Sheesh. Curious how the system is gonna fare there then.
Kingdom Come: Deliverance / Open-World RPG / Medieval History
- Thread starter Paul_cz
- Start date
Soldato
- Joined
- 11 Sep 2013
- Posts
- 12,391
NVM
Last edited:
Associate
- Joined
- 27 Apr 2014
- Posts
- 857
Kingdom Come
Interview with lead designer Viktor Bocan about what's next and what went well and not so well.
It's been quite a while since KCD was released, you've gone through a lot of bug fixes and even some DLC. If you look back at the game, what areas do you think you were the most successful in, and on the other hand, in what areas did you fail significantly?
I think the best thing about the game is that we've managed to send people a message. We knew that we were making a game that wasn't for everyone, and we hoped that people would like the game, since we ourselves liked the game. This is something we talk about a lot. We try to create games (even thought it's only been one so far, but hopefully there are more to come) that appeal to us and that we would want to play ourselves. Games that we think contain something interesting. It's not about us trying to find a hole in the market, in which we somehow attempt to fit in, and then we count the incoming dollars. We weren't sure if people would like the game we created, but we knew that we liked it, and awaited what the public would think about it. The game's success has impressed us mainly because people understood it, that they liked it, and that they want more of it.
If I have to talk about the negatives, it'd definitely be the amount of bugs that I am not too happy about, but even more so it's the things that we weren't able to finish. For me personally, the biggest disappointment is the fact that we weren't able to create the big battles. I was so excited, that we would bring out something of this scale, but it simply wasn't possible. Not only isn't the engine up to the task, we'd also have to develop a brand new technology, which we weren't able to do anymore. Due to this we've created battles in a way they could be done. I think if we were to develop it further, we would be able to improve the current battles, but for the huge and beautiful ones, that we'd planned originally, with hundreds of soldiers, the technology isn't there yet.
You've mentioned bugs, but also things you weren't able to finish. Don't you think, that it would be worth for you to wait with releasing the game?
I say this often, so I am going to say it here as well. French poet Paul Valery once said- "A poem is never finished, only abandoned". This is especially true when it comes to games. A game can always be improved, it can always be worked on, you always see what's possible. We delayed the game multiple times, because we knew that it wasn't finished yet, even thought a big part of the game was already finished. If we would decide a year and a half before the release, that the game needs to be out in half a year, we would be able to release it, but we told ourselves that we can invest even more time to finish the game in the best way we are able to. There comes a point where you have to stop yourself, even though I think there is still plenty of work to be done, whether it's things to expand upon, or add missing plot lines, but at a certain point, one has to close things off, and tell yourself, that it's here the story of Henry the blacksmith ends, riding off into the sunset, so that we can hurl ourselves onto something else.
So what did you hurl yourself onto?
So far, nothing at all, since we are still fixing bugs and preparing DLC. This content has some kind of plan, that we are approximately trying to fulfill, but of course we are also thinking about what's next. We can't yet accurately talk about what the next step is, even though it's apparent what it will be. Ever since the Kickstarter we mentioned that this is a saga, that is slowly picking up pace. The ending is obviously very open ended. So it is possibly very clear, that there are plans for some kind of sequel.
Do you still have a plan to move all the way to the Hussite Wars history wise?
So far the plan isn't this concrete. We are definitely thinking about how the story would continue, but it is not in a way where Henry leaves somewhere and comes back after 20 years (Hussite Wars take place approximately 20 years after the events of KCD). More likely it would be in the direction of a direct continuation of the story. We certainly like the idea of Hussite Wars, but with our development pace, I am not completely sure if we'd be able to make it before I retire (laughs).
In that case I suppose you would like to work on those big battles. You did mention technological limitation in regards to this topic. Is there a way to get around this with the current technology, or would you have to develop something entirely new?
