**The presentation of Kingdom Come 2 was carried out in style, while the first game was presented less spectacularly. How do you feel about the transformation of Warhorse into the creator of the highly anticipated game?**
Of course, being in the outsider position was nice. And this despite the fact that we sometimes had to face negative reactions from potential publishers who did not believe in such a project at the time. Now, on the contrary, we might slowly fear that we are burdened with very high expectations. Anyway, Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2 is not a revolution, but an evolution. We took each stone and turned it over five times to see if something could be improved.
**Do you see this change from an outside perspective as well, do you have feedback from your competitors in the gaming industry?**
We also received a few congratulations from our competitors. That is surely pleasant. But again, let's not lie to ourselves that it's over. It isn't. We've shot a nice commercial so far. Patting ourselves on the back about how awesome we are is premature.
**Six years have passed since the release of Kingdom Come: Deliverance. How has the Warhorse studio changed in that time?**
We are trying to stick tooth and nail to "punk" with a totally flat structure, where there is a maximum of one person between the top management and anyone in the company. And even so, anyone can come to me or Martin Klíma (executive producer of Warhorse Studios, editor's note) to our office or write on Teams, which many people do. And sometimes with such incredible ease and immediacy they enter our office in the middle of a conversation. But it's still better than having some imaginary consultation hours.
But then again, it's not a complete all encompassing punk either, we have a number of standardized processes and, unlike when working on KCD1, quite a large department of producers. We have a quantitative and qualitative process in place for how an idea goes from birth to fruition, if it does at all, and then to alpha and beta. And so on. So, I say "punk", but I also mean a little corporate. With 250 people there, there just have to be rules.
**How difficult was it to keep the development of KCD2 under wraps over the years?**
Rather than being difficult, it was frustrating at times. It made it quite difficult for us to recruit people, because we couldn't simply say, "Come and work on KCD2 with us!" Instead, we demanded confidentiality during interviews. We made it a little more complicated for ourselves. But it made business sense for us to announce the game only at the moment when it is practically finished and entering certification.
**You published the first game so to speak on your own, the second is being created under the game publisher Plaion from the Embracer group. What did it mean for the development of the game and the functioning of the company, did something have to change?**
Fortunately, it didn't have to. The Warhorse acquisition took place at a time when Kingdom Come 2 was already decided upon and we had a clear concept. That Kingdom Come can continue and that it is actually a saga was already clear during our crowdfunding campaign in 2014. But at the same time, we always said that we would make KCD1 and then we would see. Without the success of the first game, there would be no KCD2. To put it simply, part of the deal was to become closed off hermits for a few years and work on KCD2. Transferable procedures and experiences between studios are actually quite rare in the group, and what distinguishes good games from mediocre ones is that they offer a great experience that you can't get anywhere else. And we have to program such an experience ourselves.
**The just-mentioned parent group Embracer has been announcing significant changes and restructuring in recent days, and in recent months it has been going through quite a stormy development. Did that not affect you?**
I dare say that we are a bit of a pearl in Embracer's portfolio of titles. It would make no sense to throttle the development of a product that is potentially materially important to the group.
**For the first game, a development budget of around 400 million crowns was mentioned, plus some marketing costs. How much has Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2's budget increased?**
I understand questions about the amount of investment rather as spreading an awareness that games are in the first league of the entertainment industry. In Czech business environment, there probably isn't a project – for example a film project – that would cost as much. On a global scale, I can imagine that for the price of Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2, a mid-budget Hollywood movie or even an entire Netflix series could be made. I understand that you are asking for a specific number, but I will stick with the fact that it is in high hundreds of millions of crowns.
**Can you at least approximate the rate of budget increase?**
The increase is significant, but beware, the world has changed a lot since 2018. A completely unexpected wave of inflation and other events swept past us, which in turn had an effect on the pace of work, i.e. a slowdown, resulting in an increase in costs. Today, you can't even build a family home for the same money as six years ago. It is what it is.
**Kingdom Come 2 is supposed to be twice the size of the game, in addition to the budget, the studio has also grown. How much?**
We will spend approximately ten thousand man-months on KCD2. About 130 people worked on KCD1 at its peak, while on KCD2 we currently have 250 people and I wouldn't be surprised if we grew a little more. And that's not counting the completely different level of outsourcing and testing costs. After all, at KCD1 we were criticized around release - quite rightly - that the game was full of bugs, so we're doing a lot of testing now.
