Daniel Dociu is a Romanian video game art director and concept artist. He was the chief art director for NCsoft North America and also worked for its subsidiary ArenaNet until February 2017.
Dociu was born in Cluj, Romania.[1] He obtained his master’s degree in industrial design at the Fine Arts Academy in Cluj in 1982. Throughout the decade, he taught at the academy as an assistant professor and later worked as a graphic designer in Athens, Greece, a product designer and a freelance artist. He moved to the United States in 1990.[1] From 1992 to 2003, Dociu did work for various video game developers including Square, Electronic Arts, and Zipper Interactive.[2]
His face was also used for reference for the character Father Grigori in the critically acclaimed video game Half-Life 2.[3]
His son, Horia Dociu, is also an artist and Art Director for the video game company Sucker Punch Productions and will replace him as the chief art director for NCsoft North America.