Erich Schaefer

Erich Schaefer was one of the creators of the Diablo games and an executive producer on D2 and D2X. Erich left Blizzard North in 2005 and was one of the co-founders of Flagship Studios. At Flagship Erich worked on Hellgate: London. After Flagship Studios collapsed in 2008, Erich moved on to become one of the chief investors and an executive at Runic Games, where he was a lead designer on Torchlight and Torchlight II

Game Design

Erich's held elevated titles at Blizzard North, Flagship, and Runic Games, and he's done some promotion and press interviews, but he's always spent most of his time working on the game design and development, with a special emphasis on items and skills systems. Here's how he described his job duties in a July 2012 interview:[1]

You were a CCO at Flagship, the VP at Blizzard North, and now you’re the CCO at Runic, though you’re also a designer, right? How often do you get the chance to dive into the gritty details of design given your executive position at Runic? Is it ever difficult for you to delegate design work?

Erich Schaefer: All those titles are just fancy terms for “lead designer who also co-founded the company.” Ninety-five percent of my time has always been devoted to game design. Currently my partners Travis and my brother Max do most of the heavy lifting of running the company.

Career Credits

Erich Schaefer's official game credits include[2]:

• Diablo I -- Senior Designer
• Diablo II -- Project and Design Lead
• Hellgate: London -- Lead Designer
• Torchlight -- Developer