Daniel Arey

E. Daniel Arey is the Creative Director and Senior Game Designer at Niantic. Working on Geo and Augmented Reality, games he has contributed to a number of mobile titles at Niantic, including Ingress, Pokemon GO, and as yet unannounced projects. He was a World Designer at Blizzard, helping create the world and character backstories for Overwatch. Before that he was a Designer and Creative Director at Naughty Dog studios for ten years. As a senior Designer, Writer, Cinematic Director, and Creative Director with over 30 years of experience, Dan Arey has been involved in the design and IP development of number of multi-million platinum selling titles including Crash 'n Burn, Total Eclipse, Blazing Dragons, Blood Omen: Legacy of Kain, Gex 3DO, Gex: Enter the Gecko, Crash Bandicoot 2: Cortex Strikes Back, Crash 3: Warped, Crash Team Racing, Jak and Daxter: The Precursor Legacy, Jak II, Jak III, Jak X Racing, and Uncharted: Drake's Fortune. Dan has been a contributor to Game Developer Magazine, and a frequent lecturer at the Game Developers Conference, and an adjunct professor at USC's School of Cinematic Arts and the Viterbi School of Engineering. He has consulted for a number of agencies in real world gaming, including DARPA and SHARP for the Director of National Intelligence. He is currently Creative Director and writer for a game with a world famous IP brand partner, set for 2023 release.