WhileEVE Onlinehas been the face of Iceland’s gaming scene for over two decades now, a new wave of promising video games is looking to step into the spotlight. Vitar Games’WW1 strategy-management game,Dig In,is one such title.
Game Rant recently played about an hour or so ofDig In’s pre-alpha build and spoke with Vitar Games founder and CEO Baldvin Albertsson. During the interview, Albertsson shed some light on the formation of his studio, the biggest inspirations behindDig In’s gameplay and art style, and howthe Icelandic Game Industry(IGI) is continuing to support the game’s development.This transcript has been edited for brevity and clarity.
The Tale of Vitar Games' Formation
Q: Could you take me through the journey of Vitar Games' formation?
A:I was raised by an expert onthe Cold War, so there was a lot of history in my childhood. I was already really big on parts of history like the Vikings and dinosaurs. Then I found out about World War 2. When you’re five or six, World War 2 is huge, right?
Then there was this thing called World War 1 in the background, which, when you compared the two as a kid, it was almost like WW1 had never happened. It was almost like a fantasy. These two conflicts were so different. I was always fascinated by how absolutely insane it was. It doesn’t make any sense. It’s like a four-year-longTom & Jerryepisodeessentially. It’s like an argument with your partner where you don’t remember why you’re arguing, but you’re still arguing four years on.
It was so different because in World War 2 you had the Allies and the Soviet Union saving civilization from the Nazis. In World War 1, you have an absolute sh*t show, and no one knows what’s going on.
As I got older, I got really into the real-time strategy scene during the golden age of the 90s.Dune: Battle for ArrakisandCommand and Conquerwere huge. These were my games. ThenCompany of Heroescame out in the 2000s. But then I got older, and I had all these ideas. Obviously, everyone who plays games has ideas; ideas are cheap. Then I moved to England in 2007. I’m a classically-trained theater actor and I learned to become a director. I never did well at school, I was always kicked out, and I was a horrible student. But acting, directing, and storytelling were kind of my forte. I finished that, I survived the Russian drama school from hell, and did Shakespeare and all that sh*t.
I got back to Iceland in 2012, and there were no games that were scratching my itch. The whole RTS scene was out the window, mobile had completely taken over. I still hadTotal War,but I found a new outlet in a game calledBanished, which became my favorite game. It was kind of a strategy game but very different. Then I foundRimWorld, and I found my spirit game.RimWorldmade me so happy. It was so chaotic, so difficult to learn. It had a lot of strategy.
But I was still big on history. I was always reading about World War 1 and 2. It was around 2014, and I was still asking myself why no one was making a World War 1 game. At the time I’m readingThe Price of Gloryby the legendary UK historian Alistair Horne, a book about the battle of Verdun, the most pivotal battle of the last century essentially. I’m reading this book, I’mplayingRimWorld, and suddenly these two worlds start to collide, the stars align, and I suddenly figure out I have the secret ingredient that could revitalize the strategy genre.
But there’s one major problem. I don’t know anyone in the games industry. I don’t know one person at CCP. I’ve never seenHilmar Veigarin my life! I know nothing. I just thought this was never going to pan out. I’m doing well producing and directing. I’m working internationally. It’s fine. But then, almost like destiny or something, I was working at a company in Reykjavík and the CMO of DICE in Stockholm asked if we could help come up with some fresh ideas forthe nextBattlefieldgame. The CEO of my company asked what it was about. They said World War 1, and he was like, “Okay, I’m going to send Baldvin over.”
We got to Stockholm, and we had this disastrous meeting with DICE. It’s like one of those meetings in films. Nothing comes out of it. It was an absolute sham. We were so disillusioned after the meeting, but we ended up meeting a fellow Icelander and we went for drinks. As I’m listening to him, I figure out I’m in the midst of some sort of gaming industry legend. He’s made games, he’s published games, he’s super successful, and he’s Icelandic.
My whole goal was to just find someone in the industry, tell them my amazing idea, and then I’ll just go back to Iceland and wait until the game is ready! Maybe I’ll get a free copy! That was my whole goal, to be honest. So, I start insinuating I might have this amazing idea for a video game and this guy, who turns out to be Jonas Antonsson,the founder of Raw Fury, says “Hey, Baldvin. You’re a nice guy. Let’s just get this out of your system. You just pitch me the game here, and we can get on with our lives!”
I think this is it. This is my big moment. I use the table at the restaurant. I use the ketchup and salt to make the trench network on the table…as you do when you go out to dinner with people. I set it up and I explained my pitch. I say that, in any other strategy game, you have your mouse, you click on the unit, you click on the map, and they go there, right? If you change your mind, you click somewhere else, and they go there instead. Simple as that.
In my game,Dig In, you click on the unit and say “go there,” and they ask “when?” You, as the company commander in World War 1, need to decide when they’re supposed to attack, how many you’re willing to lose, and who’s going. As soon as you decide to commit to the action, there’s a Runner – which was a very dangerous job in World War 1 – who has to go from HQ, run through the trench network, find the officers, and give them their orders.
That was it, and Jonas was like, “You know what Baldvin? That was probably the best pitch I’ve heard all year.” I asked if he could make the game, and he said, “No, you’re going to make the game!” So, basically, here I am.
It wasn’t easy. I had to leave my job in 2019. COVID slowed me down. Then, in May 2021, I made the decision I was going to do this. I made my market thesis. I had nothing, only a pitch deck and this silly story. But I found there were a lot of niche games on Steam that did really well without having 10 or 15 people on the team thatused to work at Blizzard or Riot, and without having an accumulated industry age older than the Holy Roman Empire.
