David heads The Freeman Group, the most active game writing/design consultancy in the business. All the members of The Freeman Group are WGA members (Writers Guild of America), and all have sold scripts to studios or TV series.

The Freeman Group specializes in making games more emotionally immersive, which means not just executing great stories, characters and writing, but also using a vast array of tools to build emotion right into the gameplay.

David and The Freeman Group are working or have worked as designers and/or writers on games for Electronic Arts, Activision, Ubisoft, Sony, Microsoft, Take2, Eidos, Vivendi Games, Konami, Midway Games, 3D Realms, Atari, and numerous European publishers.

More than just a writer, David's specialty is bringing emotion into games. David and the Freeman Group are currently working on several next-gen projects and have contributed to the upcoming "Tomb Raider," "Prey," "Brooktown High," "Van Helsing," "Terminator: Redemption," "Shark Tale," "Marc Ecko’s Getting Up," which is being made into a movie for MTV films, "Enter the Matrix," "Frontlines," and about a dozen others.

David has been brought in to teach at Ubisoft (Paris and Montreal), Sony (San Diego), Microsoft (Redmond), Maxis (Redwood Shores), and Midway (Chicago) — and also Pixar and Disney.

David has been a frequent speaker at the GDC, and has spoken at DICE and other game conferences around the world - GDC London, GCDC (Leipzig), AGDC (Melbourne), EIGF (Edinburgh), and EDF (London).

David's book, "Creating Emotion in Games," with its forward by Will Wright, offers over 300 specific techniques for evoking, in gamers, a breadth and depth of emotional experiences.

Included in the book are techniques to:

• Entice a player to identify with his or her game character
• Create emotion and meaning even in the nonlinear portions of a game
• Induce a player to bond with NPCs (non-player characters) if so desired
• Create emotionally deep NPCs, even if an NPC speaks just one line of dialogue
• Leave a player changed and even enriched by a game
• and many more.

Emotion is the reason people go to films, watch TV, and listen to music. It's one of the keys to the mass market in games as well, and will play an even greater roll for the next generation of consoles. Emotional involvement with a game helps create brand identity and brand loyalty among players. And when games start looking like films, as they will in the next generation of consoles, gamers will expect the same emotional resonance they associate with films.

See an example of David's approach to bringing emotion into games.

As a writer and producer, David has written and developed scripts and other properties which have been bought or optioned by Columbia Pictures - Paramount Pictures - MGM - Castle Rock - Buena Vista Television - Atlas Entertainment - Hearst Entertainment - and many other major film and television production companies.

David also teaches "Beyond Structure," the most popular screenwriting workshop in Los Angeles, held at Universal Pictures www.beyondstructure.com. The workshop draws 200 people each time it's offered (biannually). It is also offered annually in New York, London, and occasionally in other cities around the United States.

David teaching "Beyond Structure" to 200 attendees at Universal Pictures.

David's past students include the writers, directors, producers, and key creative executives behind the Austin Powers films, Pulp Fiction
Runaway Bride / Total Recall / Meet the Fockers / 12 Monkeys / The Wedding Singer / Good Will Hunting / The Fugitive / The X-Files / Minority Report / E.R. / Law & Order / Buffy the Vampire Slayer / The Simpsons / Rush Hour 1 & 2 / American History X / Everybody Loves Raymond / Roswell / Pleasantville / Frequency / Sling Blade / Thirteen / Jack & Bobby / Angels in the Outfield / Private Parts / Star Trek: Voyager & Deep Space Nine / Saturday Night Live / Married With Children / King of the Hill and many other films and TV shows.

Scores of top game designers and executives from almost all the major publishers and many top development studios have also attended, including (among the many), Mike Morhaime and Chris Metzen of Blizzard ("World of Warcraft"), David Jaffe ("God of War"), Scott Miller of 3D Realms ("Max Payne", "Prey"), Dan Arey, former Creative Director at Naughty Dog ("Jak", "Jak and Dexter"), Scott Langteau, Creative Director at Spark ("Call of Duty: Finest Hour"), David Perry, formerly of Shiny Entertainment ("Enter the Matrix", "The Path of Neo"), Lorne Lanning ("Oddworld"), and many others.

David is co-founder and host of the USC Game Deconstruction Group.

At the meetings, which take place every month and a half in Los Angeles, USC game graduate (and sometimes undergraduate) students present and deconstruct the latest hit and/or interesting games -- before a group of some of LA's top game executives, Creative Directors, Lead Designers, Executive Producers, Producers, CTOs, Art Leads, etc. About 30 people attend every meeting.

The meetings aren't lectures; each one turns into an active, invigorating group conversation about the games at hand and all aspects of game design.

If you fit into one of the above categories, live in the L.A. area, and would like to be invited to a meeting of the USC Game Deconstruction Group, email David at david@freemangames.com

The group moves around, sometimes meeting at the USC Game Innovation Lab, sometimes hosted by various LA publishers and developres, such as Electronic Arts, Pandemic Studios, Naughty Dog, Luxoflux, and others.

Past attendees to the USC Game Deconstruction Group include:

Laird Malemud (Vice President - Activision) / Carl Schnurr (Senior Director, Game Design - Activison) / Neil Young (Vice President and General Manager - EA L.A.) / Neville Spiteri (Development Director - EA) / Mike Morhaime (President - Blizzard) / Chris Metzen (Vice President of Creative Development - Blizzard) / Mark Lamia (Vice President, North American Studios - Activision) / Thaine Lyman (Vice President - Activision) / Craig Allen (CEO - Spark Unlimited) / David Jaffe (Game Director - Sony/Santa Monica) / Ofer Estline (Development Director - EA) / Josh Resnick (President - Pandemic Studios) / Trey Watkins (Director - Pandemic Studios) / Eric Gerwirtz (Director - Pandemic Studios) / Brian Upton (Senior Designer - Sony/Santa Monica) / Dan Arey (Creative Director - Naughty Dog) / Michael Glosecki (Producer - EA) / Mark Skaggs (Chief Creative Officer - Trilogy Studios) / Philippe Erwin (Former Vice President - Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment; new title not yet announced) / John Hight (Executive Producer - Sony/Santa Monica) / Michael Gilmarten (QA Manager - Blizzard) / Amy Hennig (Game Director - Naughty Dog) / Chris Hewish (Lead Designer - Luxoflux) / Dan Winters (Executive Producer - Electronic Arts) / Richard Lemarchand (Game Director - Naughty Dog) / Jason Bell (former Executive Vice President - Turbine Entertainment) / Ed Del Castillo (President & Co-Founder - Liquid Entertainment) / Marc Struhl (Executive Producer - Luxoflux) / Joby Otero (Creative Director - Luxoflux) / Matt Britton (Art Development Director - EA) / Barry Feather (Associate Development Director - Electronic Arts)

View David's full bio and client list.