The Stolen Dream Dev Talks Stealth, Story, and Scandinavian Influences

Players with an eye for tightly designed, narrative-driven games may have already clocked Eriksholm: The Stolen Dream, an upcoming stealth title with shockingly impressive visuals. While Eriksholm‘s use of new gaming technology like Epic’s MetaHumans is certainly interesting and worth paying attention to, the game is looking to be far more than just a pretty face, shooting for memorable gameplay and level design as well.

The game follows Hanna, a young woman in the fictional city of Eriksholm, as she attempts to find her brother, who has become the center of a manhunt. During her journey, she enlists the help of two other playable characters, Sebastian and Alva, and this character-swapping forms the backbone of Eriksholm‘s strategic stealth and puzzle-solving gameplay. The adventure promises to be far more unexpected than that short elevator pitch; in a conversation with Game Rant, Eriksholm‘s creative director Anders Hejdenberg made it clear that the game will be filled with surprises of both the gameplay and narrative variety, painting a firmer image of this already-enticing project. The following interview has been edited for clarity and brevity.

Eriksholm’s Story and Gameplay Are Driven by Many of the Same Goals

Q: Did Eriksholm’s story follow the stealth mechanics, or did the stealth mechanics follow the story? What did you start with in the development process?

A: I would say that we started with the environment. We wanted to create a world that was tied together in some way. For that world, we started with creating characters, and then we took the most interesting characters and wrote the story for them. At a larger scope, there was still the idea that you would work together as a team with multiple characters. There was some gameplay conceptualized early on, but stealth can mean many different things.

I think that the more realistic approach to it was something that came naturally. Many of our design choices also stem from what our playtesters responded well to. Our approach to both game design and level design is to emulate games that keep doing new things to the very end. We start small, and you get the basics, and you understand how everything fits together. Then we add complexity as we go so that each new puzzle or situation you end up in is a little bit different and sometimes a whole lot different. We gradually keep things fresh, and players who have played Eriksholm have said that you get this urge to see what’s next, both from a gameplay perspective and a story perspective, because there’s always something new to explore and try around the next corner.

We hoped to achieve the same feeling you got in the original Half-Life where you started with a crowbar and have that for what felt like an eternity. Then when you finally got that first gun, it was the most beautiful weapon you’ve ever laid your hands on. We wanted to achieve something similar with the dart gun Hanna eventually gets. When you get the dart gun, you have to be careful about it: when you shoot someone, it’s not like they just immediately drop to the floor and you can go on your merry way. It takes a few seconds for the effect to kick in. When they get shot, they’ll react, so if you’re just standing there in the open, you’ll be in trouble. Even if you drag the enemy away, you have to consider how their allies will react. There are a lot of factors to consider.

Q: The cinematics are such an interesting part of this game, especially for a team of just 17 people. Was this something you envisioned from the jump, or did it stem from external factors, like developments in Unreal Engine 5?

A: We got pretty good results way before the project even started, so there was some indication that we would have been able to get some really nice cinematics. But the leap from there to what we were able to do with Unreal Engine 5 was certainly not something that we had envisioned. And then we were lucky enough to get really great actors, which made things a lot easier.

Q: Are these pre-rendered cutscenes something players can expect to see frequently?

A: They’ll appear every time a new character—one important to the story—gets introduced, or when a dramatic or pivotal event happens. We have to be quite picky. There are a lot of scenes that I would love to have done cinematics for, but with a team our size, I think we were able to muster up about 25 or 30 minutes of total cinematics. It takes a lot of effort.

Q: The in-game character interactions are rather effective as well, though. What was the process for making these as opposed to the more ambitious, pre-rendered scenes?

A: I think that a huge part of those in-game cutscenes is Xsens suits instead of going to a mocap studio to do it. We have our animator in the office, and he puts on the suit—there are no markers or anything—and he can act out the scenes. He’s getting very good at it.

There’s some cleanup work, but it’s generally far more efficient compared to the slow, tedious, and expensive process in the mocap studio. It also helps us improvise and envision new scenes on the fly. I think that with any process, the more you can be on your toes and adjust and adapt to what players are saying or what you’re seeing, the better quality you’ll get.

Eriksholm’s Immersive Approach to Puzzles and Stealth

Q: Would it be fair to call Eriksholm a stealth-puzzle game?

A: Definitely. It doesn’t necessarily feel like that when you’re playing, but it’s certainly a very puzzle-oriented approach with some reusable game mechanics, of course. It’s not like an adventure game or anything.

