C. Daron Stinnett is known in the industry as a video game designer. His role as project lead on Star Wars: Dark Forces is one of his most notable achievements.
Stinnett, who is based out of Seattle, acquired programming skills independently while still in school, using them to create video games. By July 1993, he had amassed a significant amount of programming experience, including work on the expansion pack for Falcon 3.0. This led to his hiring by LucasArts to develop a new Star Wars video game.
Stinnett's initial idea was for a flight simulator, but he shifted his focus to a first-person shooter after being impressed by the groundbreaking Wolfenstein 3D. Given that the genre was still relatively new, the team he put together was selected based on talent rather than extensive experience. He began working with Ray Gresko and Winston Wolff in late August to develop the 3d engine for what would eventually become Dark Forces.
As the project leader, Stinnett made an attempt to design a level for the game, but he quickly realized the complexity of the task, especially the architectural aspects. While discussing these challenges with a friend at a movie theater, a stranger overheard their conversation and mentioned that the University of California, Berkeley had a program that "combined architecture and computers." This led Stinnett to hire architectural undergraduates Ingar Shu and Matt Tateishi.
Stinnett did not have the opportunity to play Dark Forces from beginning to end until after it had been released to the public.
He and George Lucas jointly promoted the game at Disneyland during the opening of the Indiana Jones Attraction on March 3, 1995.
His other credits for LucasArts, outside of Star Wars, include Outlaws and Full Throttle.
- " LucasArts Update: The Creation Story " — Star Wars Insider 23
- " LucasArts Update: The Real Characters at LucasArts " — Star Wars Insider 25
- Dark Forces Official Player's Guide
- Star Wars: Dark Forces Official Site on LucasArts.com (content now obsolete; backup link)