KickStarter Kingdom Come: Deliverance - Dan Vavra's medieval chad simulator

[SlamDunk]

Getting closer, now...

Warhorse is gearing up for the marketing campaign: https://warhorsestudios.breezy.hr/p/cef0e1d8992e01-marketing-manager

Warhorse Studios is looking for a marketing manager who will work closely with both the top management of Warhorse Studios and our Koch Media team.

The Marketing Manager will be involved in key marketing and PR-related decisions and will design the overall marketing concept of the upcoming AAA game. The challenge is huge - we have sold over 4 million Kingdom Come: Deliverance and now we want to move the bar even higher! The key markets will be the USA, Germany and other EU countries.

 

[cvv]

Interesting, so what was wrong with Tobi, their very visible KCD marketing manager of yore? :D

Smejki is Tobi still with Warhorse?

 

[Alienman]

Too white, male, and not pink haired enough?

 

[SlamDunk]

Interesting, so what was wrong with Tobi, their very visible KCD marketing manager of yore? :D

Smejki is Tobi still with Warhorse?

 

[cvv]

Too white, male, and not pink haired enough?

He's very orange haired tho...

Oh.

 

[TheImplodingVoice]

Thought it might be of interest for the fans of the gaym - a new historical spectacle about the Hussite Wars, an event KCD is kindda setting the stage for. Jan Žižka was a famous rebel general from that era.

Absolutely no idea if there's any hope for this to be at least decent, I've learned of it literally rn. But it seems they've put a good bundle of money into this, even getting Ben Foster and Micheal Caine. I guess in the post-covid era and empty theaters any paycheck is a good paycheck, even for A-list actors.

Will it have Bohemian kangz and quanz ?

 

[MichaelB]

As much as I like the devs and their outlook, I find this game to be of 'questionable' quality. The combat system is complete trash; I remember when this game was announced, the discussions about the mocap they did, attempts to reproduce the stances and moves from historical material and so on... and with all of that, they did not bother to make sure that the core mechanic - the actual experience of fighting - was fun and engaging. And as you may expect - it's not, not at all. Beyond the issue of fighting multiple enemies, even against a single opponent the combat is nothing more than a little mini-game, that's frustrating when you're losing, but not satisfying at all when you're doing good. All that commitment to historical accuracy and the main weapon is the sword; unsurprisingly every hit you manage to land feels like poking your enemy with a stick - and even with mostly unarmored ones - has a similar result. It really is embarrassing how they've wasted all that work - a bit of realism would be a fantastic thing to supplement a combat system that's already fun as it is, but in this case they did the opposite, and attached a system of player input to the representation of realistic single combat maneuvers.

There's abundance of disappointing design decisions, though it's largely up to personal taste. Henry is a total wimp and not a protagonist I'd like to play as; the commitment to recreating actual city plans of the period makes locations very underwhelming - I would prefer a more grand design, and yes, I'm thinking of something like the lovely villages and forests of Witcher 3, as well as Novigrad. You could say that I'm philosophically opposed to using all the possibilities technology offers in order to project rustic ugliness and poverty; no matter how true to the period would that be. To be inspired by, or based on reality, does not necessarily mean abandoning a grand vision - but unfortunately, that's exactly what's happened here.

I'm happy for people who managed to have fun with this game- good for them, it is a long game, so lots of enjoyment to be had. To me it is an underwhelming attempt at best.

 

[onemananadhisdroid]

Getting closer, now...

Warhorse is gearing up for the marketing campaign: https://warhorsestudios.breezy.hr/p/cef0e1d8992e01-marketing-manager

Warhorse Studios is looking for a marketing manager who will work closely with both the top management of Warhorse Studios and our Koch Media team.

The Marketing Manager will be involved in key marketing and PR-related decisions and will design the overall marketing concept of the upcoming AAA game. The challenge is huge - we have sold over 4 million Kingdom Come: Deliverance and now we want to move the bar even higher! The key markets will be the USA, Germany and other EU countries.

Sounds like another developer who didn't get the message that it isn't the AAA blockbuster market missing titles; it is the gap in between the indie and the blockbuster that's lacking (in particular as to RPGs) -- a gap which KCD had exploited quite successfully.

I just hope the inevitable "potato landscapes", excessive hand-holding and quests witcher sensing themselves will actually stay optional, as KCD was special in that regard -- but with the bar now to be raised higher, who knows.

 

[Valdetiosi]

There are mods that supposedly fix the combat, but i am not sure i want to trust some autists with that. Anyone here got some experience with any of those?

