David Doak ( /ˈdoʊk/) is a Northern Irish video game designer. Originally from Belfast, [1] [2] he later moved to England, where he studied at Oxford University on biochemistry specialty [3] and worked as a research scientist. [4]
Doak began his video game career working with Rare where he provided network support for Donkey Kong Country 3: Dixie Kong's Double Trouble! and helped develop the critically acclaimed GoldenEye 007 [5] and Perfect Dark for the Nintendo 64. His facial likeness and name were used for a non-player character in GoldenEye 007, a scientist named Dr. Doak. Several of the guards also bear his likeness. [6]
Doak and video game composer Graeme Norgate left Rare in 1998 [7] to start Free Radical Design. From there he worked on the video game series TimeSplitters [8] and two other video games called Haze [9] and Second Sight. [10]
Doak left Free Radical - now known as Deep Silver Dambuster Studios - in 2009 and set up his own Nottingham-based studio, Zinkyzonk, which would develop games for Facebook. [11] The company evolved from his defunct studio Pumpkin Beach. [12] Zinkyzonk released its first game, Gangsta Zombies, on 11 July 2010 in partnership with Jolt Online Gaming. The company was dissolved in April 2013. [13]
Since 2016, Doak lectures at Norwich University of the Arts. [3]
On 19 May 2021, Deep Silver announced the reformation of Free Radical Design with David Doak and Steve Ellis as studio heads to make a new TimeSplitters game. [14] On 11 December 2023, the reformed Free Radical Design was closed down, and the new TimeSplitters game has been cancelled as a result.