David Brevik (born February 14, 1968) is an American video game designer, producer and programmer who served as the co-founder and president of Blizzard North. He is best known for the critically acclaimed Diablo franchise. Currently he serves as game designer and founder of his independent studio, Graybeard Games.
David Brevik | |
|---|---|
 Brevik at GDC 2016 | |
| Born | February 14, 1968 Madison, Wisconsin, U.S. |
| Notable work | Diablo |
Biography
editEarly life
editBrevik was born in Madison, Wisconsin, United States.[1] He was educated at California State University, Chico from 1986 to 1991.
Career
editFollowing his position as lead technical director at Iguana Entertainment, Brevik left to form Condor / Blizzard North, holding a position as president of the company from September 1993 to 2003. GameSpot named him as 1996's fourth most influential person in computer gaming for his role in the inception and development of Diablo.[2]
Brevik resigned from Blizzard and co-founded Flagship Studios (in 2003) as well as Ping0 (in 2006), a sister company to Flagship Studios. After the company dissolved it was announced that he was appointed new creative director for Turbine and its new West coast studio.
In 2009, David Brevik began at Gazillion Entertainment in San Mateo, California working in the Gargantuan Studio.[3] In 2011, Gargantuan became Secret Identity Studios and David Brevik was named president and chief operating officer of Gazillion Entertainment.[4] Eventually he was promoted to Chief Executive Officer of Gazillion Entertainment in 2013.[5] He left the company to pursue "other opportunities" on January 6, 2016.[6] As of October 18, 2016, Brevik has been working as an advisor on the Chinese release of Path of Exile for Grinding Gear Games.[7]
After leaving Gazillion, Brevik founded an indie studio called Graybeard Games. In May of 2019, Graybeard Games released an action role-playing video game titled It Lurks Below.[8]
In 2016, Brevik revealed that he was once approached by Sabeer Bhatia in 1996 to form an email company in which he will get 10% of the shares. Brevik flatly rejected the offer, thinking it was the "stupidest idea." 14 months later, when the company, later known as Hotmail, sold for $400 million, Brevik expressed his regret over that decision, calling it the "worst business decision of my entire career."[9]
Brevik and Bill Wang, a former employee of Perfect World Entertainment, announced the formation of Skystone Games in May 2020, a publishing and development studio aimed to help smaller indie studios with multiplatform releases.[10]
Works
edit- Gordo 106 (1993) – Programmer
- Aero the Acro-Bat (1993) – Programmer
- NBA Jam (1993) – Programmer
- Justice League Task Force (1995) – Programmer
- Diablo (1997) – Lead Programmer, Senior Designer
- Diablo II (2000) – Project and Design Lead
- Warcraft III: Reign of Chaos (2002) – Additional Game Review
- Hellgate: London (2007) – Game Visionary, Lead Programmer, Story Editor
- Dungeons & Dragons Online: Eberron Unlimited (2009) – Creative Director
- Marvel Heroes (2013) – Creator
- The Nonomancer (2016) – Creator
- It Lurks Below (2018) – Creator
References
edit- ^ Craddock 2013, Act I: No Experience Necessary, Chapter 1: Silicon and String Bikinis.
- ^ "The Most Influential People in Computer Gaming". gamespot.com. Archived from the original on 5 April 2010. Retrieved 26 October 2016.
- ^ McWhertor, Michael (8 January 2016). "Marvel Heroes creator David Brevik leaves developer Gazillion". polygon.com. Retrieved 26 October 2016.
- ^ "Gazillion Entertainment Names Former Blizzard Executive As President and COO". FreshNews. Archived from the original on 2011-09-29. Retrieved 2011-01-13.
- ^ "David Brevik - Linkedin".
- ^ Futter, Mike (January 8, 2016). "Diablo Creator David Brevik Steps Down As CEO Of Marvel Heroes Studio Gazillion". Game Informer. Archived from the original on January 11, 2016. Retrieved January 9, 2016.
- ^ "Diablo designer David Brevik joins the Path of Exile team". PC Gamer. 19 October 2016.
- ^ McWhertor, Michael (January 31, 2018). "Diablo creator David Brevik is back with a new game, It Lurks Below". Polygon. Retrieved May 5, 2018.
- ^ GDC. "'Diablo': A Classic Game Postmortem". YouTube. Retrieved 30 November 2022.
- ^ McAloon, Alissa (May 11, 2020). "David Brevik and Bill Wang team up to launch Skystone Games". Gamasutra. Retrieved May 11, 2020.
Bibliography
edit- Craddock, David L. (October 27, 2013). Stay Awhile and Listen: How Two Blizzards Unleashed Diablo and Forged a Video-Game Empire. Digital Monument Press. ISBN 978-0-9884099-0-3. Retrieved September 19, 2015.
External links
edit- David Brevik at IMDb
- Diablo made me do it - 1UP.com interview
- Hellgate: London Interview - StrategyInformer interview
- Diablo 2 Designer Diaries - GameSpot interview
- Lead Creator - Blue's News Turbine expansion
- About David Brevik - Graybeard Games website