Jhony Ljungstedt, the art director on EA DICE’s Mirror’s Edge: Catalyst and Battlefield V, has joined Nintendo-owned Retro Studios, he announced via LinkedIn this weekend.
“Today was my last day at DICE and it’s with mixed feelings I’m leaving something that’s been part of my life for such a long time,” Ljungstedt (pictured right) wrote. “It’s been great journey and I feel privileged to have got the chance to work with all the talented people at DICE, you will all be missed… Now I’m ready for a new chapter in my life, and looking forward to my new journey at Retro Studios.”
Retro Studios posted an opening for an Art Director over a year ago in December 2018. Then, once it had been announced that the studio would be taking over the rebooted Metroid Prime 4 project, the studio posted an opening for an Art Director once more, specifically for Metroid Prime 4.
Whether Ljungstedt is joining Retro to work on Metroid Prime 4 or another project is unknown at this time, and depends on how far along Prime 4 is in development. That said, his extensive experience on first-person games makes him a good fit for Metroid Prime, which has historically been designed in first-person.
A few months ago, Retro also hired another notable industry veteran, Kyle Hefley, the character modeler at 343 Industries that created the model for Master Chief in Halo 4 and a number of other characters in Halo 5.
Note: Screenshot from Metroid Prime 3: Corruption.
