USC Cinematic Arts

Saku Lehtinen (b. 1973) is responsible for the whole audiovisual user experience of Remedy’s games. In addition to directing the look and feel of the game, his work spans on many areas of modern AAA console game creation: brand development, marketing, cinematics, audio, game design, animation, tools and technology.
Saku joined Remedy in 1996 and had a central role in creating Max Payne games. His main responsibility was art direction and cinematics, but also working in level design and tools development.  Max Payne games have sold over 7 million units on several platforms and were known for marrying cinematic action with a deep story and for making ‘bullet time’ famous in games.
Most recently Saku was creating Alan Wake, a Remedy game released in 2010 for Xbox360 and described as ‘Psychological Action Thriller’. This strongly story driven, atmospheric and mature 3rd person action game has received great critical acclaim, and for instance, Time Magazine selected Alan Wake as their Game of the Year.
Saku originally started creating art on computers at a young age by being active in the demoscene subculture from late 80’s to early 90’s and his first game was published 22 years ago. He has studied architecture, arts and film. He also taught and lectured in the Department of Architecture of Helsinki University of Technology over a period of 10 years.