Dan Fessler

Engineering Manager, Design Engineering

Executive Summary

Engineering leader and design engineer with 20 years in games and interactive entertainment, spanning creative executive leadership (Creative Director/Chief Visual Officer), hands-on frontend engineering, and building high-craft user experiences.

My creative background is a practical edge: I’m fluent in interaction design, visual craft, and storytelling, and I use that to make prototypes feel “real” early; teams learn faster, align sooner, and ship higher-quality experiences.

I specialize in accelerating product innovation through high-fidelity, coded prototypes by turning ambiguous ideas into testable experiences, partnering closely with design, research, and engineering to de-risk decisions and raise quality.

I lead with clarity and empathy, build strong cross-discipline teams, and bring operational rigor without losing the joy of experimentation and craft.

Highlights

20 years across interactive entertainment, creative technology, and product-quality UI/UX
Creative leadership edge: former Creative Director / Chief Visual Officer; strong instincts for craft, storytelling, and what “delight” feels like
10+ years leading teams; grew and managed multi-discipline orgs (artists, designers, engineers) in distributed environments
Deep prototyping + front-end expertise: JavaScript/TypeScript, React, Node.js, Canvas/WebGL; design-system-minded
Track record of prototypes, tools, and shipped experiences that influenced direction, improved craft, and increased velocity
Strong cross-functional partnership: Product Design, Research/Insights, Engineering, and exec stakeholders

Experience

Senior Software Engineer (Experience / UI Systems)

Roblox

Aug 2025 - present

Senior Software Engineer on Roblox's Expression team, building avatar expression features that power player-facing Avatar experiences.

Highlights

Shipped expressive, user-facing interaction features in partnership with product, design, and partner engineering teams
Built UI systems with a focus on responsiveness, reliability, and performance at scale
Contributed to engineering quality through design reviews, code reviews, and pragmatic iteration

Co-founder (Engineering + Creative Leadership)

Incite Interactive

May 2023 - 2025

Co-founded an AI-first games studio and product organization. Launched Incite Worlds (agentic UGC platform) and began building Auravale (agentic life sim). Led across product, engineering, design, and brand, shipping prototypes and production experiences end-to-end while building a culture of craft, curiosity, and fast learning.

Highlights

Funded by a16z SPEEDRUN; translated vision into a roadmap of prototypes and iterative product releases
Built high-fidelity prototypes to validate interaction patterns, UX flows, and platform capabilities before committing to large builds
Developed and open-sourced a dockable React UI system (React/TypeScript) enabling rapid tooling iteration
Designed and implemented an AI-native visual programming experience (React) to prototype and author agentic scenarios
Partnered tightly with design and research signals (qualitative + usage data) to prioritize what improved the experience most
Recruited, grew, and managed a cross-discipline team (~15) with clear communication, healthy pace, and high standards

Projects

Incite Worlds

Agentic UGC platform; shipped product experiences and prototypes to validate creation flows and interaction patterns.

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Auravale

Agentic life-sim built on Incite Worlds; prototyped character and creator workflows and helped ship production features.

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Chief Visual Officer (Founding Team)

Manticore Games

Jan 2017 - May 2023

Joined Manticore as employee #1 to build Core, a next-generation UGC platform. As Chief Visual Officer, reported to the CEO and led UI/UX, Web, Tools, Marketing, Brand Partnerships, First Party experiences, and Character Cosmetics, while remaining hands-on in interactive prototyping, tooling, and web experiences that translated creative vision into shippable product decisions.

Highlights

Built and scaled teams of 30+ across multiple disciplines; established quality bars, critique culture, and clear execution rhythms
Drove rapid experimentation using coded prototypes to explore UX patterns, creator tooling, and interaction systems
Developed web experiences (React/SSG) and interactive prototypes (Canvas2D/JS) to communicate ideas and validate direction
Created internal tools and pipelines to increase iteration speed and consistency across teams
Partnered with leadership across product, design, engineering, and insights to align priorities and deliver member/creator impact

Projects

Core

UGC platform; built tooling and interactive prototypes to explore creation and discovery experiences.

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Art Directing the Metaverse

Article on art direction challenges in UGC platforms (creative vision + systems thinking).

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Art Director (R&D + Production)

Zynga

Sep 2012 - Dec 2016

Art Director across shipped titles and R&D prototypes. Worked with designers and engineers to explore new interaction concepts and build experimental experiences that informed direction.

Highlights

Partnered cross-functionally to prototype and evaluate early-stage concepts, focusing on clarity, delight, and feasibility
Built interactive prototypes and tools (Unity/C#, web tooling) to accelerate iteration and reduce risk
Shipped multiple titles while maintaining craft and production quality under real constraints

Projects

Solstice Arena Trailer

Multiplayer battle arena title (shipped).

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Lead Artist (Founding Team)

A Bit Lucky

Jan 2010 - Sep 2012

Founding art team member at A Bit Lucky (Facebook/social games). Bridged art and engineering by building tooling and UI that improved iteration speed and visual consistency.

Highlights

Developed internal tools and automation for art pipelines; improved turnaround and consistency
Designed and implemented UI flows for player-facing storefront and game surfaces
Collaborated closely with engineering and product partners to ship features and improve usability

Projects

Lucky Train

Social game where players build and manage their railroad network (shipped).

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Miscellaneous Projects

React-Dockable

Dockable tabbed window management for complex tools; built for rapid UX iteration and used in production (React/TypeScript).

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React-PanelGroup

Resizable panel layout component used at scale; optimized for UX quality and developer ergonomics.

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Index Painter

High-craft creative tool (pixel editor) built in React/TypeScript; prototyping-focused workflow with WebGL acceleration.

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Core Visual Programming

Prototype visual scripting experience; coded to explore interaction patterns and reduce ambiguity before larger builds (React).

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Incite Visual Programming

Prototype for authoring agentic scenarios with LLM-powered interaction concepts; built to validate UX and product direction.

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ctx game engine

Web-first engine/editor emphasizing interactive tooling and rapid iteration; leveraged dockable UI patterns (React).

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