We will have to see. I my opinion we are at the edge of what's possible with the current engine. New hardware can surely help us, and of course if we were to work on a new game now, it wouldn't come out next year, nor the one after that, which means computers will get better over this period, even the consoles will possibly improve, if there even will be any new ones at all. While such an improvement will help us, it won't help us drastically. This means that if we are now able to run 80 characters in a scene and it's at its limits, better hardware won't allow us to suddenly run 800 characters, but for example 150 instead. So if we were to have massive battles, we would have to develop something of our own. Either as an add-on to this engine, which is a really big task, or we could transfer over to a newer engine. At this point we don't necessarily want to do that, because of all the time and resources we have put into all the tools and systems we use, and Cryengine, that we are using, has been considerably modified. We've created and finished a lot of things in the engine, since it wasn't built for such an RPG, so for us it doesn't make much sense to throw it all away and make a new game on, for example, Unreal Engine. We have finished certain things, and if we want to make a new game fast, we will commit to what we have.
If you do start working on the next game, do you also plan to improve your own technologies?
There definitely is a lot of things, which we are not completely satisfied with. We've either only done things partially, due to not having enough time, or on the contrary, the hardware couldn't handle it. We will continue the work in these areas. So if we will be making a similar project with the same technology, we will take what we have and we will try to improve it. First of all we will improve things that we've added into the engine, but maybe we will also add entirely new things as well. So yes, we absolutely do want to continue working on it in this context, but we won't create a completely different engine, or a completely different system.
Last but not least, what awaits us in Kingdom Come in the near future?
DLC and fixes. We definitely don't want to just abandon the game, in a sense that we release the last DLC, upload it to Steam, and in that instant we delete the game from our disks, and start working on something else. We want to leave with a feeling of creating a game that stays good and finished for years to come, that even in 4 years you would be able to play this game without any difficulties.
Thanks for the interview.
It's been quite a while since KCD was released, you've gone through a lot of bug fixes and even some DLC. If you look back at the game, what areas do you think you were the most successful in, and on the other hand, in what areas did you fail significantly?
I think the best thing about the game is that we've managed to send people a message. We knew that we were making a game that wasn't for everyone, and we hoped that people would like the game, since we ourselves liked the game. This is something we talk about a lot. We try to create games (even thought it's only been one so far, but hopefully there are more to come) that appeal to us and that we would want to play ourselves. Games that we think contain something interesting. It's not about us trying to find a hole in the market, in which we somehow attempt to fit in, and then we count the incoming dollars. We weren't sure if people would like the game we created, but we knew that we liked it, and awaited what the public would think about it. The game's success has impressed us mainly because people understood it, that they liked it, and that they want more of it.
If I have to talk about the negatives, it'd definitely be the amount of bugs that I am not too happy about, but even more so it's the things that we weren't able to finish. For me personally, the biggest disappointment is the fact that we weren't able to create the big battles. I was so excited, that we would bring out something of this scale, but it simply wasn't possible. Not only isn't the engine up to the task, we'd also have to develop a brand new technology, which we weren't able to do anymore. Due to this we've created battles in a way they could be done. I think if we were to develop it further, we would be able to improve the current battles, but for the huge and beautiful ones, that we'd planned originally, with hundreds of soldiers, the technology isn't there yet.
You've mentioned bugs, but also things you weren't able to finish. Don't you think, that it would be worth for you to wait with releasing the game?
I say this often, so I am going to say it here as well. French poet Paul Valery once said- "A poem is never finished, only abandoned". This is especially true when it comes to games. A game can always be improved, it can always be worked on, you always see what's possible. We delayed the game multiple times, because we knew that it wasn't finished yet, even thought a big part of the game was already finished. If we would decide a year and a half before the release, that the game needs to be out in half a year, we would be able to release it, but we told ourselves that we can invest even more time to finish the game in the best way we are able to. There comes a point where you have to stop yourself, even though I think there is still plenty of work to be done, whether it's things to expand upon, or add missing plot lines, but at a certain point, one has to close things off, and tell yourself, that it's here the story of Henry the blacksmith ends, riding off into the sunset, so that we can hurl ourselves onto something else.
So what did you hurl yourself onto?
So far, nothing at all, since we are still fixing bugs and preparing DLC. This content has some kind of plan, that we are approximately trying to fulfill, but of course we are also thinking about what's next. We can't yet accurately talk about what the next step is, even though it's apparent what it will be. Ever since the Kickstarter we mentioned that this is a saga, that is slowly picking up pace. The ending is obviously very open ended. So it is possibly very clear, that there are plans for some kind of sequel.
Do you still have a plan to move all the way to the Hussite Wars history wise?
