Ragnar Tørnquist (born 31 July 1970) is a Norwegian

game designer Game design is the art of applying design and aesthetics to create a game for entertainment or for educational, exercise, or experimental purposes. Increasingly, elements and principles of game design are also applied to other interactions, in ...

and author. He has been working for

Funcom Funcom Oslo AS (, formerly Funcom Productions AS) is a Norwegian video game developer that specializes in online games. It is best known for the massively multiplayer online role-playing game (MMORPG) titles '' Conan Exiles'', '' Age of Conan'', ...

in Oslo since 1994, and has founded his own studio

Red Thread Games Red Thread Games is a Norwegian video game developer based in Oslo. Their first release was ''Dreamfall Chapters'', the episodic sequel to '' Dreamfall: The Longest Journey'', released in five episodes between 2014 and 2016. The team consists ...

in November 2012.

Biography

Tørnquist studied art, history and English at St Clare's, a school in

Oxford Oxford () is a city in England. It is the county town and only city of Oxfordshire. In 2020, its population was estimated at 151,584. It is north-west of London, south-east of Birmingham and north-east of Bristol. The city is home to the ...

from 1987 to 1989. From 1989 to 1990, he studied philosophy and English at the

University of Oslo The University of Oslo ( no, Universitetet i Oslo; la, Universitas Osloensis) is a public research university located in Oslo, Norway. It is the highest ranked and oldest university in Norway. It is consistently ranked among the top universit ...

. After that, from 1990 to 1993 he attended the Undergraduate Film and Television department at the

New York University New York University (NYU) is a private research university in New York City. Chartered in 1831 by the New York State Legislature, NYU was founded by a group of New Yorkers led by then- Secretary of the Treasury Albert Gallatin. In 1832, th ...

Tisch School of the Arts The New York University Tisch School of the Arts (commonly referred to as Tisch) is the performing, cinematic and media arts school of New York University. Founded on August 17, 1965, Tisch is a training ground for artists, scholars of the a ...

. His influences included Joss Whedon and Neil Gaiman. In 1994, he returned to Oslo, Norway and started working for Funcom as producer, designer, writer, and level-editor of the video game adaptation of ''

Casper Casper may refer to: People * Casper (given name) * Casper (surname) * Casper (Maya ruler) (422–487?), ruler of the Mayan city of Palenque * Tok Casper, first known king of Maya city-state Quiriguá in Guatemala, ruling beginning in 426 * David ...

''. He is credited with popularizing the term "modern adventure" a genre of contemporary adventure game design that began with games such as ''

The Longest Journey ''The Longest Journey'' ( nb, Den Lengste Reisen) is a magical realist point-and-click adventure video game developed by Norwegian studio Funcom for Microsoft Windows and released in 1999. The game was a commercial success, with sales in ex ...

'', ''

Broken Sword ''Broken Sword'' is a series of adventure games. The first game in the series, '' Broken Sword: The Shadow of the Templars'', was released and developed in 1996 by British developer Revolution Software. Its sequel, '' Broken Sword II: The Smok ...

'', and ''

Syberia ''Syberia'' is a franchise of graphic adventure games created by Belgian comic artist and video game developer Benoît Sokal. Set within an alternate universe designed by Sokal and introduced in the 1999 video game '' Amerzone'', the series ...

''. He felt that a new term was needed for this new generation of adventure games since "the classic point-and-click 'graphical adventure' is dead... The point of the 'modern adventure' ..is to bring adventure gaming back into the mainstream, and to use technology and gameplay advances to bring the genre forward into the 'next generation'." On 1 November 2012, Funcom announced that Tørnquist founded an independent game development studio

, which will continue developing ''The Longest Journey'' IP under license from Funcom. Simultaneously, Tørnquist stepped down as the Game Director of ''

The Secret World ''The Secret World'' is a massively multiplayer online role-playing video game set in a modern-day real world under attack from occult forces. Ragnar Tørnquist led development of the initial game for Funcom. ''The Secret World'' uses a subsc ...

'' to devote more time to the third entry in ''TLJ'' series, ''

Dreamfall Chapters ''Dreamfall Chapters'' is an episodic 3D adventure game with emphasis on character interaction, exploration of the game world, and puzzle solving. It is a sequel to the adventure games ''The Longest Journey'' and '' Dreamfall: The Longest Jour ...

'', while still working on ''TSW'' as the Creative Director. Tørnquist is married and has one daughter.

Game credits

* ''

'' (1996) * '' Dragonheart: Fire & Steel'' (1996) * ''

'' (1999) * ''

Anarchy Online ''Anarchy Online'' is a massively multiplayer online role-playing game (MMORPG) published and developed by Norwegian video game development company Funcom. Released in June 2001, the game was the first in the genre to include a science-fiction ...

'' (2001) * '' Dreamfall: The Longest Journey'' (2006) * ''

'' (2012) * ''

'' (2014–16) * '' Draugen'' (2019) * '' Dustborn'' (TBA) * '' Svalbard'' (TBA)

Novels

* ''Anarchy Online – Prophet Without Honour'' (2001)

Short stories

* ''Rules are Rules''

Screenplays

* ''In the Dark Places''

References

External links

* * *
Red Thread Games website
{{DEFAULTSORT:Tornquist, Ragnar 1970 births Living people The Longest Journey Norwegian bloggers Norwegian video game designers People educated at St. Clare's, Oxford Tisch School of the Arts alumni University of Oslo alumni Video game designers Video game writers Norwegian voice directors