Thomas Grip

Creative Director at Frictional Games.
Past: Penumbra, Amnesia & SOMA.
Future: ONTOS

[Thomas Grip @ThomasGrip]

First time any game I worked on gets a front page!!! 🤩

[Edge @edgeonline]

Ontos is the cover star of Edge 423, out today. Here are the design variants for retail and subscription copies. Inside, we meet with Frictional to find out how the biggest game in the studio’s history evokes flavours of Soma as part of an existential adventure on the Moon.

[Edge @edgeonline]

Ontos is the cover star of Edge 423, out today. Here are the design variants for retail and subscription copies. Inside, we meet with Frictional to find out how the biggest game in the studio’s history evokes flavours of Soma as part of an existential adventure on the Moon.

[Thomas Grip @ThomasGrip]

Wow :D

[Guará Programador @GustavoL17688]

I’ve successfully restored Fiend (2001), an obscure survival horror by @ThomasGrip, written in the C programming language.

The project is complete and fully functional on modern 64-bit Linux and Windows 10/11!

👇 (1/2)

[Thomas Grip @ThomasGrip]

Overall, nothing makes me as set of solving something as it being declared as "impossible" (esp if I am doing the declaring myself)

[Thomas Grip @ThomasGrip]

Very satisfying to first think of a problem as "basically impossible", only to figure out a simple and fairly straightforward solution. Key insight was simply to change the angle of attack.

[Thomas Grip @ThomasGrip]

@FelisArmis Asking the important questions 😁

Perhaps! 😊

[Thomas Grip @ThomasGrip]

Amazing to finally announce something you’ve worked on for 10 years!

[ONTOS - Hotel Samsara @ONTOS_Official]

Who are you r//*ally?

From the creators of SOMA comes its spiritual successor, ONTOS.
A sci-fi thriller taking you to the edge of your own morality.

Featuring award-winning actor, Stellan Skarsgård.

ONTOS comes to Xbox, PS5, and PC in 2026.
#TheGameAwards

[Thomas Grip @ThomasGrip]

@TheRamenLlama What makes you think there is a game reveal soon?

[Thomas Grip @ThomasGrip]

This always seem to happen: 10 year old code bug become noticeable right before an important deadline.

It has had a decade to be found, and yet it has remained undetected until the worst possible moment, when it causes incredibly apparent issues.

So annoying.

[Thomas Grip @ThomasGrip]

Anyone know how long does it usually takes before 1000xResist clicks?

I am 2 hours in now and not really feeling it. Worth give a few more hours?

[Thomas Grip @ThomasGrip]

Can also download the whole thing here: https://t.co/3VOWxjzTvm

[Thomas Grip @ThomasGrip]

Today, 20 years ago, I coded the first lines for the HPL engine!

Versions of it power all games made by Frictional, making be one of the oldest indie game engines still in use?

For the curious , a 45 min video about it how it all started:
https://t.co/ktxk4jlNlM

[Thomas Grip @ThomasGrip]

Turn out the new Indiana Jones game is very similar to Metro: Exodus in many ways. Was not expecting that.

Small open worlds, linear sections mixed into open ones, diegetic maps, etc.

[Thomas Grip @ThomasGrip]

Someone made a real life Omnitool from SOMA! 😮
Beyond amazing!
https://t.co/r8tg9ALbxL

[Thomas Grip @ThomasGrip]

Embarrassing confession: I really enjoy crunching numbers i spreadsheets, making formulas and giving it all nice colors.

[Thomas Grip @ThomasGrip]

@BFlorry @roggah Should probably post a video for the company channel on it. So much to be said + need to look over old documents to jog memory. But lots of crazy stuff like starting in a fake , wau created, Munshi office, etc

[Thomas Grip @ThomasGrip]

When making doing creative work: Don't strive for perfection. It will just lead to burn-out and hating things you should love to do.

Instead: be kind to yourself and lower the bar. More often than nothing, what you think is "subpar" in the moment is actually of great quality.

[Thomas Grip @ThomasGrip]

I explain what we discussed at work during family dinner.

My kid: <stops eating>".... I need to process this."

[Thomas Grip @ThomasGrip]

@BassoonPlatoon @frictionalgames Glad you like it!
Worth noting I had a more supportive role on this one. @LosFreddos was Creative Lead

[Thomas Grip @ThomasGrip]

"This task need to be fast therefore I will not do any preparation work" almost always leads to MORE work.

Never underestimate thinking through and developing the setup before doing any actual work. Good prep is the real time saver - not the opposite!

[Thomas Grip @ThomasGrip]

@roggah "My minipainting is now bad, I just need to find a better background and lighting setup to make it look good to the viewer."

[Thomas Grip @ThomasGrip]

@roggah And in change the vessel you most likely end up changing the story too.

Eg. SOMA has a super complex start up. So we cut it away and and made story more digestible. Work was to improve "user experience" but in the end story also changed.