David Candland, often nicknamed Evil Otto, is an Interface Designer and Artist for video games. He was formerly employed by Bungie Studios. Born in 1968 and raised in Seattle, Washington, his first job was working for Microsoft as a 3D Movie Maker and art intern. His first employment in video games was through the Marathon video game series, and after a great deal of work, he then worked for Bungie. He has been married for over 25 years to his wife, Marcy. He has six children, named Adam, Dallin, Shaini, Lars, Kortney and Rylee. His entire family was featured on the Collector's Edition and Legendary Edition of Halo 3, where Chris Butcher showed how and how not to set up a home network. David Candland is a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints (Mormon) and lives near Seattle, Washington.
He was credited as a User Interface Designer for Halo: Combat Evolved,[1] and then User Interface Artist and User Interface Designer for Halo 2.[2] As a result of his job role, he is referenced in an in-game Easter Egg hidden in the Heads-Up Display.
He first gained interest in video games, about 1979; when, according to his younger brother, Dan Candland, David came home one summer afternoon and said, "Dan, I just saw the coolest thing at the Laundromat! Grab all of the quarters [or money] you can and come with me." Dan recounts that he was uninterested in anything at a Laundromat, until David said that it was called "Space Invaders". (The brothers gained a love of all things Sci-Fi, once "Star Wars" came out in 1977.) Soon the Candland brothers started putting most of their hard earned money, (from delivering "The Seattle Times" newspapers), into these coin-operated video games that started popping up everywhere, all over South Seattle, at places like "Ken's Skyway Dry Cleaners and Laundromat", "Skyway Park Bowling Alley", "Skyway Warehouse Market", even the local Skyway "7-Eleven" had 2 coin-operated video games; it didn't take long for two Video Arcades to open for business, "Command Center" (at the "Renton Shopping Center", now a Fred Meyer in downtown Renton) and "Silver Coin" at "SouthCenter Mall". Later, when the "Atari" Home Gaming System came out, the Candland brothers pooled their paper route earnings together to get one. However, by the time other video game systems came out, the Candland brothers had gone on missions for their church and then to Ricks College (now BYU-Idaho).
Trivia
Candland has been featured three times on Rooster Teeth's weekly series Fails of the Weak showcasing Halo fails, first when he splattered himself into a wall in the middle of a lunge, the second time when the driver of his Warthog failed to make a turn and drove into the water, and the third time when he was killed by a grenade to the crotch. He is currently the only known Bungie employee to have been featured.