David Banner (game designer)

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

Dr David Banner MBE
David Banner at Buckingham Palace 2018
Born	(1972-11-01) 1 November 1972 (age 52) Rhondda, Wales
Occupation(s)	Video games and interactive film designer, producer, director and entrepreneur
Known for	Co-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.

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).^[13] With his participation at the University of South Wales, a separate course for a degree in game art was created.^[14]

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.^{[15][16][17][18]}

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.^{[19][3][20][21]}

In 2018, Banner won Digital Ambassador of the Year at the Wales Online Awards and the Pride of De Montfort University Alumni Award.^[22][23]

In 2020 Banner was awarded the title of Honorary Doctor of Technology from De Montfort University.^[3][24] Banner was appointed by Welsh Government as Creative Wales Non-Executive Board Member in 2020.^[3][25]

His combined portfolio of games has achieved in excess of 10 million downloads worldwide.^[26][27]

He is co-creator and co-director of Sker Ritual and Maid of Sker games, both global hits based on Welsh folklore.^[28][29][30]

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.^[31][32]

Games

• Crimewave (1996)
• All Star Soccer (1997)
• Spirit of Speed 1937 (1999)
• Paris Dakar Rally (2001)
• The Great Escape (2003)
• Conflict: Desert Storm II (2003)
• Conflict: Vietnam (2004)
• Flibbidy Jibs (2004)
• Paradise (2006)
• Conflict: Denied Ops (2008)
• Attack Kumquat (2010)
• Gravity Badgers (2013)
• Master Reboot (2013)
• Infinity Runner (2014)
• Soul Axiom (2015)
• Don’t Knock Twice (2017)
• Time Carnage VR (2018)
• Maid of Sker (2020)
• Sker Ritual (2022)

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)