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Legend of Solgard developer talks Norse mythological roots and strong female heroes

The Norse myths, the tale of Ragnarok, and the notion of a powerful female protagonist all "felt very natural" to the Legend of Solgard developer Snowprint Studios.

Kevin Tucker

September 10, 2018 4:50 PM

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As far as ancient folklore goes, the Norse myths stand in a class all their own. Not only are the characters therein often colorful and bizarre, the myths themselves walk the line between pure drama and pure imagination. In short, it's a great foundation on which to start building a unique game, and certainly a fine starting point for the crew at Swedish developer Snowprint Studios, the team behind free-to-play mobile title Legend of Solgard. Shacknews was recently able to sit down with Niklas Malmqvist, founding member of Snowprint Studios and art director on Legend of Solgard, to learn more about the game's Norse mythological roots, including the idea of giving players the chance to play as a strong female hero.

"If you have read about Norse mythology and Norse folklore, you know, it's crazy stories... It opens up your imagination," Malmqvist said. "It's such a big and wild world, and we just needed to get our heads around it and follow that track.

"Apart from the Norse mythology and Norse folklore, we [Swedes] also have a Swedish children's book writer called Astrid Lindgren who wrote several popular children's books, Pippi Longstocking perhaps being the most well-known. [...] [Her books] always had a strong female character as a main character in the book, and that's something we grew up with, so it just felt very natural that in this setting of Norse mythology we would have a strong female character."

Legend of Solgard is available now as a free-to-play title through both the Google Play Store and the Apple App Store. Players can also learn more about the game through the official Legend of Solgard website. For more hot videos and interviews, be sure to check out Shacknews and GamerHub.tv over on YouTube.

Kevin Tucker

Guides Editor

Kevin Tucker is a core component of Shacknews' powerful guide development team. For questions, concerns, tips, or to share constructive criticism, he can be reached on Twitter @dukeofgnar or through e-mail at kevin.tucker@shacknews.com.