Erich Schaefer

"Diablo was exactly the game I wanted to play. When I was younger, and the Dungeon Master in games of D&D, the sorts of campaigns I ran were short, brutal, and loot heavy. No real story to speak of, but just hinting at interesting lore. For Diablo, the important thing at the time was a casual, play-with-one-hand, self-paced, loot-filled RPG."

- Erich Shaefer

Erich Schaefer is a former member of Blizzard North, and brother of Max Schaefer.

Pre-Blizzard
Schaefer played Dungeons and Dragons in his youth. As a dungeon master, his campaigns focused on short, loot-based sessions, with little focus on story. He visited numerous castles, catacombs, and churches, and developed a love of Italian zombie movies.

Blizzard North
Alongside his brother and David Brevik, Schaefer was one of the founders of Condor, later known as Blizzard North.

Schaefer held the position of senior designer, art director, and story writer for Diablo. As the art director, he based the game's style on his love of Italian zombie movies, and visits he'd made to churches, castles, and catacombs. For Diablo: Hellfire, Schaefer was more enthusiastic about the project than many other Blizzard North members. He was less concerned about the quality level, just enthused that people were making more content for the game.

In Diablo II, he was the project/design lead, which included work on the game's programming. Schaefer has reflected that he had always favored the idea of a sequel to the original game. He also oversaw the character artists, utilizing a hands-off style of work supervision.

Schaefer had some incidental involvement with Blizzard North's version of Diablo III before leaving the company.

Post-Blizzard
In 2003, Schaefer founded Flagship Studios. After the collapse of the company, he helped start Runic Games with his brother and Travis Baldree. He worked on Rebel Galaxy, under development of Double Damage Games (once again founded by him).

Trivia

 * Schaefer is irreligious.