For example, we have one encounter where there are a couple of bad guys out in the dark, and there are mosquitoes. And there’s this one guy who seems to be getting all the attention from the mosquitoes, and it’s presented as a sort of joke, but then the player might realize that the sound he makes whenever he slaps a mosquito is kind of the same sound he makes when Hanna shoots a dart at someone. So the solution to that puzzle would be to shoot that guy first because no one else will notice the sound.

Q: So the game communicates these solutions to the player primarily through integrated, diegetic means?

A: Yeah. It’s very much about dialogue and how people relate to each other. You’ll get hints about someone being afraid of birds, and you’ll think, “Maybe I can use that somehow.” Or “This guy seems to be really on edge, maybe I should stay clear of him.”

There are also the elements that come from having a second playable character. They solve puzzles together and have this unique dynamic. Different gameplay elements are introduced when you’re just playing as Hanna, and have meant different things until you team up with Alva. It winds up being a kind of back-and-forth situation.

So far, playtesters are saying that Eriksholm certainly feels very different. Many have said that it feels almost like we’ve opened up the stealth genre to the public in a way, where you don’t need to know a bunch of specific things from the start. It’s a very gradual progression. Many people have also said it feels like playing a movie but in a good way. I can understand that because we tie together the narrative and gameplay quite tightly.

I think many people are used to having a bit of gameplay, then some story, and then some gameplay again whereas we can have both. For example, we have one scene with Alva and Hanna trying to work their way out of some tunnels filled with water. They have to work together but they’re also angry at each other. They’re going at each other, and then they gradually reach a point where they become friends again. It’s very much tied into your gameplay.

One person said that it feels like Eriksholm is doing for the stealth genre what Limbo and Inside did for the platforming genre, which, of course, is very nice to hear. And I hope more people say that.

It certainly feels like there’s something fresh about this. For me, “fresh” is the greatest badge of honor. Because “revolutionary” is too much, and “fun” is nice, but “fresh” is surprisingly hard to do.

Q: We’ve seen a lot more of Alva and Hanna than of the third playable character, Sebastian. Is there anything you’d like to share regarding him?

A: The main reason for that is that he comes late into the game, and we don’t want to reveal too much. He’s not too mysterious. He is very much the “dad” kind of character: he doesn’t do emotions very well, but he’ll be happy to make you a sandwich if you’re sad. I’d say that story-wise, Hanna and Alva and their relationship are very much the focus. So it could be that they’re stealing his thunder a little bit.

Q: You’ve said that Eriksholm is inspired by turn-of-the-century Scandinavia. Would you care to expand on that at all?

A: We have storywriters, and we want them to come from an honest and passionate place with their work. We want them to feel and relate to their world realistically and honestly. When it comes to the world—the early-1900s Scandinavia—it’s the world I have around me, which is very good because whenever I need a reference, it’s right outside my door. Part of that process was reading all the stories about my hometown and it’s like, “Oh, that happened,” “Oh, there was a person who did that?” “Oh, so that’s why we call it this.”

All of these small things also inspired the greater story of the game. I think a lot of hints like that were useful for me because all those stories are so readily available around me. We have archives here in the city where you can see how people lived in this part of town.

Q: How do ideas like rampant industrialization and capitalism factor into the Eriksholm setting?

A: I would say they’re very much part of the environment, and each area you visit has its own story. We’re also careful not to say, “We’re in the rich part of town, everyone must be evil here.” Rather, we want to get a perspective from these characters that isn’t too over-the-top. We want to show that these people have their own struggles, in their own way. I think that, first and foremost, this is about someone becoming greater than they thought they could be, because of the circumstances they were placed under. It’s a very personal story, and even though there are some political intrigues and whatnot, it’s very much the story of Hanna and her journey, and her bravery, I would say.

Q: You’ve discussed how important it is to you that people have an emotional connection to your games, whether that’s because they’ve taught them something about themselves or because they’re tied to specific memories. What do you want players to feel walking away from Eriksholm?

A: I would say that, having seen what people are taking away from it so far, I’ve realized that people connect with a wide array of things, so I’m just fascinated. Some people are really into specific parts of the game, and others say they just want to live in the world. For others, Hanna’s personal journey is what connects with them. I can’t hope for anything specific, but for me, exploring a world that is not my own, with good characters and a captivating story, is a magical journey. That’s all I can dream of for anyone else to experience as well. If they find another way of having fun with Eriksholm, I’m fine with that as well. It’s more of a menu, and players get to pick from it.

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Eriksholm: The Stolen Dream is planned for a 2025 release on PC, PlayStation 5, and Xbox Series X|S.