# Greg Zeschuk - Maker: Physician - Houses: BioWare, Electronic Arts - Canonical: https://www.lanternhall.org/makers/greg-zeschuk/ > The D&D-loving medical graduate who co-founded BioWare in his Edmonton basement, co-ran it for seventeen years, then traded role-playing games for wild-fermented beer. **Why it matters:** With Ray Muzyka, Zeschuk built BioWare into the defining story-driven RPG studio of its era, from Baldur's Gate to Mass Effect and the Star Wars: The Old Republic MMO. ## Quick answers **Who is Greg Zeschuk?** The D&D-loving medical graduate who co-founded BioWare in his Edmonton basement, co-ran it for seventeen years, then traded role-playing games for wild-fermented beer. **What is Greg Zeschuk known for?** Greg Zeschuk is best known for Baldur's Gate, Baldur's Gate II, Neverwinter Nights and Dragon Age: Origins. **Why does Greg Zeschuk matter to fantasy and games?** With Ray Muzyka, Zeschuk built BioWare into the defining story-driven RPG studio of its era, from Baldur's Gate to Mass Effect and the Star Wars: The Old Republic MMO. ## Life Gregory Zeschuk was born and raised in Edmonton, Alberta. He grew up playing role-playing games, [Dungeons & Dragons](https://www.lanternhall.org/works/original-dungeons-and-dragons/) above all, and later said they were "always the strongest experience." One childhood summer he and a group of friends made games on an Apple II computer. The combination, a love of shared imaginary worlds and a knack for code, would outlast a medical degree. He studied medicine at the University of Alberta, where he met fellow students [Ray Muzyka](https://www.lanternhall.org/makers/ray-muzyka/) and Augustine Yip while working on medical simulation programs. During their residencies the three produced their first software, an Acid-Base Simulator for teaching. Zeschuk graduated in 1992 and, with Muzyka, was appointed a research associate in the university's Division of Studies in Medical Education; he also spent two years in clinical training in the United States and Canada. In 1994 he and Muzyka began a gastroenterology patient simulator, and in the process realized that they cared far more about making games than medical software. ## Work Zeschuk, Muzyka and Yip pooled their savings (accounts differ on whether it was $100,000 in all or $100,000 each) and set out to make a game. BioWare was incorporated on February 1, 1995, in a small room in Zeschuk's basement. Yip soon returned to medicine, while Zeschuk and Muzyka became the company's joint chief executives, an unusual two-headed leadership that lasted until their retirement. The partners' first release, *Shattered Steel* (1996), was published by [Interplay Productions](https://www.lanternhall.org/houses/interplay/), which saw in BioWare's technology the basis for a computer game using its Dungeons & Dragons license. The result was [Baldur's Gate](https://www.lanternhall.org/works/baldurs-gate/) (1998), set in the [Forgotten Realms](https://www.lanternhall.org/works/forgotten-realms/) and designed by a team led by [James Ohlen](https://www.lanternhall.org/makers/james-ohlen/), whom the founders had recruited for his skill as a tabletop Dungeon Master. Zeschuk was credited on its production. He was executive producer of [Baldur's Gate II](https://www.lanternhall.org/works/baldurs-gate-ii/) (2000) and *MDK2* (2000), and co-executive producer with Muzyka of [Neverwinter Nights](https://www.lanternhall.org/works/neverwinter-nights/) (2002) and *Jade Empire* (2005), while BioWare also made *Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic* (2003), *Mass Effect* (2007) and [Dragon Age: Origins](https://www.lanternhall.org/works/dragon-age-origins/) (2009). After [Electronic Arts](https://www.lanternhall.org/houses/electronic-arts/) acquired BioWare, a deal announced in October 2007, Zeschuk became a vice president at EA and took charge of the studio's massively multiplayer ambitions. As general manager of BioWare Austin and of BioWare's MMO business unit, he oversaw *Star Wars: The Old Republic* (2011), a story-driven MMORPG that tried to bring BioWare's companions and branching dialogue to an online world. The Austin studio had been founded in 2006 with a team that included Ohlen and online-game veterans Gordon Walton and Rich Vogel. Zeschuk announced his retirement from BioWare on September 18, 2012; Muzyka also retired that autumn. He turned to another craft entirely. In 2013 he produced and hosted *The Beer Diaries*, a web series of interviews about the brewing world. In 2017 he opened Blind Enthusiasm Brewing Co. inside Biera, his Edmonton restaurant, and in 2022 expanded to a second site, The Monolith, dedicated to spontaneously fermented and mixed-culture beers. At the 2023 World Beer Cup The Monolith won gold and bronze in the Belgian sour beer category. He has also chaired the board of the smart-playground startup Biba Ventures. ## Legacy Zeschuk's career traces an arc from the tabletop to the computer and back to craft. BioWare's early games translated the social experience he loved at the gaming table, a party of distinct characters bickering, bonding and making choices together, into software, and that emphasis on companions and consequence became the studio's signature and a model for the RPGs that followed. His later push into MMOs carried the same instinct into the online world. Honors came jointly with his partner: IGN named Zeschuk and Muzyka among the top 100 game creators of all time in 2009, the Game Developers Choice Awards gave them a shared Lifetime Achievement Award on March 27, 2013, and both were appointed to the Order of Canada on December 27, 2018. For visitors to the [Collapse & Renaissance: Cards, Vampires & Baldur's Gate](https://www.lanternhall.org/chronicle/collapse-and-renaissance/) chapter, Zeschuk is one half of the partnership that proved the CRPG was not dead but waiting for its second act. ## Facts - As a boy he spent a summer making games on an Apple II with friends; he called tabletop role-playing games "always the strongest experience." - The founders' first program at medical school was an Acid-Base Simulator for teaching. - Zeschuk, [Ray Muzyka](https://www.lanternhall.org/makers/ray-muzyka/) and Augustine Yip pooled their money to fund their first game; accounts differ on whether it was $100,000 in all or $100,000 each. - [BioWare](https://www.lanternhall.org/houses/bioware/) was incorporated on February 1, 1995, in a small room in Zeschuk's basement. - He retired from BioWare on September 18, 2012, and went on to host the web series The Beer Diaries. - His Edmonton brewery won gold and bronze in the Belgian sour beer category at the 2023 World Beer Cup. ## Sources and further reading - [Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Greg_Zeschuk) - [Wikipedia: BioWare](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/BioWare) --- From The Lantern Hall (https://www.lanternhall.org/), a museum of fantasy literature and roleplaying games.