About
Hi, my name is Dan and I am currently working as a QA tester at Dambuster Studios in Nottingham. I am a game and level designer. I have achieved a First Class Degree Honours in BSc Games Production at Nottingham Trent University. I am open to opportunities in the game industry.
I love coming up with ideas for new and interesting games. To push myself, in 2019 I tweeted a different game idea a day. This really pushed my ideation skills and now I have 365 game ideas which I can use. If you want to check them out see @Dan_Fairchild on Twitter. Few of my favourite game ideas include:
A VR Bob Ross simulator where you are given a pallet, paint brushes and a canvas. A video of Bob Ross plays to your left. Bonus points if you beat the devil out of your brush.
An over cooked style game where you and your friends play as server engineers trying to maintain the servers to a popular MMO
A game where you jump between platforms in a dreamscape. Wake from the dream and explore the real world before going back to sleep. Items from real life appear in dream to help you in your quest for good sleep
I have dyslexia and this quote by Scott Sonnon really summarises my approach to it. “I didn’t succeed despite my dyslexia, but because of it. It wasn’t my deficit, but my advantage.” It does not stop me from working hard to hit my deadlines. It does help me to come up with creative ideas and solve problems. I am thankful for it.
In my first year of university I was on the NTU Overwatch Esports team. This was really fun and taught me a lot about Esports and teamwork.
At university, I was the president of the Sci-Fi Fantasy Society where we watched Sci-Fi and Fantasy films and tv shows each week. This has taught me about event management and organization as well as improving my people and public speaking skills. For this, I also achieved a studentship leadership award. In my final year, my course was balanced with extracurricular activities at the society, being a student mentor and ambassador.
In the summer of 2020 I spent my time learning Unity using two courses on the website Udemy. These had a combined time of 55 hours and taught me the basics of C# and how to use the Unity Engine effectively.
In 2021 I picked up knitting as a hobby, this gives me a creative outlet that is not based on gaming or using a computer. It is a really fun outlet and I have created many things for family and friends such as hats and characters.
Dambuster Dragon Boat Race 2022
I took part in a charity dragon boat race in aid of Nottingham Hospitals Mental Health Department. As a company, we raised £731. This required a lot of teamwork and coordination as we had to row in unison to be effective. It was a lot of fun and hard work. Luckily it was really hot that day so did not mind getting partly soaked!
Hobbies and Interests
Knitting
Currently I am knitting a giant BB8 blanket. This has taken me 9 months to create. It is created from knitting individual strips of 10 stitches and 432 rows. I change the colour of the wool based on the pattern and then sew the strips together with mattress stitch. Each strip takes me about a week to make and sewing takes me 2 hours to sew together. It is a very repetitive process but a very creative one as I feel making something tangible. I really like doing it and it helps me relax and unwind outside of games.
Cosplay
I love attending comic con in both London and Birmingham and cosplaying. I really like to study the characters I want to cosplay as, looking at their colours and details. So far, I have cosplayed as Deckard from Blade Runner, Mr Robot from Mr Robot and Frodo from Lord of the Rings. For Mr Robot I spent ages looking at images at his various details like his scarf which I managed to find an exact replica of!
Blacksmithing
Blacksmithing is a long and gruelling process but I still enjoy it. I have created two different knifes at two different forges. A Viking knife at Bush Forge and a Tom Brown tracker knife at Mountain King Forge. It is amazing to see how a normal piece of metal can be turned into a knife with some hard work and a lot of patience.
Gym & Swimming
I like to keep fit when I can, going to the gym to lift weights and swimming to help balance the sitting I do in my work and hobbies.
DnD
So far, I have played as a player rather than DM. I am currently playing as a dwarf paladin. I find it really fun to roleplay and explore the rules of DnD.
Cricket
In the past I have volunteered at T20 cricket games with my dad, handing out goodies and entertaining the crowd. This taught me a lot of teamwork and co-orientating skills which included how to not hit cameramen with a T-shirt I had thrown.
Gaming
When I am not playing games at work, I am gaming at home. I have recently purchased a PS5 and playing God of War Ragnarök. I really like experiencing new games which push the medium forward. My favourite games include Titanfall 2, The Beginners Guide and Shadow of War.
A few of my favourite things...
