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 strategy, tactical shooter, beat-?em-up and action-adventure genres. As lead game designer 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 resposible 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 in the top ten best selling PC games of all time and is the number one-selling RPG for the PC, in addition to being the recipient of many of the game industry?s most prestigious awards.