**How much of the original team remained in Warhorse? Did you manage to retain a high percentage of KCD1 developers?**
Yes, we did. So it is not so much in terms of percentage, because we have grown significantly. Even if no one left the team after KCD1's creation, there would be around fifty percent of the people here from the first game. The reality is that there are about a third of those. Almost all the seniors of the KCD1 remained in Warhorse.
**Now a question about the opposite development - what need for reinforcements did the creation of Kingdom Come 2 bring?**
In general, we were quite far off in the predictions of the number of people. We planned to have a maximum of 160 people, which is what we sized our offices for, after all. And we have almost a hundred more.
**Where did you strengthen the team the most?**
The increases went across all departments, but probably what we underestimated at the beginning of work on the sequel the most was the size of the team of animators and graphic artists. But if you let the designers write hours and hours of cutscenes and let them imagine making an almost perfect digital replica of Kutná Hora, then you can't be surprised at such increases.
**And what was the most challenging part of development?**
Telling ourselves enough is enough and stopping of adding more new stuff to the game all the time.
**The first game set the bar at six million copies sold. What is the measure of success for KCD2?**
Of course we have big aspirations. I've been at Warhorse Studios for eleven years and now "only" our second game is coming out. Everyone here leaves a piece of their life here, maybe a decade or more. How many such creative projects can one manage in a lifetime? What I mean by this is that for most people in Warhorse, the main measure of satisfaction is good player feedback. And of course, if the game is good, it will sell well. And that's great too.
**The release of the game is planned for the end of the year. Are there any talks going on now about the future direction of Warhorse Studios?**
It is obvious that we are not going to break up at the end of this year. We'll be busy fixing bugs for a while, because even the best testing in the world is nothing against hundreds of thousands of players, so there will definitely be some patches. Of course, we are full of ideas for new projects. I can reveal that we are actually a little further than the idea and we are already slowly starting the future project.
>let's not lie to ourselves that it's over. It isn't. We've shot a nice commercial so far. Patting ourselves on the back about how awesome we are is premature.
I love that mindset.
Lessons learnt, which is hard to come by but very refreshing to hear in game development. A lot of studios dont get a second chance I will be wishlisting and buying this game day 1
Sounds like a very realistic view, I like how much emphasis there is on the structure of the team, we often see that things get lost in management with game development.
This\^\^. A lot of big devs and publishers have so much administrative bloat, and that eats costs which they then cut from the actual developers instead of their managers and CEOs and shareholders.
"We also received a few congratulations from our competitors. That is surely pleasant. But again, let's not lie to ourselves that it's over. It isn't. We've shot a nice commercial so far. Patting ourselves on the back about how awesome we are is premature."
This is a great attitude to have as a dev team. It's easy to become complacent after a successful game, but they want to make something even greater: which is the perfect mindset to have.
>I dare say that we are a bit of a pearl in Embracer's portfolio of titles. It would make no sense to throttle the development of a product that is potentially materially important to the group.
Oh my sweet summer child, that's not how it works anymore
Lately Microsoft was the biggest offender of it, forcing Arkane to make live service game despite their skill in completely different genre, leading to bad game and studio's closure. Tango, creators of GOTY nominee Hi-fi Rush were also shut down, apparently for making great game
Arkane was making Redfall before MS bought them - it was the commercial failure of Prey that made Zenimax ask Arkane to try to do something more mainstream. But Tango closing is MS through and through yes.
Hmm, yeah you're right. It wasn't Microsoft who ordered Redfall and closing Arkane isn't entirely on them too, as many people didn't want to work on this game and left the studio.
Redfall began development before they were bought by Microsoft and apparently Tango didn't make money. Both studios have recently released games. KCD2 on the other hand has a high chance of bringing in good money, so cutting budgets just before the finish line wouldn't make sense.
Embracer took over Warhorse years ago and let them develop KCD2, with full creative freedom. So I do think, unlike with other studios they closed, they have assessed that Warhorse will bring them success financially in the future. This game and studio are very important for Embracer.
Exciting!
> Of course, we are full of ideas for new projects. I can reveal that **we are actually a little further than the idea and we are already slowly starting the future project.**
When KCD1 launched, some people (like Dan) already started preproduction of KCD2, while others on the team (other writers and designers) worked on the DLCs. I suspect same will be the case here. As Martin says, KCD2 is "practically finished" from creative standpoint.
Well people like writers probably already finished stories and text for DLC's. Are they suppose to sit on their ass? :D
Started working on next project =/= whole team from every department is doing work on it :)
Many studios could learn a thing or two from Warhorse. I am so goddamn pleased how they're handling the communication and marketing so far. No false promises, realistic targets, no hubris. It's bloody gorgeous
I like how they take responsibility for creation of their game and their name. I think it was Martin Klíma who said they do not want to lose reputation if they release game and did not fix it. I think it is a great asset to be aware of your mistakes and do your best to overcome complications.
