Ragnar Tørnquist (born 31 July 1970) is a Norwegian game designer and author. He has been working for Funcom in Oslo since 1994, and has founded his own studio Red Thread Games in November 2012.

Ragnar Tørnquist
Born (1970-07-31) 31 July 1970 (age 53)[1]
Oslo, Norway
EducationUniversity of Oslo
Tisch School of the Arts[2]
Occupation(s)Video game designer and game producer
Years active1994–present
Employer(s)Funcom; Red Thread Games
Notable workThe Longest Journey series
Anarchy Online
The Secret World
Children1[3]

Biography edit

Tørnquist studied art, history and English at St Clare's, a school in Oxford, from 1987 to 1989. From 1989 to 1990, he studied philosophy and English at the University of Oslo. After that, from 1990 to 1993 he attended the Undergraduate Film and Television department at the New York University's Tisch School of the Arts.[2] His influences included Joss Whedon and Neil Gaiman.[4]

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.[5] 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, Broken Sword, and Syberia. 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'."[2]

On 1 November 2012, Funcom announced that Tørnquist founded an independent game development studio Red Thread Games, which will continue developing The Longest Journey IP under license from Funcom. Simultaneously, Tørnquist stepped down as the Game Director of The Secret World to devote more time to the third entry in TLJ series, Dreamfall Chapters, while still working on TSW as the Creative Director.[6]

Tørnquist is married[7] and has one daughter.[3][7]

Game credits edit

Novels edit

  • Anarchy Online – Prophet Without Honour (2001)

Short stories edit

  • Rules are Rules

Screenplays edit

  • In the Dark Places

References edit

  1. ^ Tørnquist, Ragnar (1 August 2003). "I celebrated my birthday yesterday..." Archived from the original on 5 February 2004. Retrieved 11 June 2009.
  2. ^ a b c Jong, Philip (4 November 2006). "Interview with Ragnar Tørnquist on "Modern Adventure"". AdventureClassicGaming.com. Retrieved 15 June 2007.
  3. ^ a b Tørnquist, Ragnar (29 August 2007). "Breaking news! Unannounced surprise project just released!". Archived from the original on 27 June 2008. Retrieved 30 August 2007. On Sunday [26 August 2007], I became the proud father of a baby girl...
  4. ^ Böke, Ingmar (1 March 2013). "Dreamfall Chapters – Ragnar Tørnquist". Adventure Gamers. Retrieved 1 March 2013.
  5. ^ Sluganski, Randy. "Interview with Ragnar Tørnquist". JustAdventure.com. Retrieved 15 June 2007.
  6. ^ "Pre-Production Begins On New Game In The Longest Journey Saga". Funcom. 1 November 2012. Archived from the original on 4 November 2012. Retrieved 1 November 2012.
  7. ^ a b Walker, John (20 August 2008). "Ragnar Tørnquist On… Dreamfall & Faith". Rock, Paper, Shotgun. Retrieved 6 August 2017.
  8. ^ Wald, Heather (7 July 2021). "Self-discovery on the road: Why so many upcoming games are taking us on road trips". GamesRadar+. Retrieved 25 July 2021.
  9. ^ "RAGNAR TØRNQUIST - WRITER. DIRECTOR. DESIGNER". Retrieved 25 July 2021.

External links edit