Illwinter Game Design is the name of a small
software
Software is a set of computer programs and associated software documentation, documentation and data (computing), data. This is in contrast to Computer hardware, hardware, from which the system is built and which actually performs the work.
...
company in
Sweden composed of Johan Karlsson and Kristoffer Osterman. The company was started in the 1990s under the name ''Bogus Game Design'', but later changed its name. Registered officially as Illwinter since September 18, 2001,
the team's product catalogue includes two long-running series of fantasy strategy games: ''Conquest of Elysium'' and ''Dominions''. Illwinter's games are characterized by large amount of content, depth, lasting playability, support for multiple platforms (
Linux
Linux ( or ) is a family of open-source Unix-like operating systems based on the Linux kernel, an operating system kernel first released on September 17, 1991, by Linus Torvalds. Linux is typically packaged as a Linux distribution, w ...
,
Mac OS X
macOS (; previously OS X and originally Mac OS X) is a Unix operating system developed and marketed by Apple Inc. since 2001. It is the primary operating system for Apple's Mac computers. Within the market of desktop and la ...
,
Solaris and
Windows
Windows is a group of several proprietary graphical operating system families developed and marketed by Microsoft. Each family caters to a certain sector of the computing industry. For example, Windows NT for consumers, Windows Server for ser ...
included), good multiplayer support and simple visual and sound effects. Labor division within the tiny team is simple: Kristoffer Osterman creates the units, spells and descriptions, while Johan Karlsson makes everything else work.
Both Johan Karlsson and Kristoffer Osterman have expressed their love for
role-playing games
A role-playing game (sometimes spelled roleplaying game, RPG) is a game in which players assume the roles of characters in a fictional setting. Players take responsibility for acting out these roles within a narrative, either through literal ac ...
, especially
Ars Magica
''Ars Magica'' is a role-playing game set in 'Mythic Europe' – a historically grounded version of Europe and the Levant around AD 1200, with the added conceit that conceptions of the world prevalent in folklore and institutions of the High Mi ...
and
roguelike
Roguelike (or rogue-like) is a subgenre of role-playing computer games traditionally characterized by a dungeon crawl through procedurally generated levels, turn-based gameplay, grid-based movement, and permanent death of the player charac ...
s. Kristoffer Osterman teaches religion, math and social sciences as a primary occupation.
Games by Illwinter
*''Conquest of Elysium'' (released in the 1990s for
Atari)
*''
Conquest of Elysium II'' (released in 1997)
*''
Dominions: Priests, Prophets and Pretenders'' (released in 2001)
*''
Dominions II: The Ascension Wars'' (released in the end of 2003)
*''
Dominions 3: The Awakening'' (released in October 2006)
*''
Conquest of Elysium 3'' (released in February 2012)
*''
Dominions 4: Thrones of Ascension'' (released in October 2013)
*''
Conquest of Elysium 4'' (released in November 2015)
*''
Dominions 5: Warriors of the Faith'' (released in November 2017)
*''
Conquest of Elysium 5'' (released in August 2021)
Community
''Dominions 5'' maintains a thrivin
online community
References
External links
Illwinter Game Design*
StrategyWiki entry about Illwinter
Video game development companies
Video game companies of Sweden
Video game companies established in 2001
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