NEWS In Summer 2015, Coldwood took the gaming world by storm when the game Unravel was presented at the Electronic Entertainment Expo E3 in Los Angeles. The character Yarny and the scenery from Västerbotten have been received warmly by critics and players alike. The creating studio Coldwood, with its base in Umeå, consists of several alumni from Umeå University.
“It’s been a long journey over the years where Coldwood hasn’t always been able to work with what we really love,” says Jakob Marklund, Chief Technology Officer at Coldwood Interactive and an Umeå University alumnus.
“In the end we were able to find the financial resources to go full speed ahead with something that we were really passionate about. By showing off our competence, delivering a unique project using state-of-the-art technology and having the right connections in the market, we managed to pitch a playable demo of Unravel.”
Already before Unravel was released on 9 February 2016, the game had won 20 awards. The main character, Yarny, is a small creature formed by a single string of red yarn which is snagged on something to the left of the screen and thus leaves a trail of wool behind him, which makes him gradually unravel as he moves. With this, the objective has been to create a smaller and more personal product than previous.
The scenery in the game is inspired by the surroundings of Umeå, which is no surprise since most of those who have worked on creating the game have studied in Umeå, and they all live here. Out of Coldwood’s fourteen employees, eight are alumni from Umeå University. Instead of fake and manufactured settings, the idea has always been to show off the nature they are familiar with and so fond of. The idea actually came to the creative director of the company during a camping holiday with the family when he also created the small yarn character out of wool and steel wire.
“Martin Sahlin, who is a rare-to-find natural, has been a remarkably invaluable asset and has managed to convey our vision of the game both to the public and to our publishers, Electronic Arts. The latter party has also done an amazing job in portraying our unique talents and our local focus, despite them being a giant on the global market, says Jakob Marklund, who studied Computer Science and Engineering as well as Physics at Umeå University.”
After his university studies, he first worked at the video game developing company Daydream Software in Umeå. In 2003, he started Coldwood together with four other game developers who all already had a few years of experience. As chief technology officer, he tries to uphold a long-term vision of what needs to be developed by the programmers of the company, but he is also a part of projects where he also gets to programme.
“What’s most rewarding about my job is to work on a smaller team where it’s possible to have an overview of the entire project at all times, both when it comes to the technical and the artistic aspects. We work very closely together and the limits are fluid when it comes to what is programming, design and artistic work,” says Jakob Marklund.
He describes himself as a theorist and explains how he enjoyed the more abstract parts of the courses in Mathematics and Physics. Towards the end of his studies, he appreciated working with prominent researchers and to get closer to research.
“I also had a really good time on the side of my studies.”
For those who are considering starting their own business, Jakob has a few pieces of advice to offer:
“Don’t feel stressed into it. Take your time to get established and consider starting off by working on projects for others. When you’re then pitching your “greatest” idea, your credibility will be much better. We’ve never applied for or had any risk capital, which has left us vulnerable as each krona needs to be earnt – but at the same time, we’ve been able to manoeuvre our work according to our own targets and no one else’s.”
Link to the press conference at E3 in 2015
Editor: Anna Lawrence