Better Combat and Immersion Compilation does, in better or worse terms, makes it so that only way for you or enemy to counter is to mirror your weapon positions. On plus side, combos are more efficient to do. On negative, master strikes are harder to make.

As for fighting multiple opponents? Kite. That's what I would do irl. Or sic doc at one, evening the odds is important after all.

 

[Alienman]

Making master strike harder to make sounds like a positive to me.

 

[V17]

There's abundance of disappointing design decisions, though it's largely up to personal taste. Henry is a total wimp and not a protagonist I'd like to play as; the commitment to recreating actual city plans of the period makes locations very underwhelming - I would prefer a more grand design, and yes, I'm thinking of something like the lovely villages and forests of Witcher 3, as well as Novigrad. You could say that I'm philosophically opposed to using all the possibilities technology offers in order to project rustic ugliness and poverty; no matter how true to the period would that be. To be inspired by, or based on reality, does not necessarily mean abandoning a grand vision - but unfortunately, that's exactly what's happened here.

I agree with the combat criticisms, some of the compromises taken were a bit strange and hopefully the system will be better in KC2, but with the rest I couldn't disagree more. Henry is a total wimp only in the beginning of the game and becomes a tank later on. As for the recreation of the setting, that's one of the things I liked about the game the most. Completely unique and for me personally tremendously enjoyable. They did take some liberties with the layout too, for example I'm pretty sure that Rattay is slightly enlarged (and flattened) in the game - I've been to the real place last month and I was surprised at how small it is.

Sounds like another developer who didn't get the message that it isn't the AAA blockbuster market missing titles; it is the gap in between the indie and the blockbuster that's lacking (in particular as to RPGs) -- a gap which KCD had exploited quite successfully.

I'm not sure if you could call KCD an AA game. The budget was officially 36 mil USD, which is less than half of what Skyrim or Witcher 3 costed to make, but it's still a lot and they had over 100 employees for a large part of the development period. Both is imo a lot more than most AA games have.
I think the reason why KC is special is that they managed to circumvent normal publishers and get private investment from outside of the gaming scene with relative creative liberty. Now that they were bought out I'm not sure if that can be repeated.

 

[Funposter]

The combat is good and fun. Maybe you guys are just bad at the game.

 

[Rincewind]

I think the reason why KC is special is that they managed to circumvent normal publishers and get private investment from outside of the gaming scene with relative creative liberty. Now that they were bought out I'm not sure if that can be repeated.

Yeah, the only way to make something of value. I've been seeing investors fucking around with companies they gave money to in the last decade and while I understand that they just want a return, I don't like what I'm seeing... The only way to maintain your integrity is to stay 100% independent, well or maybe get a loan from the bank, but not from people who willl tell you what to do, want to play it safe, etc.

That's for an example a huge and often overlooked advantage pure text adventures and books have. Nobody will meddle with your stuff, you can pretty much do anything and keep it a single-person project. Even making an illustrated text adventure doesn't cost much, you just need to find a good artist compatible with your tastes and views.

 

[Smejki]

Interesting, so what was wrong with Tobi, their very visible KCD marketing manager of yore? :D

Smejki is Tobi still with Warhorse?

Tobi still on board. JR is leaving.

 

[onemananadhisdroid]

Sounds like another developer who didn't get the message that it isn't the AAA blockbuster market missing titles; it is the gap in between the indie and the blockbuster that's lacking (in particular as to RPGs) -- a gap which KCD had exploited quite successfully.

I'm not sure if you could call KCD an AA game. The budget was officially 36 mil USD, which is less than half of what Skyrim or Witcher 3 costed to make, but it's still a lot and they had over 100 employees for a large part of the development period. Both is imo a lot more than most AA games have.
I think the reason why KC is special is that they managed to circumvent normal publishers and get private investment from outside of the gaming scene with relative creative liberty. Now that they were bought out I'm not sure if that can be repeated.

Yeah I'm not strictly talking a budget perspective as such -- in AAA, the sky's the limit anyways (from still "relatively" modest 20-30 million to hundreds of million of Dollars).

But rather what's explicitly stated on their website. Their aim and priority according to this is to further expand their audience, just like all the blockbuster studios out there. In theory, this is a never ending quest.

This may be wishful thinking, but if you ask me, one of the reasons KCD succeeded is that there aren't a whole lot of interesting games, in particular RPGs, that still put somewhat of a trust into the player, whilst not looking as if they could have been made 20-25 years ago (to put it in a polemic way).