So far the plan isn't this concrete. We are definitely thinking about how the story would continue, but it is not in a way where Henry leaves somewhere and comes back after 20 years (Hussite Wars take place approximately 20 years after the events of KCD). More likely it would be in the direction of a direct continuation of the story. We certainly like the idea of Hussite Wars, but with our development pace, I am not completely sure if we'd be able to make it before I retire (laughs).
In that case I suppose you would like to work on those big battles. You did mention technological limitation in regards to this topic. Is there a way to get around this with the current technology, or would you have to develop something entirely new?
We will have to see. I my opinion we are at the edge of what's possible with the current engine. New hardware can surely help us, and of course if we were to work on a new game now, it wouldn't come out next year, nor the one after that, which means computers will get better over this period, even the consoles will possibly improve, if there even will be any new ones at all. While such an improvement will help us, it won't help us drastically. This means that if we are now able to run 80 characters in a scene and it's at its limits, better hardware won't allow us to suddenly run 800 characters, but for example 150 instead. So if we were to have massive battles, we would have to develop something of our own. Either as an add-on to this engine, which is a really big task, or we could transfer over to a newer engine. At this point we don't necessarily want to do that, because of all the time and resources we have put into all the tools and systems we use, and Cryengine, that we are using, has been considerably modified. We've created and finished a lot of things in the engine, since it wasn't built for such an RPG, so for us it doesn't make much sense to throw it all away and make a new game on, for example, Unreal Engine. We have finished certain things, and if we want to make a new game fast, we will commit to what we have.
If you do start working on the next game, do you also plan to improve your own technologies?
There definitely is a lot of things, which we are not completely satisfied with. We've either only done things partially, due to not having enough time, or on the contrary, the hardware couldn't handle it. We will continue the work in these areas. So if we will be making a similar project with the same technology, we will take what we have and we will try to improve it. First of all we will improve things that we've added into the engine, but maybe we will also add entirely new things as well. So yes, we absolutely do want to continue working on it in this context, but we won't create a completely different engine, or a completely different system.
Last but not least, what awaits us in Kingdom Come in the near future?
DLC and fixes. We definitely don't want to just abandon the game, in a sense that we release the last DLC, upload it to Steam, and in that instant we delete the game from our disks, and start working on something else. We want to leave with a feeling of creating a game that stays good and finished for years to come, that even in 4 years you would be able to play this game without any difficulties.
Thanks for the interview.
Last edited:
Steam Awards nominations are out and Kingdom Come actually made the cut, very cool:
https://steamcommunity.com/games/593110/announcements/detail/2796070940830340422
GOTY nominees are:
I am glad about KCD and Hitman 2. Both amazing games.
https://steamcommunity.com/games/593110/announcements/detail/2796070940830340422
GOTY nominees are:
- PLAYERUNKNOWN'S BATTLEGROUNDS
- MONSTER HUNTER: WORLD
- Kingdom Come: Deliverance
- HITMAN™ 2
- Assassin's Creed Odyssey
I am glad about KCD and Hitman 2. Both amazing games.
Out of those 5, my choice goes to Odyssey
Soldato
- Joined
- 22 Jan 2014
- Posts
- 3,825
Only played two, and KCD is one of them. It's in another realm to PUBG though in terms of 'quality' for me, but that one is objectively in another league in terms of popularity.
Associate
- Joined
- 27 Apr 2014
- Posts
- 857
Deleted
Last edited:
Caporegime
Some scenes are ok but too much shadow, way ott
It is between KCD and Hitman 2 tbh.
The others...meh, especially AC which has sucked ever since AC3.
Caporegime
What's the best graphics improvement and performance optimisation mods?
For me it is also between KCD and Hitman 2. I voted KCD because I love RPGs, but IOI did good job on H2.
I am playing AC Odyssey right now. It is..hmm. Not terrible, I like Kassandra a lot, it is more RPGish, but so far it has been very simplistic and arcadey...I hate how Ubisoft just has no idea how to make immersive game.
Associate
- Joined
- 27 Apr 2014
- Posts
- 857
Soldato
Just bought this at the £19.99 price point after resisting for a while.
Off Tuesday Wednesday from work so going to get into it.
Off Tuesday Wednesday from work so going to get into it.
Yea it's funny how W3 is STILL up for awards years later. It's one of the best games ever made, but generally we have just had **** from the big developers and no one has managed to top it.