Illwinter Game Design is the name of a small software 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, 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.
Dominions II: The Ascension Wars is a 4X turn-based, computer strategy game. It was developed by Illwinter Game Design and published by Shrapnel Games. The game was released on November 14, 2003 in North America for Microsoft Windows, Mac OS X and Linux.
Warcraft III: The Frozen Throne is the expansion pack for Warcraft III: Reign of Chaos, a real-time strategy video game by Blizzard Entertainment. It was released worldwide on July 1, 2003, for Microsoft Windows and Mac OS X. The Frozen Throne builds upon the story of Reign of Chaos and depicts the events after the main game's conclusion. The single-player unfolds from the perspective of two new protagonists—the Night Elf warden Maiev Shadowsong and the Blood Elf prince Kael'Thas—as well as returning protagonist Arthas Menethil. Additionally, the expansion contains Act I of a separate Horde campaign that is independent from the main storyline with Blizzard releasing Acts II and III via patch in December 2003, taking in player feedback of Act I when developing these chapters.
Master of Magic is a single-player, fantasy turn-based 4X strategy game in which the player plays as a wizard attempting to dominate two linked worlds. From a small settlement, the player manages resources, builds cities and armies, and researches spells, growing an empire and fighting the other wizards.
Age of Wonders: Shadow Magic is a turn-based strategy video game in a fantasy setting. Shadow Magic is the third incarnation of the Age of Wonders series, and is a stand-alone expansion to Age of Wonders II: The Wizard's Throne. All three games were developed by Triumph Studios. The series is the spiritual successor to Master of Magic, featuring strategic overworld and tactical combat layers.
Warlords is a video game series created by Steve Fawkner, in which role-playing elements are combined with turn-based strategy in a fantasy setting. The series began with Warlords in 1990 and includes three other games, two expansion packs, and several spinoffs.
The Battle for Wesnoth is a free and open-source turn-based strategy video game with a high fantasy setting, designed by Australian-American developer David White and first released in June 2003. In Wesnoth, the player controls a particular faction/race and attempts to build a powerful army by controlling villages and defeating enemies for experience. The game is loosely based on the Sega Genesis games Master of Monsters and Warsong.
Conquest of Elysium II is the title of a computer game produced by the Illwinter Game Design. Conquest of Elysium is a fantasy turn-based strategy game. The game can be played with up to eight human players. Single player against computer is possible. The game can run on very old computers and has support for Linux, Windows, Mac OS X and Solaris.
Axis & Allies is a real-time strategy World War II video game developed by TimeGate Studios and published by Atari for Microsoft Windows. The game was released on November 2, 2004. It is based on the board game series Axis & Allies from Milton Bradley and also on TimeGate's Kohan series. Set in the years after Japan and the United States entered into the war, the game allows the player to act as a World War II commander to build military forces to fight against other generals, using military units and technologies from the war. The player is able to rewrite and recreate the history of World War II.
Dominions 3: The Awakening is a fantasy turn-based strategy game created by Illwinter and published in 2006 by Shrapnel Games. It is the third game in the Dominions series, preceded by Dominions: Priests, Prophets and Pretenders and Dominions II: The Ascension Wars. Illwinter's publishing contract with Shrapnel Games expired in November 2012 and Dominions 3 was republished on Desura in late December and soon after on GamersGate. Dominions 3 went through the Greenlight process and was released on Steam in September 2013.
Dominions: Priests, Prophets and Pretenders is a turn-based strategy game designed by Illwinter Game Design, in which up to fourteen "pretender gods" at a time each battle for global dominance. The game was followed by five sequels: Dominions II: The Ascension Wars, Dominions 3: The Awakening, Dominions 4: Thrones of Ascension, Dominions 5: Warriors of the Faith, and Dominions 6: Rise of the Pantokrator.
