Dylan Sparling

Product Manager

Toronto, Ontario, Canada5 yrs 5 mos experience

Highly StableAI Enabled

Key Highlights

Led the design of New Game+ mode in Far Cry 6.
Mentored junior designers to enhance team capabilities.
Developed AI testing standards for consistent quality.

Stackforce AI infers this person is a Video Game Development Specialist with expertise in design and quality assurance.

Contact

Skills

Core Skills

Game DesignCombat DesignCritical ThinkingQuality AssuranceAi TestingGame Testing

Other Skills

Atlassian SuiteUnreal Engine 5Unreal EngineMicrosoft PowerPointMicrosoft ExcelTeamworkUnity3DXNAPhotoshopC++C#ProgrammingVisual StudioGame Development3D Studio Max

About

A 9 year game development veteran having worked on franchises like Watchdogs, Far Cry, and Splinter Cell. Having shipped multiple AAA projects I have become a leader and steady presence for teams I work with, offering guidance to Juniors and expertise in my field for others. I aim to be someone others can rely on to get what they need done. As a designer I leverage my experiences in programming, art, and animation to work with multi-disciplinary teams in their language and ensure everyone is on the same page and working towards the same goal. On Splinter Cell I worked as a combat designer focusing on Gadgets and Security systems bringing them from concept to prototype. On Far Cry 6 I led the team that created the popular New Game+ game mode. I Also was the primary contact for AI on the project, leading the AI QC team, developing new AI testing standards for the studio, and creating a system that allowed QC team members to fix bugs they encountered. I am always looking for opportunities to use my technical skills to enhance my work, whether that is writing scripts for automation to help with repetitive or difficult tasks, or digging into the engine at deeper level to better leverage existing systems to achieve my goals. When we were kids and asked "What do you want to be when you grow up?" You would hear a lot of jobs like astronaut or fire fighter, but I always said "I want to make video games!" and like astronaut and fight fighter my parents thought it was just a phase and I would grow out of it. It wasn't until I went to college for video game development that my mom realized I was serious about it.

Experience

5 yrs 5 mos

Total Experience

2 yrs 8 mos

Average Tenure

Current Experience

Blackbird interactive

Technical Designer

Oct 2025 – Present · 7 mos · Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada · Remote

Technical Designer in charge of designing and implementing gameplay focused features for projects
October 2025 - December 2025
Unannounced project
Details to come*

Fiery grave design

Game Development Consultant

Jul 2025 – Present · 10 mos · Toronto, Ontario, Canada · Remote

Working contracts for company offering my experience in game development to help with shipping and creating products
At Games - QA Consultation of shipping new system and games - October 2025 - December 2025
Game Pill - Design Consultation on Hangry - July 2025

Ubisoft toronto

3 roles

Game Designer

Mar 2022 – Jun 2024 · 2 yrs 3 mos

Splinter Cell
Owned development of 10+ player gadgets, 6+ security systems, and 10+ hazardous objects
Oversaw features during the pre-production phase, this meant creating design documentation planning out the feature from conception to ship, and creating first prototypes
Lead multi-disciplinary teams towards a shared vision of features by working with the team capturing and reflecting their ideas in the design leading to increased engagement on the features
Broke down feedback and identified root causes allowing myself and other team members to address issues at their core
Mentored 3 junior designers guiding them to improve their hard and soft skills and helping them grow to become full contributing members of the team
Judge for Ubisoft Next game design competition, provided feedback and guidance to students and helping them through the competition
Far cry 6 - Lost Between Worlds DLC
Shipped the major DLC expansion in 11 months with a small team and limited resources
Designed the New Game+ system for Far Cry 6's base game with a small team in under 3 weeks delivering on a highly request feature
Balanced loot, weapons, and ammo economy for the base game and DLC by analyzing data and player feedback to encourage a wide variety of playstyles
Supported development of the new rogue-lite elements and red/blue combat mechanic
Worked with teams to rapidly prototype and iterate on new features to prove concepts quickly and with fewer resources

Critical ThinkingAtlassian SuiteGame DesignCombat Design

AI Test Specialist

Promoted

Apr 2020 – Apr 2022 · 2 yrs

Far cry 6 - AI Specialist
Managed the 3 person AI QA team, training 5 new testers covering all aspect of AI in the game, including new enemy archetypes, tank, and horse behaviors.
Created systems that allowed QA to fix bugs that reduced total bug counts in the build
Point of contact on the AI for the whole project, keeping teams informed of changes and new features being added.
Set AI quality standards and best practices for the studio unifying AI testing strategies across projects ensuring consistent quality at the studio.
Generated test plans for the QC team to follow, allowing more accurate testing done by partner studios.
Curated a database of debugging strategies for AI that other testers referenced, leading to more accurate and detailed bugs.
Created automated testing systems and scripts for our project to reduce time spent on repetitive tasks and allowing us to ensure hard to reproduce bugs do not come back.
Watch Dogs: Legion - AI Specialist
Asked to support the team during an important milestone to help stabilize the AI QC team.
Setup new testing strategies for the team's AI QC team to ensure it passed its gold milestone.

Critical ThinkingAtlassian SuiteQuality AssuranceAI Testing

Development Tester

Nov 2015 – Apr 2020 · 4 yrs 5 mos

Far cry 5 - Missions Tester
Worked closely with level designers and artist to make high quality missions.
Shipped A Dish Served Cold, Missing in Action, A Right To Bear Arms, and The Prodigal Son missions.
Logged and reported issues with the mission and identified who they belonged to, saving on time finding task owners.
Debugged complicated scripts for bespoke mission elements to identify the root of the problem saving level designers time in debugging.
Provided insight into the state of the build and elements being reviewed during group reviews to ensure the meeting flowed smoothly.
Watch Dogs 2 - Open World Tester
Responsible for testing Open World elements including layout and metrics including the landmark locations ensuring they met or exceeded team standards.

Critical ThinkingAtlassian SuiteQuality AssuranceGame Testing

Conceptshare

QA Tester

Jul 2014 – Jul 2015 · 1 yr · Greater Ottawa Metropolitan Area

As the sole QC for the company at the time I was responsible for ensuring the product that went out to our clients did not interfere with their workflows. I was required to anticipate the issues clients may have and find the bugs and solutions before they encountered them.

Critical ThinkingQuality Assurance