I found another spirit game calledTavern Master. Pitching a game about running a medieval tavern sounds just as crazy as managing a WW1 trench, and that game was selling really well, so I could use that. I started meeting investors, but they were like, “You don’t have anything. You have no one on the team and no one wants to join you.” I just sat down at the end of the year after meeting all of these cool people and decided I had to make the game myself.
Assuming no Icelandic children read Game Rant…I worked as a professional Santa Claus performer in December, which is a big job in Iceland because we have 13 Santa Clauses. I did that, I made sh*t loads of money, and I bought a computer. I sat down in January 2022 and started programming the game on Unreal Engine. I just sat there for three months, no paycheck, and I figured things out.
In March, I had an investor from Finland come over who said the game looked amazing, and then things suddenly started moving. My co-founder, a programmer named Ævar Örn Kvaran who used to work atCCP and Mainframe, decided to join me. And then I met lots of people, lots of networking. Suddenly, publishers were asking for meetings and my investors said “Let’s do this.”
We raised 500,000 Euros in March 2023. We started as three people. Soon we became four. Last year we became six. Then I met a guy named Rob who worked at Creative Assembly before he was made redundant, unfortunately. He said he had to introduce me to someone named Dominic, who was one ofthe lead designers onTotal War. I met Dominic, he was like “I like this game,” I was like “I like you!,” and I said to my investors that we should hire him.
Dominic joined in September last year, but we’re still doing everything differently. We’re not doing anything like anyone else. We’re going to release a public demo forDig Inon Itch.io in June, but the marketing effort exploded. I had to shut it down. It was overwhelming the team. It’s been f*cking crazy, but we’re having a great time.
Dig In - A Colony Sim RTS With Some Novel Concepts
Q: Could you give me a top-level overview ofDig In?
A:Dig Inis somewhere betweencolony sims likeRimWorldand real-time strategy games, but we’re doing some really novel stuff that no one has seen yet, like building trenches into the voxel landscape and having autonomous soldiers that can’t be commanded directly. It’s quite risky doing new stuff, but it’s been holding up really well with players so far.
We’re trying to carve out a new genre really. Attacks, movement, and artillery strikes are time-based in the game. You need to plan the attacks. There will also be tunneling, so you may build a city below your trench network. Everything will be completely destructible: the environment, the buildings, everything.
Q: What was the inspiration behindDig In’s time-based mechanics?
A:It comes fromThe Price of Gloryby Alistair Horne. The book is written in a very human way. Sometimes he writes the historical stuff almost like stage directions in a play. This human drama of one person trying to escape an artillery barrage and make it to HQ to say they’re being overrun. The human drama of one person who is not an Olympic runner orRambo-like soldier, but just a normal French guy. It’s absolutely fascinating how much hinges on that one person reaching through.
I just thought the drama of that would make for really exciting gameplay, especially when you add randomness to that. The game is not about winning or losing, it’s about playing. I mean, most people who playRimWorldnever go out into space, they just stay on the planet.
Q: World War 1 games usually have quite a gritty art style. Is there a reason whyDig In’s art style is more vibrant?
A:There are two reasons. There’s a great book by Stefan Zweig calledThe World of Yesterdaythat’s essentially about how the world was before WW1. It was so different. At the time, you had all these vibrant colors, all these old empires. I mean, the French army could be seen from outer space because they were wearing red pantaloons.
It was such a vibrant and sincere world that was not ready. They essentially went from pantaloons toFallout 4in four years. It was post-apocalyptic almost. Even the horses had gas masks. That’s what we found fascinating. We wanted to make it vibrant, cel-shaded, stylish, and cartoony.
We also wanted to highlight the soldiers and make you feel something for those poor guys. These are ordinary people in extraordinary circumstances. The main visual inspiration for me and our art director (Emil Ásgrímsson) was the filmThe Grand Budapest Hotelby Wes Anderson. That film basically makes its own version of World War 1 using fake countries, also inspired by “A world that was.”
Q: How historically accurate are you aiming to be withDig In?
A:We are going to be historically accurate with everything like researching the improvised stuff they learned in the trenches and the army’s military style, like the Germans being better at this and the French being better at that. But we’re not going to be fully historically accurate with things like artillery shells and weapon ranges because then the maps would be impossible to play.
We’ve taken some liberties there. We’ve discussed this with the community and most people agree. We’re also going to allow for customization, so you’re able to name regiments. We’re also going to add mod support. The passion I see from the people on Discord is inspiring for the team because they’re so into a lot of stuff I didn’t even know about.
Q: Is there anything in particular you’d love to see the community mod intoDig In?
A:I would be really interested in seeing alternate histories and something Steampunk-y.
Q: How has the Icelandic Game Industry (IGI) supportedDig In’s development?
A:On day one, IGI rang and asked if we wanted to join, and we said “Of course.” Immediately, you were at the table with people doing the same jobs in other gaming companies. We all knew each other. They gave me the opportunity to have a voice in how we build up this community and industry.
Something that’s important to me is that IGI lets students know that there is something else there. When I was a kid in school, I didn’t do well because I thought there was nothing after school except working in a shop or something. It’s a very supportive environment.
[END]
Dig Inis set to launch in Steam Early Access in September 2026 for PC.