Brigandine is a turn-based strategy game for the PlayStation video game console, created by developer Hearty Robin and released in 1998. It was released in North America by Atlus the same year, under the title Brigandine: The Legend of Forsena. In 2000, Hearty Robin released an expanded version of the game called Brigandine: Grand Edition, which included multiplayer support along with other new features. In the game, the player chooses one of the nations of the fictional continent of Forsena, and has the goal of conquering the other nations by taking their castles, using troops composed of humanoid commanders and fictional creatures. Although primarily a strategy game, it also includes some characteristics of tactical role-playing games.
Magic: The Gathering is a video game published by MicroProse in March 1997 based on the collectible card game Magic: The Gathering. It is often referred to as Shandalar after the plane of Shandalar, where the game takes place. The player must travel the land and fight random enemies to gain cards, and defeat five wizards representing the five colors. The player must prevent one color from gaining too much power, and defeat the planeswalker Arzakon, who has a deck of all five colors. Adventure and role-playing elements are present, including inventory, gold, towns, dungeons, random battles, and character progression in the form of new abilities and a higher life point total. An oversized version of Aswan Jaguar was included in the game box.
Diablo is an action role-playing video game developed by Blizzard North and released by Blizzard Entertainment in January 1997, and is the first installment in the video game series of the same name.
Total War: Shogun 2 is a strategy video game developed by Creative Assembly and published by Sega in 2011. It is the seventh mainline entry in the Total War series and returns to the setting of the first Total War game, Shogun: Total War, after a series of games set mainly in Europe and the Middle East.
Heroes of Gaia, known in the separate European version as Castle of Heroes, is a massively multiplayer online fantasy browser-based strategy game developed by the Chinese developer Snail Games and published in the United States by its U.S. publishing division, Snail Games USA. It is published in Europe by gPotato Europe, through the online game portal of Gala Networks Europe.
God of War: Ascension is a 2013 action-adventure game developed by Santa Monica Studio and published by Sony Computer Entertainment for the PlayStation 3. Released in March 2013, it is the seventh installment in the God of War series and a prequel to the entire series. Loosely based on Greek mythology, it is set in ancient Greece with vengeance as its central motif. The player controls the protagonist, Kratos, the former servant of the God of War Ares, who tricked Kratos into killing his wife and daughter. In response to this tragedy, Kratos renounced Ares, breaking his blood oath to the god. Kratos was, therefore, imprisoned and tortured by the three Furies, guardians of honor and enforcers of punishment. Helped by the oath keeper, Orkos, Kratos escapes his imprisonment and confronts the Furies, aiming to free himself of his bond to Ares.
Might & Magic Heroes VII is a turn-based strategy game in the Heroes of Might and Magic series. Like the other games in the series, players control leaders with magical abilities termed as "heroes", who recruit a variety of forces from strongholds. The heroes and their armies battle the opponents, who also use heroes to lead their forces. It features a campaign series of levels, standalone and multiplayer scenarios.
SpellForce 3 is a 2017 video game developed by Grimlore Games and published by THQ Nordic. It was released for Microsoft Windows on 7 December 2017. SpellForce 3 is the third full and the ninth overall release in the SpellForce video game series. It is the first entry in the series since 2014's SpellForce 2: Demons of the Past. The plot serves as a prequel to the first game, depicting events that lead to the creation of The Circle, the group of mages whose actions were the basis for The Order of Dawn.
Dominions 5: Warriors of the Faith is a 4X turn-based strategy game created and published by Illwinter Game Design in 2017. It is characterized by simplistic graphics, a functional UI, and deep gameplay, with a roster of over 80 playable nations able to interact with more than 900 unique spells, 400 magic items, and thousands of different unit types. Players take on the role of pretenders, immortals with vast magical powers who are venerated as gods by a given nation. Their goal is to spread their faith, eliminate rival Pretenders and ascend as supreme god of their world. Compared to its predecessor, Dominions 4: Thrones of Ascension, Dominions 5 has been described as mainly a refinement, introducing real time combat for battles between armies, revising map generation, and a new system for blessings allowing the bonuses bestowed by gods to their nation to be customized.