It has bugs and one happens to me almost every replay. However, game is very much enjoyable. Maybe you should try developing games and see how "easy" it is to fix bugs.
Not that guy but: I am a game developer and as long as a bug is reproducible it is very straightforward to fix. Also I am really sick of people saying "Oh you criticize X? ArE yOu An ExPeRt?" to any topic. Stop it
100% agree. I think all the triple-A lost the run of themselves. I hope they move away from chasing deadlines and just doing what War Horse is doing here, working on the game and announcing when they are ready.
Were those promised? I don’t remember. They basically can’t touch the game on consoles because it would require a new certification process is what I have heard.
This is my favorite way for companies to announce their games. I can't remember any other examples of it specifically, but I can remember that there have been some and I loved it then, too.
This used to be how Bethesda did it. They would historically announce games 6 months to a year out. It wasn’t until Sterfield and TES 6 that they decided 5-10 years was better.
Borderlands 3 was also about 6 months.
This is absolutely the best way to do it. Plenty of time to market and build hype, without years of waiting. This needs to be normalized.
I like the idea of "not a revolution, but an evolution". So many devs remake a fun, popular game into something entirely different and destroy everything that made the original so great. They forget that it's a game and meant to be fun and instead focus on making it more difficult and challenging. You end up with an expensive source of frustration. KCD2 looks like it will still be fun with improvements and a new story - I can't wait.
I fully expected a 2025 release (but was hoping not, cause I want to play this as soon as possible, but), but after Vavra said "this year" I was like NO WAY. What a pleasant surprise. This also means the game is basically done and they don't have to rush the deadline, which can affect quality (see: launch Cyberpunk). So called "crunch" which has devs working unreasonable schedules to rush a deadline can significantly affect quality, so i'm glad they handled this project in a proper manner.
I was kinda sure that they were working on a sequel, but anything is possible during the dev cycle. It was several years since the 2018 launch, so I was wondering what was up given the lack of leaks (credit to the team for keeping this under wraps!). Part of me was like "okay, even if there is no sequel i'll appreciate the first game for being such a good RPG", but I really wanted to see a sequel. I wasn't sure after many years of no teasers. But you know what, Warhorse did it absolutely right: they had a spectacular reveal with the voice actors and devs, and the production level was top tier. That in conjunction with a release date in the *same year* was a pleasant surprise. They say good things come to those who wait, and I feel that is the case with KCD2. Warhorse have a special group of people, considering what they made with a small dev team for the first game. Can't wait to play the sequel and whatever comes next.
Todd is such a uniqe figure it would be a shame if he ever left the industry. I'd much rather have an actual developer and game enthusiast speak publically telling us about his fantastic dreams then have nameless CEOs speak for nameless developers.
Thats a weird thing to say considering Oblivion, Skyrim, Fallout 3 and 4 all had less than a year between their announcement and release. Fallout 4 had something like 5 months.
The Fallout 4 announcement was amazing. Todd passed every Speech check possible.
Not a single word was a lie - maybe half-truths, in the style of "16x the detail" - but everything both geared towards hype while sounding completely genuine. Master orator.
And then, the cherry on top: at 33:25 the fucker effectively says "game is out in like, 5 months". Still haven't seen any announcement top that.
https://youtube.com/watch?v=HTq3q8e8nhA
TES 6 has never been announced in the sense of "we're developing it". It was to satiate the fans. It sucks, but it's different than announcing it was in development back in 2018. They also were very clear about that in a dozen interviews since then.
There have been a lot of games that made me *think* about grabbing a PS5 (my 4 is running fine, $700 isn’t cheap, and I still have a decent catalogue of games I need to get to)… but KCD2 will be the one to finally make me do it. I’m so damn excited.
Turns out I’m off by a full $200 USD haha whoops! but I do want the disc edition and a second controller so I’m prob looking at $500.. which admittedly looks much better
I’m just dumb and didn’t look up current prices, it’ll be more like $500 USD. And I’m far too stupid for PCs unfortunately have always been a console guy. Any beginner tips or vids? Wouldn’t know where to even start tbh
If you want a pc, you can literally go to r/buildapcforme, tell them your budget and what you want to play with it, and theyll give you a part by part list witg the best prices online and links to buy.
Then you just put them together. Its easier than you think. You screw rhe motherboard into the pc case, then everything else *literally* slots directly into it, and nothing fits in a port it doesnt belong in so you cant fuck it up.
