David Doak

David Doak 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.[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.[14]