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”.

He is the co-founder and CEO of video game and interactive film developer and publisher Wales Interactive.

Biography
Banner was born on 1 November 1972 in Rhondda, Wales. He attended Treorchy Comprehensive School and Tonypandy Comprehensive School, then Mid Glamorgan Centre for Art, Design and Technology. He then received a Graphic Design degree at De Montfort University, Leicester, where he graduated in 1995 with a first-class honour. 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.

In 2007 Banner became a visiting lecturer at University of Glamorgan (now University of South Wales). With his participation at the University of South Wales, a separate course for a degree in game art was created.

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.

In 2017, he won the St David Awards for Enterprise. In 2018, he was made a Member of the Order of the British Empire (MBE) for service to the video game industry.

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

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

His combined portfolio of games has achieved in excess of 10 million downloads worldwide.

He is co-Creator and co-Director of Sker Ritual and Maid of Sker games, both global hits based on Welsh folklore.

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.

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)