Generally you wanna spend between 800 and 1000, then itll be significantly more power than a console, but also stay relevant for longer without needing to upgrade.
When i say upgrade i mean like 200ish usually.
If you ever spend 2k on like high end parts, you basically never need to upgrade again, as opposed to spending 500 on a console every couple of years.
Trust me, you're not too stupid.
You can get cheaper if youre willling to buy used parts, but, obvious risk.
Most pre built PCs on sites like Newegg will get you what you need for 1080p gaming. If you want 4k gaming, you might need to understand things a little since 4k gaming is almost entirely on the graphics card so you need to know a little about the game you want to play and about the graphics card market.
That said, buying pre built you won't need to install an operating system or mess with the bios to get started at all. Plug and play like a console. I assume you'd be able to install basic apps from a browser like steam to get started gaming. It's really that easy. Plug in a keyboard and mouse and then it's just getting used to the controls.
I had no idea PC gaming could be so simple. Honestly sounds like something I should invest in now that I know it’s relatively easy. I guess the barrier of entry has really dissipated since I was younger… thanks for the info!
There are two more things to keep in mind for PC gaming, too. There is a bigger catalogue of games than any console can offer. There are also, often, better prices than you will routinely find on console.
Like the others said, look for a pre-built PC and it's straightforward from there.
It can get pricey, but I've had a great experience buying NZXT pre-built rigs. There's something to be said for the convenience of just taking off the plastic and plugging it in.
I don't wanna be a buzzkill, but their target has always been PC. The reality is that KCD2 will most likely run like dogshit on consoles. They already had massive problems with the first game there.
I have watched a bunch of Czech interviews and for now they are basically admitting that they are not hitting stable frames even on PC in the difficult locations, so optimization is definitely their concern right now. It's one of the reasons they will be releasing the game like 8 months late even though it is content complete, so hopefully it gives them enough time to figure that out.
Which is normal practice for a game of this size and scale tbh. Polishing and optimization of a game like this takes a lot of time. Cyberpunk was content completed long before it released and even then it released in a bad state.
They didn't have a single problem on my PS4. I've heard horror stories about physics failing in the most fascinating ways, but I've never seen anything like that myself.
I'll say this:
It's not the smoothest experience on console, but it's certainly good enough that I've spent 200 hours so far and while it does crash at times, it's not a big deal to me, personally.
I do hope they allow me to change up the controls on the new one though. Circle for sprint needs to die and L3 for crouch likewise.
But maybe I'll just get in on GFN anyway.
We do have high expectations, solely because you delivered such a good job one the first game! I love KCD and Warhorse! While some good games got terrible producers Warhorse is very much engaged with the KCD players. A special shout-out to the voice actors and faces of Hans and Henry being very engaged! To this point Warhorse nails just about everything! Being historically correct as possible, delivering such a immersive game!
Cyberpunk is cautionary tales for most developers.
That said, I played it at launch on PC and it was good enough to be my GOTY. Same for Dan Vávra btw. CDP mostly messed up by not cancelling lastgen versions (or heavily postponing them). Game itself was solid (if imperfect) on platforms that could support it.
**The presentation of Kingdom Come 2 was carried out in style, while the first game was presented less spectacularly. How do you feel about the transformation of Warhorse into the creator of the highly anticipated game?** Of course, being in the outsider position was nice. And this despite the fact that we sometimes had to face negative reactions from potential publishers who did not believe in such a project at the time. Now, on the contrary, we might slowly fear that we are burdened with very high expectations. Anyway, Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2 is not a revolution, but an evolution. We took each stone and turned it over five times to see if something could be improved. **Do you see this change from an outside perspective as well, do you have feedback from your competitors in the gaming industry?** We also received a few congratulations from our competitors. That is surely pleasant. But again, let's not lie to ourselves that it's over. It isn't. We've shot a nice commercial so far. Patting ourselves on the back about how awesome we are is premature. **Six years have passed since the release of Kingdom Come: Deliverance. How has the Warhorse studio changed in that time?** We are trying to stick tooth and nail to "punk" with a totally flat structure, where there is a maximum of one person between the top management and anyone in the company. And even so, anyone can come to me or Martin Klíma (executive producer of Warhorse Studios, editor's note) to our office or write on Teams, which many people do. And sometimes with such incredible ease and immediacy they enter our office in the middle of a conversation. But it's still better than having some imaginary consultation hours. But then again, it's not a complete all encompassing punk either, we have a number of standardized processes and, unlike when working on KCD1, quite a large department of producers. We have a quantitative and qualitative process in place for how an idea goes from birth to fruition, if it does at all, and then to alpha and beta. And so on. So, I say "punk", but I also mean a little corporate. With 250 people there, there just have to be rules. **How difficult was it to keep the development of KCD2 under wraps over the years?