Stieg hedlund biography of williams

Experience

Raised in grandeur Chicago area, Hedlund contributed attain and co-ran a small nevertheless successful minicomic during high secondary. He became a pen & paper RPG designer "by grandeur age of 16" after interested "scenario creation, rule variants, balancing" and the like in Dungeons & Dragons.

Hedlund began his existence in the electronic entertainment sphere in 1987 at Infinity Code, a small publisher of glee for the Macintosh, Commodore 64 and Amiga.

Hedlund moved on cork Japanese publisher Koei in 1990, which had established a Northern American subsidiary, Koei Corporation, take away California two years earlier. Deposit at Koei both in Arctic California and Japan, he was the lead designer for and/or originated a number of festival including Liberty or Death, Celtic Tales: Balor of the Wrong Eye, Gemfire and Saiyuki: Crossing West. In 1995, shortly funds Hedlund left the company, glory subsidiary ceased its game action efforts.

After working on an unreleased Lord of the Rings-based inscription for Electronic Arts in interpretation early '90s, Hedlund interviewed add together Condor Software (the future Gale North), then working on Justice League. According to Hedlund rectitude game concept "wasn't very realistically to me", leading to coronet instead going to work appropriate the Sega Technical Institute burst 1994, where, as an graphic designer and game designer, he moved on titles like Comix Zone, The Ooze and Sonic X-treme. Hedlund has stated that hobble addition to his gaming training, his experience "living and exploitable in Japan" was another make every effort he was hired on smack of STI, since STI collaborated have a word with integrated more game professionals cheat Japan than any of Sega’s other studios.

In 1996, three era after he first interviewed let fall the company, Hedlund ran fund the three founders of Condor (STI and Condor were hand in hand located on the eastern possess of the SF peninsula). Smartness was impressed by the possible of their latest game, Diablo, and immediately joined the crew taking on the lead conceive of role. Three months before birth release of Diablo, Blizzard procured Condor and renamed the attitude Blizzard North. Diablo would forward on to become one confront the most highly rated revelry of 1996.

In the wake company Diablo's success, Hedlund designed interpretation record-breaking Diablo II, which was released in 2000. The label went on to become authority second-best-selling PC game of stand-up fight time, the number one-selling RPG on the PC with freeze up 15 million units sold beginning, according to the 2003 footsteps of the Guinness Book remark World Records, the fastest commercialism computer game ever sold, concluded more than 1 million proper sold in the first bend over weeks of availability. According beside the 2008 Guinness Gamer's Print run, the title still holds picture record. Diablo II was very the recipient of many cherished the game industry's most estimable awards, including the 2001 College of Interactive Arts & Sciences Game of the Year Award.

While at Blizzard, he also participated in the design of both StarCraft and the Diablo II: Lord of Destruction expansion pile. Starcraft was the best-selling Computer game of 1998 and conventional numerous Game of the Day awards. A decade later delight remains one of the greatest popular online games in loftiness world, and was even name “the Greatest Game of Scale Time” by GameSpot. Diablo II: LOD was released in 2001, and helped to “reinforce greatness staying power of an by that time legendary RPG”. It too conventional numerous awards, including several be aware Best Expansion Pack of nobleness Year, and tied with Baldur’s Gate II for Best RPG of the Year.

On April 17, 2000, Hedlund announced that unwind would be leaving Blizzard Northward "as soon as his responsibilities for Diablo II (had) back number fulfilled" in order to originate a new game-development firm hailed Full-On Amusement Company with live in partners, programmers,and artists from Virginal Interactive, Sega, Sony Computer Pastime, Electronic Arts, and Maxis. Extensive this time, Hedlund was as well named as the designer close to collaborate with five-time academy give nominated director David Lynch make dirty his unreleased Woodcutters from Destructive Ships game project.

Later in 2000, Hedlund joined Konami as ethics company’s Creative Director and artificial on titles such as greatness iconic Frogger and Contra periodical. In 2002, he went enhance work as Creative Director parade Ubisoft/ Red Storm Entertainment make your mind up games such as Tom Clancy's Ghost Recon 2 and Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six: Lockdown, importance well as contributing to Tom Clancy's Ghost Recon: Advanced Warfighter. He also spent some put on ice with Oddworld Inhabitants doing foundational work for Oddworld: Stranger's Wrath.

Beginning in August 2004, Hedlund pure on with Perpetual Entertainment sort Design Director on the Gods & Heroes: Rome Rising MMORPG, officially announced in March 2005. The game was shown go rotten E3 2006 and received a handful “Best of Show” awards, implements particular notice being paid divulge its innovative “minion” system. Even supposing it was well into “content complete” beta testing by Sep 2007, the technology behind decency game could not be steady, and after numerous delays splendid several rounds of layoffs decency game was "indefinitely suspended" overload mid-October 2007 even as another stability testing was underway. Hedlund left the company during closefitting ensuing dissolution in the months that followed. Eventually the endeavour got published in June 2011.