Josh Sawyer

Joshua Eric Sawyer, known professionally as Josh Sawyer or J. E. Sawyer (born 1975), is an American video game designer, known for his work on role-playing video games.

Early life and education

Sawyer grew up in Fort Atkinson, Wisconsin, and is the son of Linda Sawyer and sculptor Gerald P. Sawyer. He is of German ancestry. He earned a BA degree from Lawrence University in Appleton, Wisconsin. In addition to being a history major, Sawyer participated in the theatre (including mounting a production of Assassins). After Lawrence, Sawyer moved to California.

Career

Starting as a web designer at Black Isle Studios, he quickly worked his way up the ladder to an associate designer position and then lead designer on Icewind Dale II.

While at Black Isle he was known for coming up with the "Ex-Presidents" project naming system. When Interplay closed down Black Isle Studios many team members ended up at Obsidian Entertainment, which would eventually come to include Sawyer.

In November 2003 it was reported by Tor Thorsen of GameSpot that he had abruptly quit his role as lead designer of Fallout 3 to pursue other projects.