Illwinter Game Design is a Swedish independent

video game developer A video game developer is a software developer specializing in video game development – the process and related disciplines of creating video games. A game developer can range from one person who undertakes all tasks to a large business with em ...

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 (

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Solaris Solaris is the Latin word for sun. It may refer to: Arts and entertainment Literature, television and film * ''Solaris'' (novel), a 1961 science fiction novel by Stanisław Lem ** ''Solaris'' (1968 film), directed by Boris Nirenburg ** ''Sol ...

and

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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, or abbreviated as 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, eith ...

, especially Ars Magica and

roguelike Roguelike (or rogue-like) is a style of role-playing game traditionally characterized by a dungeon crawl through procedurally generated levels, turn-based gameplay, grid-based movement, and permanent death of the player character. Most ro ...

s. Kristoffer Osterman teaches religion, math and social sciences as a primary occupation.

Games by Illwinter

*''Conquest of Elysium'' (released in 1996 for

Atari ST Atari ST is a line of personal computers from Atari Corporation and the successor to the company's Atari 8-bit computers, 8-bit computers. The initial model, the Atari 520ST, had limited release in April–June 1985, and was widely available i ...

) *'' Conquest of Elysium II'' (released in 1997) *'' Dominions: Priests, Prophets and Pretenders'' (released in 2001) *'' Dominions II: The Ascension Wars'' (released at 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) *'' Dominions 6: Rise of the Pantokrator'' (released in January 2024)

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 {{Europe-videogame-company-stub