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Christoffer Bodegård is a game developer, writer, and fan of interactive storytelling. Creator of Esoteric Ebb. Focused on developing the art of interactive writing for use in role-playing games. Here's a list of his top 10 video games:

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2015-2018

University of Skövde

I've always been lazy. The one time in my life I decided to actually put in some effort was when I landed on the last spot of the Game Writing class of 2015. I was told (as I should have been) that 'Game Writers' have a very difficult time landing jobs- so I made sure I learned programming and graphical design over those years, teaching myself the basics of game development. As I did, I ended up falling deep into the rabbit hole of interactive storytelling.I wrote both my bachelor's and my master's on the topic of agency and UI design in CRPGs, attempting to answer one simple question: How do you write good choices?

2018-2022

Freelancing

As I finished my studies, I did not get a job. As a result, I did what many a gamedev student do: I became an entrepreneur. Grabbing some of my fellow aspiring devs, we joined the local incubator program at Science Park Skövde. For about a year we tried making a few different games- but it didn't work out. I learned a hell of a lot from the experience though. I also ended up with some contacts, which led me to becoming a freelance writer and developer.Over these years, I had the opportunity to work on a handful of titles (some of which even released) and managed to create a somewhat stable existence. However, for all the cool writing gigs I got, my obsession with interactive storytelling led me to spend all my spare time on my own project, called EBBRPG. Started in 2018 as my naive attempt at a spiritual successor to Planescape: Torment, it slowly took over my life. By 2022, when my gigs dried up, I started going full-time at my new company.

2022-20XX

Sudden Snail

I technically never chose to go full-time on Ebb. I actively looked for other jobs until mid-2023, simply because I did not see a production like this going anywhere. Solo developer, refusing any help. Massive scale CRPG. Half a million words of dialogs. It sounds delusional. But at the start of 2022, I managed to clear the biggest hurdle: I found an art style. Then I nailed a story I really, really believed in. After that, every time I showed the game to someone, the response was increasingly positive.At the end of 2022, I once again entered the incubator program, rejoining the wonderful local Sweden Game Arena community. I'd been working from home for years at this point, cooped up in my dark shack, alone. Taking that step outside woke me up to the possibilities I had: I could actually turn Ebb into a job.I pitched to publishers all throughout 2023, as the game (and I) got progressively better. At the start of 2024, my first demo blew up thanks to a PC Gamer article, and within a month I'd gotten five contracts to choose from. I picked Raw Fury. Since then, thanks to having an actual budget, I've been collaborating with a ton of amazing artists. If things go my way, I'm looking to make a long career by making games with a ton of interactive writing, interesting political themes, and characters that matter. Maybe some jokes too, if I'm feeling frisky.

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Game development in Skövde.

2019

Apsulov: End of Gods

I worked on Apsulov: End of Gods from June 2018 until release in August 2019. The tagline 'future viking horror' was used to pitch the project to me, and it immediately set the tone for my writing. The game is all about bleak science fiction with apocalyptic consequences, mixed with dark themes of Norse myth.Apsulov: End of Gods was co-written with John Kalderon, and developed by the amazing people at Angry Demon Studio.

2022

Raft

Between 2021-2022 I was hired by Redbeet Interactive to take on the task of restructuring, writing, and concluding the narrative of their game Raft.This included creating over 600 lines of voice recorded dialog. Around half of these were for collectable story 'notes', and the other half for NPC encountered towards the end of the game. The people at Redbeet were wonderful to work with, and it was amazing to get a glimpse into their development process during my time with them.

2024

Gori: Cuddly Carnage

I collaborated with Angry Demon Studio on Gori during the start of the project, and was a fierce supporter for the rest of development. It launched in 2024, and I'm very impressed with the direction they took. Funny, irreverent, and with a very distinct style in both gameplay and writing, I'm very happy to have been a small part of it.

20XX

Esoteric Ebb

ESOTERIC EBB is an isometric CRPG I've been working on as a side project since 2018. Inspired by games like Planescape Torment and Disco Elysium, EBB is all about social exploration, magical encounters, and personal revelations. It started as an excuse for me to do what I enjoy most in game development: writing interactive and dynamic dialogs.

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The intro cinematic of Esoteric Ebb.

2024

Sweden Game Conference

I've been desperately trying to understand interactive storytelling for years. As I dove into the topic, I stumbled upon a problem: there was no common term for the thing I wanted to do. The thing that Planescape: Torment and Disco Elysium did so well. So I called it 'INTERACTIVE WRITING', which technically already means something entirely different, and this talk goes over my initial exploration of why I needed this term, along with a list of general rules of agency I follow in my personal design philosophy.None of my talks have been recorded yet, which is probably for the best. But since it was pretty well-received at the conference, some people asked me to make the slides public. Here's the link:PLEASE (DON’T) MAKE MORE GAMES WITH INTERACTIVE WRITING

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Look at that handsome devil.