Esoteric Ebb creator reckons most players only saw half the game, and that's fine by him: 'You've got to miss stuff in order to feel like the world is bigger'

I'm fairly completionist with my RPGs: I only just beat New Vegas for the first time after 300 hours, 15 years, and I don't know how many abortive playthroughs because I refuse to wrap one up until I've done everything⁠—and I often get tired or distracted before I can finish everything.

I thought I did a pretty good job clearing out Esoteric Ebb, our running contender for RPG of the year, then I talked to Christoffer Bodegård, the guy who made it. Spoilers for Esoteric Ebb below, but devoid of context they're pretty, well, esoteric.

Over our conversation, Bodegård rattled off a litany of items, places, even a full character class I'd missed in his game, an RPG I luxuriated in for 26 hours. I even went back through some of the map before the point of no return, scouring Tolstad for clues.

My consolation, and part of Esoteric Ebb's magic, was that I managed to dig up an extreme...