Painted onto the canvas of a highly modified version of CryEgine 3, crowd-fueled indie studio Warhorse's Kingdom Come: Deliverance is evolving more each day into the product the Czech team vowed to deliver when it captivated the gaming world with a sketched vision last winter.
Since then Warhorse has been hard at work, driving Kingdom Come: Deliverance through its alpha phase and into its beta testing period. With the team forging deeper into development, Tech Times touched base with the studio to see how things are progressing and talked with Warhorse Community Manager Tobias Stolz-Zwilling about the project.
Warhorse is working to develop a single-player role-playing game that's set in a medieval environment minus fantasy elements. While that vision remains unchanged, progress to make it happen hasn't been without its challenges, Stolz-Zwilling acknowledges.
"The right balance between historical accuracy and fun gameplay became everyday business to the point where we added a full-time historian to our team. Not everything is possible in a video game -- and that's a lesson we had to learn very quick," Stolz-Zwilling told Tech Times.
Overall, the growing community response to Kingdom Come's tech alpha has been good, says Stolz-Zwilling. There has been a fair amount of constructive criticism, which he says the studio both needs and appreciates.
"We are very glad to have such a dedicated and enthusiastic community," he says. "Because we are a crowd-funded company on Kickstarter we have a close alliance with our community."
The studio regularly updates Kingdom Come's alpha to maintain the community's level of excitement. There's already a "more or less" functional medieval village that's brought to life with a population of inhabitants that follow daily routines, small quests, complex quests, branching dialog, archery, the alchemy minigame and more, says Stolz-Zwilling.
"What will follow in the next update... time will tell... but better prepare your lock pick," teases Stolz-Zwilling.
As far as the game's next major update, Stolz-Zwilling says every release is a major landmark and Warhorse is eagerly awaiting feedback about the latest "partially nonfunctioning features" that were released.
"Bigger landmarks will probably be our first active participation in international gaming conventions, entering the beta stage, and finally the release of the game," says Stolz-Zwilling.
When asked about Warhorse's philosophy on work, Stolz-Zwilling cites a Futurama quote on a poster in the studio's artificial intelligence department.
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'You're not paid to think -- A mindless worker is a happy worker! Shut up and do your job!' -- Futurama," says Stolz-Zwilling. Despite requiring all of its staffers to don their game faces when bearing Warhorse' banner, "everyone at the studio lives and loves Kingdom Come: Deliverance. "I would confidently hazard a guess that everybody loves to be a part of the team, it feels more like working with friends than with coworkers," says Stolz-Zwilling. "Even if the air thickens sometimes when the different departments discuss a problem and nobody can figure it out." |
Warhorse is a close-knit group and lately team concerns have centered around the health of the staff. To work off "bacon rings" amassed during the holidays -- as Stolz-Zwilling described employees' weight gain -- he has been encouraging staff to get more physically active.
"It's after Christmas... and Dan and I decided to do something against the jiggly bacon rings we successfully grew over vacation. So the gym is the latest event in our activity list," explains Stolz-Zwilling. "So we go and play table tennis, soccer, floorball and yes... it still looks like computer nerds snuffling after a ball. But we do it nearly every week... not to mention Czech Republic's national sport... beer grabbing!"
While the Warhorse crew works to stay physically fit, the studio is doubling down on the efforts it puts into Kingdom Come: Deliverance to provide the features it promised its fans.
Elements like improved voice-overs and dog companions and tournament mode have already been achieved as the studio knits more functionality into the alpha, resolutely marching to a fully playable build. To get there and to keep delivering on the promises made to supporters, Warhorse will need its community to continue to make its voice heard.
"I would like to point out how extremely important it is to us to be in close contact with our community," Stolz-Zwilling says. "Constructive criticism is the best we can get, therefore I would highly invite you to join our community on our forums, Facebook, Twitter or G+ and be an active part of development."
For those who want to support Kingdom Come: Deliverance but missed its Kickstarter campaign, Stolz-Zwilling encourages supporters to visit the game's funding site here.