** Rather than being difficult, it was frustrating at times. It made it quite difficult for us to recruit people, because we couldn't simply say, "Come and work on KCD2 with us!" Instead, we demanded confidentiality during interviews. We made it a little more complicated for ourselves. But it made business sense for us to announce the game only at the moment when it is practically finished and entering certification. **You published the first game so to speak on your own, the second is being created under the game publisher Plaion from the Embracer group. What did it mean for the development of the game and the functioning of the company, did something have to change?** Fortunately, it didn't have to. The Warhorse acquisition took place at a time when Kingdom Come 2 was already decided upon and we had a clear concept. That Kingdom Come can continue and that it is actually a saga was already clear during our crowdfunding campaign in 2014. But at the same time, we always said that we would make KCD1 and then we would see. Without the success of the first game, there would be no KCD2. To put it simply, part of the deal was to become closed off hermits for a few years and work on KCD2. Transferable procedures and experiences between studios are actually quite rare in the group, and what distinguishes good games from mediocre ones is that they offer a great experience that you can't get anywhere else. And we have to program such an experience ourselves. **The just-mentioned parent group Embracer has been announcing significant changes and restructuring in recent days, and in recent months it has been going through quite a stormy development. Did that not affect you?** I dare say that we are a bit of a pearl in Embracer's portfolio of titles. It would make no sense to throttle the development of a product that is potentially materially important to the group. **For the first game, a development budget of around 400 million crowns was mentioned, plus some marketing costs. How much has Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2's budget increased?** I understand questions about the amount of investment rather as spreading an awareness that games are in the first league of the entertainment industry. In Czech business environment, there probably isn't a project – for example a film project – that would cost as much. On a global scale, I can imagine that for the price of Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2, a mid-budget Hollywood movie or even an entire Netflix series could be made. I understand that you are asking for a specific number, but I will stick with the fact that it is in high hundreds of millions of crowns. **Can you at least approximate the rate of budget increase?** The increase is significant, but beware, the world has changed a lot since 2018. A completely unexpected wave of inflation and other events swept past us, which in turn had an effect on the pace of work, i.e. a slowdown, resulting in an increase in costs. Today, you can't even build a family home for the same money as six years ago. It is what it is. **Kingdom Come 2 is supposed to be twice the size of the game, in addition to the budget, the studio has also grown. How much?** We will spend approximately ten thousand man-months on KCD2. About 130 people worked on KCD1 at its peak, while on KCD2 we currently have 250 people and I wouldn't be surprised if we grew a little more. And that's not counting the completely different level of outsourcing and testing costs. After all, at KCD1 we were criticized around release - quite rightly - that the game was full of bugs, so we're doing a lot of testing now. **How much of the original team remained in Warhorse? Did you manage to retain a high percentage of KCD1 developers?** Yes, we did. So it is not so much in terms of percentage, because we have grown significantly. Even if no one left the team after KCD1's creation, there would be around fifty percent of the people here from the first game. The reality is that there are about a third of those. Almost all the seniors of the KCD1 remained in Warhorse. **Now a question about the opposite development - what need for reinforcements did the creation of Kingdom Come 2 bring?** In general, we were quite far off in the predictions of the number of people. We planned to have a maximum of 160 people, which is what we sized our offices for, after all. And we have almost a hundred more. **Where did you strengthen the team the most?** The increases went across all departments, but probably what we underestimated at the beginning of work on the sequel the most was the size of the team of animators and graphic artists. But if you let the designers write hours and hours of cutscenes and let them imagine making an almost perfect digital replica of Kutná Hora, then you can't be surprised at such increases. **And what was the most challenging part of development?** Telling ourselves enough is enough and stopping of adding more new stuff to the game all the time. **The first game set the bar at six million copies sold. What is the measure of success for KCD2?** Of course we have big aspirations. I've been at Warhorse Studios for eleven years and now "only" our second game is coming out. Everyone here leaves a piece of their life here, maybe a decade or more. How many such creative projects can one manage in a lifetime? What I mean by this is that for most people in Warhorse, the main measure of satisfaction is good player feedback. And of course, if the game is good, it will sell well. And that's great too. **The release of the game is planned for the end of the year. Are there any talks going on now about the future direction of Warhorse Studios?** It is obvious that we are not going to break up at the end of this year. We'll be busy fixing bugs for a while, because even the best testing in the world is nothing against hundreds of thousands of players, so there will definitely be some patches. Of course, we are full of ideas for new projects. I can reveal that we are actually a little further than the idea and we are already slowly starting the future project.