If they "streamline" much of what made KCD special just to appeal to an even larger crowd, they may lose not only all their unique selling points (to put it in marketing speech) -- but even Warhorse as a sort of statement on "modern games design".

 

[Jenkem]

Getting closer, now...

Warhorse is gearing up for the marketing campaign: https://warhorsestudios.breezy.hr/p/cef0e1d8992e01-marketing-manager

can't wait to hear about KCD deodorant... will it be a roll-on, a stick or a spray? or maybe even multiple product lines???

so exciting!

 

[HoboForEternity]

Baseless or might be true?

 

[SlamDunk]

I'm not watching that video since I can't stand that faggot's voice.

 

[cvv]

 

[SlamDunk]

Spotted this on Reddit: https://www.spotlight.com/1970-0162-7162

Click on the 'Further' tab and there's this ('Date' refers to recording date):

EDIT: KC2 information got removed from that page.

 

[cvv]

I'm not watching that video since I can't stand that faggot's voice.

He's saying that at the end of the Jan Žižka teaser there's a message "Also as a videogame for consoles and PC".

And the director of the movie is the dude Runt is modelled after.

And Dan Vavra has a minor role in the movie.

And Žižka died near Rattay.

From that he concludes KC2 is the videogame companion to the Jan Žižka film.

Um...sounds like bullshit. Looks like the film is taking place about 20 years earlier than even KC1. Whatever, let's wait and see.

 

[cvv]

Spotted this on Reddit: https://www.spotlight.com/1970-0162-7162

Click on the 'Further' tab and there's this ('Date' refers to recording date):

Haha, they do need that PR manager double time.

Poor Richard will be probably fined for this.

 

[SlamDunk]

I'm not watching that video since I can't stand that faggot's voice.

He's saying that at the end of the Jan Žižka teaser there's a message "Also as a videogame for consoles and PC".

And the director of the movie is the dude Runt is modelled after.

And Dan Vavra has a minor role in the movie.

And Žižka died near Rattay.

From that he concludes KC2 is the videogame companion to the Jan Žižka film.

Jákl's feature film about Jan Žižek will be complemented by two games. The mobile AR title will complement the ambitious 3rd person action for PCs and new consoles. No, this is not KCD 2 https://www.vortex.cz/jakluv-velkofilm-o-janu-zizkovi-doplni-dve-hry/

From the article:

 

[cvv]

Action adventure? So a Tomb Raider/Uncharted kindda thing?

 

[MichaelB]

I agree with the combat criticisms, some of the compromises taken were a bit strange and hopefully the system will be better in KC2, but with the rest I couldn't disagree more. [... ]As for the recreation of the setting, that's one of the things I liked about the game the most. Completely unique and for me personally tremendously enjoyable. They did take some liberties with the layout too, for example I'm pretty sure that Rattay is slightly enlarged (and flattened) in the game - I've been to the real place last month and I was surprised at how small it is.

Fair point. As I said it's up to personal taste and I suspected that there would be people that'd find it enjoyable exactly because of that approach. To me it falls short, and that just underlines how few games in a somewhat believable medieval settings we have; if there were more, then I'd likely find myself expecting nothing from KC. I was aware that the criticism of the combat system is the most objective one. Another one would be about pacing - the intro is acceptable, but it plays quite literally like a sony moviegame, which runs contrary to the game's core design; the game is something like a 50h long open world experience, and that was prefaced with an on-rails 4h long sequence, God knows why.

. They did take some liberties with the layout too, for example I'm pretty sure that Rattay is slightly enlarged (and flattened) in the game - I've been to the real place last month and I was surprised at how small it is.

Yeah, that's not the level of deviation from source material I was referring to, obviously. It's curious to know that you've visited the actual place though. But anyway, the art from CK3 depicts something more to my liking:

Spoiler

This: The Game would be a preferable experience to me. Parts of AC: Odyssey look close to this, so it's not like its a technical impossibility. But yeah, to sit on all that processing power and end up with this:

Spoiler

I will always view as a bit of a disappointment, no matter how many other people enjoy it. I mean.. there's certain charm to it, but come on...

Henry is a total wimp only in the beginning of the game and becomes a tank later on.

Yeah, I meant it more in a sense: he is not a cool guy. I very much have a kind of a boyish expectation that I'll be playing as someone cool, like, say, Venom Snake(at least at the beginning of the game). Instead Henry is just some dude. In this case I'd probably want to be a charismatic, good looking knight from the start, or some kind of an outlaw with a complex backstory; which again runs contrary to the design decisions, which is why I don't like the game.