*TWO PEOPLE* created (most of) this game?!?

[Meglobob]

Edratman said:They must have longer days in Sweden than they do in PA. Probably has something to do with the midnight sun or the tall, leggy, beautiful blondes.

I put it down to long cold winters myself and the fact that all those tall, leggy, beautiful blondes clear off to the Mediterranean when they realise thats where the sun hides out.

[Edratman]

Meglobob said:

I put it down to long cold winters myself and the fact that all those tall, leggy, beautiful blondes clear off to the Mediterranean when they realise thats where the sun hides out.

I'm going to believe this theory because I went short, squat and brunette and it would be devestating to add my blonde postulation to my list of Major Errors Committed. I could deal with the midnight sun possibility because I hate the cold; in fact I've dedicated my life to make sure that I will spend eternity in a warm location.

[IndyPendant]

Wow. Just...wow.

Humour aside, this is a very impressive achievement. This game is better than most games developed by teams of twenty, fourty, a hundred programmers.

Without that knowledge, Dom3 is a very good game--the first non-MMOG to keep my attention for more than a month or two, in many years.

Knowing that two people created it in their basement (figuratively speaking) somehow makes it...special.

Amazing work, Johan and Kristoffer.

...Two people. *boggle*

[Gandalf Parker]

Actually they both have "real" jobs.
To quote from a press release:

Illwinter Game Design is based in Sweden, specifically the southern towns of Malm and Lund. Formed many years ago with the intent to create massive fantasy turn-based strategy games Illwinter consists of Johan Karlsson and Kristoffer Osterman. By trade Johan is a computer engineer and Kristoffer is a teacher of religion and social studies.

Johan Karlsson is the programmer and does most of the code to make things work. Besides the game, he also programs his own tools that he uses (such as sprite and sound editors), and the installer and get all of it to work on Windows, and Mac, and Linux (well it already works on linux since thats what he programs on)

Kristoffer Osterman is the theme and graphics guy. He teaches, and part of that involves mythological/religio history. So he is able to mix in his already extensive knowledge with creating the nations, pretenders, units, etc. He is also the balance guy. The one with the overall picture for the game.

Johan Osterman is Kristoffer's brother and besides being a #1 alpha tester he also tends to take short answers from J and K, and turn then into longer ones. Both in the game (such as the messages you get when a global is cast) and often here in the forums also.

A day at work at Illwinter game design..
http://www.illwinter.com/illwork.jpg

What our heroes really look like..
http://www.shrapnelgames.com/Origins...2/dcp_0309.jpg
Thats Kristoffer on the left side of the image, and Johan in the middle.

Disclaimer: not an official response
Gandalf Parker

[Morkilus]

It is truly remarkable considering the $multimillion budgets and enormous game studios of today. I heard that THOUSANDS of people were on contract for Mario Party 8.

Not to take away from this awesome achievement, but this is the way video games started, and they still continue this tradition! Have you heard of Space Empires? That series half of Illwinter's "staff".

I think it's awesome that we have such a big multiplayer community. It's a wonderful time to play Dominions.

[Sombre]

Like I said, the first two are spiders, the third one, the brother, he's a centaur and it's the horse bit that does all the work on the game.

Had to have a special giant wooden keyboard made because he kept smashing the keys with his hooves.

[CUnknown]

Morkilus - yeah, you're right this is the way computer games started in the good old days! Like, remember Lord British in his heyday making those Ultima games mostly all by himself..

I really think that "too many cooks spoil the broth" is dead accurate. If you have one or two guys with a clear picture of the game they would like to see and the desire to work like crazy to make it a reality, you end up with the best games. I mean, to me anyway, I believe that computer games used to be much better in the 80's and early 90's. There was a time in the early 90s when games like Wing Commander, Doom, Civilization, Star Control, X-Com, Dune II, Ultima Underworld, etc, etc were all coming out basically back-to-back in a serious burst of creativity.