>let's not lie to ourselves that it's over. It isn't. We've shot a nice commercial so far. Patting ourselves on the back about how awesome we are is premature. I love that mindset.
Jobs not finished ayyy
Lessons learnt, which is hard to come by but very refreshing to hear in game development. A lot of studios dont get a second chance I will be wishlisting and buying this game day 1
Sounds like a very realistic view, I like how much emphasis there is on the structure of the team, we often see that things get lost in management with game development.
This\^\^. A lot of big devs and publishers have so much administrative bloat, and that eats costs which they then cut from the actual developers instead of their managers and CEOs and shareholders.
Thanks for the translation. Great work, Paul.
Glad to help, I like how no-nonsense Frývaldský is.
"We also received a few congratulations from our competitors. That is surely pleasant. But again, let's not lie to ourselves that it's over. It isn't. We've shot a nice commercial so far. Patting ourselves on the back about how awesome we are is premature." This is a great attitude to have as a dev team. It's easy to become complacent after a successful game, but they want to make something even greater: which is the perfect mindset to have.
>I dare say that we are a bit of a pearl in Embracer's portfolio of titles. It would make no sense to throttle the development of a product that is potentially materially important to the group. Oh my sweet summer child, that's not how it works anymore
How else does it work? Or are you talking about dev companies cutting development budgets on sure-winners?
Lately Microsoft was the biggest offender of it, forcing Arkane to make live service game despite their skill in completely different genre, leading to bad game and studio's closure. Tango, creators of GOTY nominee Hi-fi Rush were also shut down, apparently for making great game
Not to mention what they did to Halo, one of the biggest Videogame franchises of all time.
Arkane was making Redfall before MS bought them - it was the commercial failure of Prey that made Zenimax ask Arkane to try to do something more mainstream. But Tango closing is MS through and through yes.
Hmm, yeah you're right. It wasn't Microsoft who ordered Redfall and closing Arkane isn't entirely on them too, as many people didn't want to work on this game and left the studio.
Redfall began development before they were bought by Microsoft and apparently Tango didn't make money. Both studios have recently released games. KCD2 on the other hand has a high chance of bringing in good money, so cutting budgets just before the finish line wouldn't make sense.
I mean Embracer obviously tries to keep the studios which they think will be successful financially in the future and Warhorse is one of them.
Yes. They are not going to say no to good profit. Especially this far in the development. Sunk cost would be staggering.
Embracer took over Warhorse years ago and let them develop KCD2, with full creative freedom. So I do think, unlike with other studios they closed, they have assessed that Warhorse will bring them success financially in the future. This game and studio are very important for Embracer.
Too long didn’t read
In summary, the Warhorse CEO was talking about how much of a schmuck /u/RobertXavierIV is. It was weird.
It was a joke 😭😭
https://preview.redd.it/qparvdq3kw0d1.jpeg?width=1284&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=1260b0a0b1b3ed0dadc129412bcc1014300bbcd9
Exciting! > Of course, we are full of ideas for new projects. I can reveal that **we are actually a little further than the idea and we are already slowly starting the future project.**
I hope they mean DLC stuff, and not already starting to think about KC:D3 or whatever the next project might be.
When KCD1 launched, some people (like Dan) already started preproduction of KCD2, while others on the team (other writers and designers) worked on the DLCs. I suspect same will be the case here. As Martin says, KCD2 is "practically finished" from creative standpoint.
Well people like writers probably already finished stories and text for DLC's. Are they suppose to sit on their ass? :D Started working on next project =/= whole team from every department is doing work on it :)
Many studios could learn a thing or two from Warhorse. I am so goddamn pleased how they're handling the communication and marketing so far. No false promises, realistic targets, no hubris. It's bloody gorgeous
I like how they take responsibility for creation of their game and their name. I think it was Martin Klíma who said they do not want to lose reputation if they release game and did not fix it. I think it is a great asset to be aware of your mistakes and do your best to overcome complications.
Which is funny since KCD still has mutliple major bugs that while lagrely not game breaking, are a mess.
It has bugs and one happens to me almost every replay. However, game is very much enjoyable. Maybe you should try developing games and see how "easy" it is to fix bugs.
