Stieg Hedlund
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Stieg Hedlund (born 1965 in Portland, Oregon) is a computer and video game designer, artist, writer, game producer and level designer. Although he is probably best known for his work in action RPGs, he also has contributed iconic games to each of the real-time strategy, tactical shooter, beat-'em-up and action-adventure genres. As design director at Perpetual Entertainment, he now works on the MMORPG Gods & Heroes slated to release in 2006.
Raised in the Chicago area, Hedlund contributed to and co-ran a small but successful minicomic during high school, and then became a professional pen & paper RPG designer in his teens. Hedlund began his career in the electronic entertainment field in 1987 at Infinity Software, a small publisher of games for the Macintosh, Commodore 64 and Amiga. He moved on to Koei in 1990, where he was responsible for a number of games including Liberty or Death. After working on an unreleased Lord of the Rings-based title for Electronic Arts, Hedlund went to work for the Sega Technical Institute in 1994, where he worked on titles like Die Hard Arcade, Comix Zone and The Ooze.
In 1996, Hedlund went to work for Blizzard North as lead designer. He worked on Diablo II, StarCraft, the Diablo II: Lord of Destruction expansion pack and the original Diablo. Diablo II, released in 2000, is the second best selling PC game of all time and the number one-selling RPG for the PC, in addition to being the recipient of many of the game industry's most prestigious awards.
After leaving Blizzard, Hedlund was named as the designer to collaborate with David Lynch on his Woodcutters from Fiery Ships game project. Later, he worked for Ubisoft/ Red Storm Entertainment on games such as Tom Clancy's Ghost Recon 2 and Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six: Lockdown, as well as originating the concept of Tom Clancy's Ghost Recon: Advanced Warfighter before joining Perpetual in 2004.
