Chuck Kroegel

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Chuck Kroegel is an American computer game designer. He was an executive for many years with SSI, and played a key role in developing their position as an industry leader in war games and role-playing games. His career as a leader in the games industry now spans almost 25 years.

In the 1970s Kroegel was a school teacher and later an HR manager who enjoyed playing computer war games. He had played games on his TRS-80 computer that had been designed by David Landry and the two corresponded. They decided to found a development studio, Tactical Design Group. Their first two games, The Battle of Shiloh and Tigers in the Snow, were published by SSI in 1981. TDG created twelve SSI games from 1981 through 1988, the last being Battles of Napoleon.

In 1983 Kroegel left TDG to join SSI, which continued to publish TDG's games. In 1986 he designed Gettysburg: The Turning Point for TDG, although he was an employee of SSI. He ultimately became VP of Product Development for SSI, and later served as President of the company. Kroegel played a key role in the creation of the Gold Box Dungeons & Dragons games, and the creation of the first graphical MMORPG, Neverwinter Nights on AOL.

When SSI was acquired by The Software Toolworks (which quickly thereafter became Mindscape) in 1994, Kroegel stayed on and later served as Executive VP and General Manager of the Mindscape Entertainment Division. He also stayed through a fast-paced series of acquisitions that was to follow: Mindscape by The Learning Company (which also acquired Boederbund), The Learning Company by Mattel, and the spin-off by Mattel to Gores (which occurred after he had left).

Upon leaving SSI in 2000, Kroegel joined EA-owned Westwood Studios, where was Chief Operating Officer. In 2002 he left and joined Strategy First as VP of Product Development. Since 2003 he has served as Executive Vice President and General Manager of Petroglyph, the studio creating Star Wars: Empire at War.