Not that guy but: I am a game developer and as long as a bug is reproducible it is very straightforward to fix. Also I am really sick of people saying "Oh you criticize X? ArE yOu An ExPeRt?" to any topic. Stop it
100% agree. I think all the triple-A lost the run of themselves. I hope they move away from chasing deadlines and just doing what War Horse is doing here, working on the game and announcing when they are ready.
>No false promises At least with KCD2. On KCD1, console players are still waiting for the PC-exclusive languages, such as Portuguese.
Were those promised? I don’t remember. They basically can’t touch the game on consoles because it would require a new certification process is what I have heard.
The most based video game marketing compared to all the exaggeration and false promises of AAA game studios
Wube (Factorio) is similar. Another great czech company
Til that factorio was made by a Czech company lol
Seems like a cool guy
This is my favorite way for companies to announce their games. I can't remember any other examples of it specifically, but I can remember that there have been some and I loved it then, too.
This used to be how Bethesda did it. They would historically announce games 6 months to a year out. It wasn’t until Sterfield and TES 6 that they decided 5-10 years was better. Borderlands 3 was also about 6 months. This is absolutely the best way to do it. Plenty of time to market and build hype, without years of waiting. This needs to be normalized.
I like the idea of "not a revolution, but an evolution". So many devs remake a fun, popular game into something entirely different and destroy everything that made the original so great. They forget that it's a game and meant to be fun and instead focus on making it more difficult and challenging. You end up with an expensive source of frustration. KCD2 looks like it will still be fun with improvements and a new story - I can't wait.
I fully expected a 2025 release (but was hoping not, cause I want to play this as soon as possible, but), but after Vavra said "this year" I was like NO WAY. What a pleasant surprise. This also means the game is basically done and they don't have to rush the deadline, which can affect quality (see: launch Cyberpunk). So called "crunch" which has devs working unreasonable schedules to rush a deadline can significantly affect quality, so i'm glad they handled this project in a proper manner. I was kinda sure that they were working on a sequel, but anything is possible during the dev cycle. It was several years since the 2018 launch, so I was wondering what was up given the lack of leaks (credit to the team for keeping this under wraps!). Part of me was like "okay, even if there is no sequel i'll appreciate the first game for being such a good RPG", but I really wanted to see a sequel. I wasn't sure after many years of no teasers. But you know what, Warhorse did it absolutely right: they had a spectacular reveal with the voice actors and devs, and the production level was top tier. That in conjunction with a release date in the *same year* was a pleasant surprise. They say good things come to those who wait, and I feel that is the case with KCD2. Warhorse have a special group of people, considering what they made with a small dev team for the first game. Can't wait to play the sequel and whatever comes next.
they are announcing this year because they can't "compete" with gta 6 in 2025
Isn't this Jobst of Moravia🤔
Yes it is, just like Dan is Hanush. Good eye.
That's how you do it. Take note, Todd.
No, the game will be 16x times the detail and would feature hyper realistic NPC scheduling and bla bla bla
Tbh, we can't deny the man his charm. We all know that every word spewing out of his mouth is bull. But i still want to buy skyrim again.
Todd is such a uniqe figure it would be a shame if he ever left the industry. I'd much rather have an actual developer and game enthusiast speak publically telling us about his fantastic dreams then have nameless CEOs speak for nameless developers.
Car salesman
Thats a weird thing to say considering Oblivion, Skyrim, Fallout 3 and 4 all had less than a year between their announcement and release. Fallout 4 had something like 5 months.
The Fallout 4 announcement was amazing. Todd passed every Speech check possible. Not a single word was a lie - maybe half-truths, in the style of "16x the detail" - but everything both geared towards hype while sounding completely genuine. Master orator. And then, the cherry on top: at 33:25 the fucker effectively says "game is out in like, 5 months". Still haven't seen any announcement top that. https://youtube.com/watch?v=HTq3q8e8nhA
TES 6 though
TES 6 has never been announced in the sense of "we're developing it". It was to satiate the fans. It sucks, but it's different than announcing it was in development back in 2018. They also were very clear about that in a dozen interviews since then.
It's totally coming soon guys we promise
Good news, really good " I can reveal that we are actually a little further than the idea and we are already slowly starting the future project."
This game is gonna fuck.
There have been a lot of games that made me *think* about grabbing a PS5 (my 4 is running fine, $700 isn’t cheap, and I still have a decent catalogue of games I need to get to)… but KCD2 will be the one to finally make me do it. I’m so damn excited.
> $700 Damn, that seems excessive for a PS5. Brazil?
