STUDIO
Fimbulworks
A single-person game studio in Norway. Founded in 2025 and named after Fimbulvetr, the mighty winter that precedes Ragnarök.
MYTHOLOGY
The end begins with Fimbulvetr.
Three harsh winters with no summer between them. Famine spreads across the world, until the wolves Sköll and Hati catch the sun and moon and devour them.
Then comes Ragnarök.
The sky splits open. Earthquakes shatter every chain, freeing Loki, and the wolf Fenrir is loosed upon the world, his lower jaw against the ground and his upper jaw in the sky. The seas rise as Jörmungandr writhes from the deep, and Thor wades out to meet it, Mjölnir held high.
Through Valhalla’s 540 doors, Odin leads the Einherjar onto the final battlefield and rides forth to face the world-eater. Eventually he is devoured. A fate prophesied. A fate accepted. And ultimately, a fate avenged, when Vidar, son of Odin, rips the wolf’s mouth apart.
REALIZATION
Fimbulvetr may not be entirely mythical. Archaeologists have argued that it preserves a memory of something real: in 536 AD a volcanic ashen veil dimmed the sun across the northern hemisphere and harvests failed.
In southern Norway, the number of burials fell by more than 75 percent in the period that followed. The eruptions of 536 and 540, the cold years after them, and possibly plague, are the likely causes (Loftsgarden and Iversen, 2024).
It was not the first time a volcano ended a world. More than four centuries earlier, in 79 AD, Mount Vesuvius buried Pompeii and Herculaneum under ash, and left behind an eyewitness account. Many who escaped are believed to have started over in towns along the coast.
Perhaps, buried beneath the myth, is the memory of a time when the world seemed to be ending.
INSPIRATION
My bonds to Norse history are what shaped the backdrop for Fimbulworks.
I am not trying to make the next Valheim. Probably. I love that game. And actually, what pulled me into game development was tinkering with the config files of a Valheim mod about enchanted gear until it worked the way two confused Vikings wanted it to. So I owe you a horn of mead, RandyKnapp.
Then, during a cold winter night in late 2024, Project Curtain was born. And I decided to look southward, and further back in time. To that older disaster. To another type of warrior. To gladiators.
DEVELOPER
Design, code (Blueprints), art direction, writing and localization all happen here. I am self-taught, with no formal training in programming or game development, and have been working in Unreal Engine since late 2024, alongside a day job in quality control and documentation at a metal factory.
I am not entirely alone, though. The studio has an eager ‘first reader’, who scrutinizes everything I come up with from the perspective of a more casual player.
APPROACH
The standard advice to a solo developer is to make something small. Ship it, learn from it, make the next one slightly bigger. Slightly better. It is good advice, given by people who know what they are talking about, and the reasons behind it are sound.
So I ignore it, deliberately. I kept returning to Project Curtain, and a smaller detour would only delay it. What keeps that manageable is a habit of writing things down before building them. Every system gets a written specification first, and it is written so that it could be handed to someone else. It is not a complete design bible, and plenty is still undecided, but it means the work has a shape beyond whatever is being built that week.
Systems and features get argued through in writing first, usually with the first reader. That Valheim mod is also why they are designed with modders in mind, to the best of my ability, even though Project Curtain is being developed in Unreal Engine 5.
AFTERMATH
The myth does not end with Ragnarök. The old world burns and a reborn earth rises from the sea, and the survivors begin anew.
The focus of Project Curtain is the rebuilding after a world has ended. How it is rebuilt, will be up to you.
I set sail for Mount Vesuvius. And, one day, so may you.
ENGINE
Unreal Engine 5
STATUS
In development
STUDIO DOGS