All of those games have since spawned numerous sequals and some even entire genres of games:

Wing Commander - at least 5 games and Privateer
Doom - the FPS genre (although Wolfenstein started it, it was really Doom that made the genre take off)
Civilization - the modern turn-based strategy genre (4X), Dominions I'm sure the devs would admit owes a lot to Master of Magic, a spin off of Civ and MOO. MOO deserves credit, too - especially in terms of AI, it had the best AI I've ever seen in any 4X type game - but, I think that MOO was inspired by Civ mostly.
Star Control - only 3 games, but I really like this one!
X-Com - At least 4 games, I believe, and also Laser Squad Nemesis, and probably it has influenced others. This is a type of game that I've heard lots of people (including me!) want more of and for some reason aren't getting. So, 4-5 games, but it should have been more.
Dune II - the entire RTS genre
Ultima Underworld - certainly inspired the Elder Scrolls series and probably more

Also, you've got Ultima Online of course that inspired the MMO genre, but that was later in the 90s.

It seems to me that in the 70s and 80s you had the one or two guys in their basement making awesome games, then you had the 90s where the game industry "matured", people were working in small groups, and in the early part of that period is where you find like 90% of the creativity of all the mass-marketed games that have been produced ever since. They've just been putting out endless sequals of the games I've listed and of others I've probably forgotten. They do that, imo, because there are too many people working on the project and individual creativity is stifled. Also because the powers that be are reluctant to spend the cash on something that isn't a sure thing. Of course, not every "sure thing" is really a sure thing - MOO3 anyone?? So, I think that strategy is self-defeating.

I think the only good games coming out now are independent ones like Dominions. I could be wrong, but whenever I check out the mass marketed games they always seem to disappoint me.

Edit:

Oh, I forgot Alone in the Dark which I believe inspired the Resident Evil series and the action/horror style genre.

I also forgot Sim City which was the first of the Sim games.

Also Street Fighter which inspired basically all the fighting games, although that was a little earlier in the late 80s.

Taking a look at IGNs list of the top 100 computer games (the one made in 2005), I count 40 of them being from the period between 1989-1995, and that doesn't include Civilization II (1996). Civ I wasn't on the list. I suppose Civ II may have been a better game, but I still think the credit belongs to the trailblazer, not the sequal.

Also, that number would be a lot higher if we included any game defined mainly by a genre created by one of those 40. I think it would include just about all of them in that case.

I apparently have too much time on my hands today.

[das123]

There is something 'right' and inspiring about the reality that two guys can achieve such a deep game when the game industry says it can't be done. Especially when critics hail Dominions as the most engaging fantasy strategy game ever made.

My all time favourite game is Age of Wonders, and when the same developers recently brought out Overlord I was all set to buy it. I had been aware of Dominions for some time and had played the Dom2 demo but didn't really get a feel for its intricacies at the time. The price tag had always scared me off (I have a $20 threshold for 'Indy' games). Anyhow, when I couldn't find any reference to a random map generator for Overlord I had one last look and ended up buying Dom3 instead. And I am really glad I did.

The factors that ended up swaying me to buy Dom3 were the critic comparisons to Age of Wonders, the health of this forum, the direct contact this forum enjoys with the developers, and curiosity about what two guys 'working out of a garage' can do.

I'm really impressed!

[NoPJag]

Yes, congratulations, it really is amazing! I think the key here is passion for what they do!

I do develop for a living, and I don't think I could code some more after work in a professional way like they do (I have some other hobbies). Let alone, I like the skills in SDL/graphics libraries in general, IA to make such a great game. I find also the map random generation awesome. In summary, game developement knowledge is I think one of the most demanding field in computer science, especially given the not so uncommon lack of patience of gamers !

The fact that the game is multi-platform is also an achievement. How many application fail in this regard !

The screenshot of the typical day at illwinter reminded me how great the icons are and how there are lots of them! Despite my lack of free time (like everyone else) I would maybe like to make a mod which would be a nation. I'd try to make balanced although it is difficult not to favour your 'children' ;-). I tried in fact to draw some unit in 32x32 and I find it really hard! Especially if you try to par it with the quality of the original nations !

It would maybe nice to have some kind of tutorial/basic guidelines on how to approach this quality !

[Dedas]

I just found out that their office lie 500 meters from where I live in Lund. Someday I should pay them a visit and thank them for all the joy and undone work at the university they have given me.