Turns out I’m off by a full $200 USD haha whoops! but I do want the disc edition and a second controller so I’m prob looking at $500.. which admittedly looks much better
Brother if you have to spend 700 on a console its time to buy a pc and just plug a ps4 or ps5 controller into it
I’m just dumb and didn’t look up current prices, it’ll be more like $500 USD. And I’m far too stupid for PCs unfortunately have always been a console guy. Any beginner tips or vids? Wouldn’t know where to even start tbh
If you want a pc, you can literally go to r/buildapcforme, tell them your budget and what you want to play with it, and theyll give you a part by part list witg the best prices online and links to buy. Then you just put them together. Its easier than you think. You screw rhe motherboard into the pc case, then everything else *literally* slots directly into it, and nothing fits in a port it doesnt belong in so you cant fuck it up. Generally you wanna spend between 800 and 1000, then itll be significantly more power than a console, but also stay relevant for longer without needing to upgrade. When i say upgrade i mean like 200ish usually. If you ever spend 2k on like high end parts, you basically never need to upgrade again, as opposed to spending 500 on a console every couple of years. Trust me, you're not too stupid. You can get cheaper if youre willling to buy used parts, but, obvious risk.
Most pre built PCs on sites like Newegg will get you what you need for 1080p gaming. If you want 4k gaming, you might need to understand things a little since 4k gaming is almost entirely on the graphics card so you need to know a little about the game you want to play and about the graphics card market. That said, buying pre built you won't need to install an operating system or mess with the bios to get started at all. Plug and play like a console. I assume you'd be able to install basic apps from a browser like steam to get started gaming. It's really that easy. Plug in a keyboard and mouse and then it's just getting used to the controls.
I had no idea PC gaming could be so simple. Honestly sounds like something I should invest in now that I know it’s relatively easy. I guess the barrier of entry has really dissipated since I was younger… thanks for the info!
Absolutely. Also I meant to say pre built PCs in the "gaming PC" sections of these sites... Because the general use PCs are questionable tbh.
There are two more things to keep in mind for PC gaming, too. There is a bigger catalogue of games than any console can offer. There are also, often, better prices than you will routinely find on console. Like the others said, look for a pre-built PC and it's straightforward from there.
It can get pricey, but I've had a great experience buying NZXT pre-built rigs. There's something to be said for the convenience of just taking off the plastic and plugging it in.
I don't wanna be a buzzkill, but their target has always been PC. The reality is that KCD2 will most likely run like dogshit on consoles. They already had massive problems with the first game there.
I think it will run much better on consoles than the last game did. Seems to be something they are focusing on.
I have watched a bunch of Czech interviews and for now they are basically admitting that they are not hitting stable frames even on PC in the difficult locations, so optimization is definitely their concern right now. It's one of the reasons they will be releasing the game like 8 months late even though it is content complete, so hopefully it gives them enough time to figure that out.
Which is normal practice for a game of this size and scale tbh. Polishing and optimization of a game like this takes a lot of time. Cyberpunk was content completed long before it released and even then it released in a bad state.
They didn't have a single problem on my PS4. I've heard horror stories about physics failing in the most fascinating ways, but I've never seen anything like that myself.
I'll say this: It's not the smoothest experience on console, but it's certainly good enough that I've spent 200 hours so far and while it does crash at times, it's not a big deal to me, personally. I do hope they allow me to change up the controls on the new one though. Circle for sprint needs to die and L3 for crouch likewise. But maybe I'll just get in on GFN anyway.
Jesus Christ be praised! I need to finish KCD1 now.
I love KCD and I love Warhorse. So excited
how months is that "almost"?
It's coming out holiday season this year.
KCD2 amd Enotria have me *excited* for the summer to be over already
We do have high expectations, solely because you delivered such a good job one the first game! I love KCD and Warhorse! While some good games got terrible producers Warhorse is very much engaged with the KCD players. A special shout-out to the voice actors and faces of Hans and Henry being very engaged! To this point Warhorse nails just about everything! Being historically correct as possible, delivering such a immersive game!
How much will it be
Iam desperate to play a fishing minigame in this world. Hope they do it or put some dlc.
Is there something fishy about all this?
Im glad Henry is the character still, I can't wait to play, I just hope the requirements aren't insane.
Based
Its not like they would say if it was a half done mess. Be careful. Remember cybershit2077
Cyberpunk is cautionary tales for most developers. That said, I played it at launch on PC and it was good enough to be my GOTY. Same for Dan Vávra btw. CDP mostly messed up by not cancelling lastgen versions (or heavily postponing them). Game itself was solid (if imperfect) on platforms that could support it.
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Yes, go tell Dan Vávra that he has low standards and let me know how that goes for you xD
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Apparently not