My name is Mikael Säker. I have been working professionally in the videogames industry since 2002; as a lead writer, game/narrative designer, lead designer and game director.

I am currently taking contractor work.

Previous work

I did contract work for EA/DICE between in 2010 and 2011. Apart from my position on "Battlefield 3" (see below) I did narrative design and concept development on other projects.

Pixel Tales hired me to work as a lead designer in 2009. I did concept creation and development as well as working on a game demo for a smaller project. I left the company early 2010 when I decided to start freelancing.

Avalanche Studios hired me as a lead designer and later game director on a AAA project. The project ran from 2007 until the financial meltdown a year and a half later when it was cancelled.

I held a position as lead writer and game designer at Starbreeze Studios between 2002 and 2007 and worked on a number of published games (see below).

In addition to my work in the games industry, I lecture and teach at several of the Swedish schools that offer game development programs (see below).

The (shipped) games

"Battlefield 3": I was contracted by DICE to work as narrative designer, but I was also involved in the construction of the story and did some additional dialog writing. The game was released by EA in 2011 for the Xbox 360, Playstation 3 and the PC.
"The Chronicles of Riddick: Assault on Dark Athena": This was the last title that I worked on for Starbreeze and I was very much involved in the design and the first pass of writing for the first half of the game. The game was released by Atari in 2009 for the Xbox 360, Playstation 3 and the PC.
"The Darkness": Based on the Top Cow comic book, this horror shooter was a serious attempt to evolve the techniques for dramatic impact and integration of narrative into gameplay that we developed during the first Riddick game. The game was released by 2k Games in 2007 for the Xbox 360 and Playstation 3.
"The Chronicles of Riddick: Escape from Butcher Bay": The first game I worked on. I took on the task of trying to create a story experience that melded efficiently with the gameplay. As we got further into development, my role grew and I did a lot of design work in various areas. The game was released by Vivendi Universal Games in 2004 on the Xbox and the PC and became a critical success.
"Knights of the Temple: Infernal Crusade": This game had a long and problematic story to it. Most of the original team was forced to leave during a period of financial problems for Starbreeze (one of the publisher clients went belly up). I helped the guys who took over the project to try shaping the structure of the script into something manageable that was still an interesting dramatic piece.

Teaching

Before entering the game development business, I was co-owner in a company in the web development and ISP business. I had opportunities to teach at several occasions.

I have always enjoyed and valued opportunities to teach and lecture. As a teacher I need to be able to clearly communicate my ideas and formulate my work methods into consistent frameworks. Approaching the work as a writer or designer as a teacher exposes forces me to put the light on the process in a way that deepens my understanding in a sometimes revelatory way.

Since early 2009, I have been lecturing regularly at several schools. I am also teaching a few courses in game design and game narrative.

Future Games Academy: This school runs programs in 3D Graphics and Game Design.
Playground Squad: Programs in 3D Graphics, Game Design and Game Programming.
Broby Grafiska: This school runs a lot of programs, among others a one year Script Writing program.
The Garden: Programs in 3D Animation and Level Design.