Stieg Hedlund (born 1965) is a computer and video game designer, artist, and writer with over 25 years of experience. He has worked on more than 30 games in the video game industry. Although he is probably best known for his work in action RPGs, he has also worked on games in each the real-time strategy, tactical shooter, beat-'em-up and action-adventure genres on the PC and almost every dedicated game console. He has an interest in conlang and linguistics. Design Philosophy Despite his lengthy resume, Hedlund is not known for having the "rock-star attitude" that is common among well-known designers in the industry. Hedlund has said that he is "more interested in how the audience feels" about his games than in the "accolades of (his) fellow game designers". He has further stated in interviews that he believes in a collaborative environment and that his door is "always open to anyone who had a design idea". Works Raised in the Chicago area, Hedlund contributed to and co-ran a small but successful minicomic during high school. He became a pen and paper RPG designer "by the age of 16" after exploring "scenario creation, rule variants, balancing" and the like in Dungeons & Dragons. 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. Hedlund moved on to Japanese publisher Koei in 1990, which had established a North American subsidiary, Koei Corporation, in California two years earlier. Working at Koei both in Northern California and Japan, he was the lead designer for and/or originated a number of games including Liberty or Death, Celtic Tales: Balor of the Evil Eye, Gemfire and Saiyuki: Journey West. In 1995, shortly after Hedlund left the company, the subsidiary ceased its game development efforts. After working on an unreleased Lord of the Ringsbased title for Electronic Arts in the early '90s, Hedlund interviewed with Condor Software (the future Blizzard North), then working on Justice League. According to Hedlund the game concept "wasn't very appealing to me", leading to his instead going to work for the Sega Technical Institute in 1994, where, as an artist and game designer, he worked on titles like Comix Zone, The Ooze and Sonic X-treme. Hedlund has stated that in addition to his gaming experience, his experience "living and working in Japan" was another reason he was hired