“As director of technology and lead designer on Halo Wars, Dave really delivered on AAA quality and that’s been the goal of Bonfire from day one,” said David Rippy, president and CEO of Bonfire Studios. “We know he’ll be a perfect fit with our company culture and be a great asset as we position the company for growth in 2010 and beyond.”

“Bonfire is a team full of old friends that I am looking forward to working with again,” said Dave Pottinger. “I think we’re going to blow people away once they see what we’re doing.”

A 16 year veteran of the games industry, Dave Pottinger started his career by financing a game company via credit cards during his college days at the University of Arizona. In 1996, after earning a Bachelor of Science degree in Computer Engineering, Cum Laude, Dave joined a start-up game company named Ensemble Studios. He was quickly promoted to engine lead and director of technology at Ensemble where he was the key architect on all of their games from Age of Empires, to the recently released Xbox 360 game Halo Wars. Dave was responsible for the growth and management of the programming department at Ensemble and shortly after he joined the Halo Wars team, took over the lead designer duties in addition to his programming responsibilities.