Square Enix hires Hyper Light Drifter designer

Square Enix Montreal has signed on Teddy Diefenbach, a lead designer on Hyper Light Drifter, as a creative director. The developer himself announced the news on his website, in a post detailing the Square Enix move and the future of Hyper Light Drifter.

Naming Renaud Bédard (Fez, Below) as his collaborator on a future project, Diefenbach — who has written for Polygon in the past — said little about what to expect from the pair once they're at Square Enix. Instead, he focused his post on his lifelong love for the company. While the Montreal branch works on games like Hitman GO, the designer expressed particular fondness for the old school SquareSoft role-playing games, citing their role in his shift from indie to triple-A studio.

"I've been indie long enough to be wary of Big Company pitfalls, but conversation after conversation convinced me that this team have created a studio that protects the creative process, with the first priority being original, valuable, beautiful work," he wrote.

As for his high-profile indie release Hyper Light Drifter, out now on Steam, Diefenbach is leaving director Alex Preston and studio Heart Machine in charge. Diefenbach will continue to be involved with big decisions regarding the game, which just introduced a co-op mode in beta. Console ports are also in development, he added.

Check out our review of the pretty — and pretty tricky — Hyper Light Drifter, as well as our Overview below.