.
Ultimate Ride (2001), Disney Imagineering
Disney/Pixar's Toy Story 2: Buzz Lightyear to the Rescue! (2000), Disney Interactive, Inc.
Walt Disney's The Jungle Book: Groove Party (2000), Buena Vista Games, Inc.
Civilization: Call to Power (1999), Activision, Inc.
Disney's Tarzan (1999), Activision, Inc.
Fighter Squadron: The Screaming Demons over Europe (1999), Activision, Inc.
Heavy Gear II (1999), Activision, Inc.
Jack Nicklaus 6: Golden Bear Challenge (1999), Activision, Inc.
Sid Meier's Civilization II (1999), Activision, Inc.
Vigilante 8 (1999), Activision, Inc.
Apocalypse (1998), Activision, Inc.
Barrage (1998), Activision, Inc.
Battlezone (1998), Activision, Inc.
Dark Reign: Rise of the Shadowhand (1998), Activision, Inc.
The Fifth Element (1998), Hudson Soft Company, Ltd.
Guardian's Crusade (1998), Tamsoft Corporation
Heretic II (1998), Activision, Inc.
Interstate '76: Nitro Pack (1998), Activision, Inc.
Interstate '76: Nitro Riders (1998), Activision, Inc.
Tenchu: Stealth Assassins (1998), Sony Music Entertainment (Japan), Inc.
Blood Omen: Legacy of Kain (1997), Activision, Inc., Crystal Dynamics, Inc.
Dark Reign: The Future of War (1997), Activision, Inc.
Heavy Gear (1997), Activision, Inc.
Interstate '76 (1997), Activision, Inc.
NetStorm: Islands at War (1997), Activision, Inc.
Nightmare Creatures (1997), Activision Publishing, Inc.
Shanghai: Dynasty (1997), Activision, Inc.
Zork: Grand Inquisitor (1997), Activision, Inc.
Blast Chamber (1996), Activision, Inc.
MechWarrior 2: Mercenaries (1996), Activision, Inc.
Return to Zork (1996), Bandai Co., Ltd.
Santa Fe Mysteries: The Elk Moon Murder (1996), Activision, Inc.
Spycraft: The Great Game (1996), Activision, Inc.
Time Commando (1996), Activision Publishing, Inc.
BattleTech: A Game of Armored Combat (1995), Activision, Inc.
Earthworm Jim (1995), Activision, Inc.
MechWarrior 2: 31st Century Combat (1995), Activision, Inc.
MechWarrior 2: Ghost Bear's Legacy (1995), Activision, Inc.
Paparazzi!: Tales of Tinseltown (1995), Activision Publishing, Inc.
Pitfall: The Mayan Adventure (1995), Activision, Inc., Atari Corporation
Coaster (1993), Walt Disney Computer Software, Inc.
Heaven & Earth (1992), Buena Vista Software
Stunt Island (1992), Walt Disney Computer Software, Inc.
The Rocketeer (1991), Walt Disney Computer Software, Inc.
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