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Tags: Alexander Mishulin; Chris Avellone; Owlcat Games; Pathfinder: Kingmaker
Another game that was at Gamescom last week was Owlcat Games' Pathfinder: Kingmaker. Thanks to Owlcat's partnership with German publishing label Deep Silver, Kingmaker got to appear on Gamescom's main stage alongside the likes of Cyberpunk 2077, presented by creative director Alexander Mishulin. Unfortunately every word he said was repeated in German by the host, making the stream annoying to watch, but it does offer a good look at the game's kingdom management system.
Kingmaker has gotten a couple of previews as well. The more interesting of these is at GamesRadar+, whose reporter got a look at the game in a private session with Mishulin and Chris Avellone. Here's an excerpt from his report:
Having never played the original tabletop game myself, I asked Mishulin to explain what makes it stand out from other fantasy RPGs. "It's a world filled with very interesting subsettings that somehow connect together," he says. "It allows you to transition from being in standard medieval fantasy, to go to France in the Renaissance period, then go fight some mummies, then explore a spaceship. It's very crazy. The [video] game is focused on one Adventure Path that's more contained and just references some of this stuff - but when you're playing on the table, you can experience a lot of different things in one fantasy."
Even in my short time with the Kingmaker demo, it was immediately clear that it'll please anyone who's enjoying the recent Western RPG renaissance. The isometric view gives you a good sense of the action, as you position your custom hero and AI companions during the real-time combat, which can be paused at any time so you can plot out your preferred tactics. Dice rolls happen behind the scenes to determine your prowess in a fight, or when performing actions in the world like defusing traps (something I failed to do during one attempt, resulting in a mist of poison gas enveloping my poor party). It instantly evokes classic PC RPGs like Baldur's Gate, Fallout 2, and Planescape: Torment - all of which just so happen to be part of Avellone's prolific body of narrative and design work.
Avellone also worked on more recent hits like Pillars of Eternity, Into the Breach, and Arkane Studios' Prey, along with the upcoming Dying Light 2 - but Pathfinder: Kingmaker presented a chance to expand the story of a tabletop game he knows and loves. "We did want to include some of the classic Pathfinder characters, so Amiri can actually join your party, and you can have a storyline quest arc with her," he says. "We didn't have to do any of that, but we thought it'd be a cool way to integrate both the pen-and-paper version and the computer game version. Players familiar with Pathfinder can say 'Oh wow, we recognize Amiri from the books! Now we can journey with her in the party.'"
But this isn't a one-to-one recreation of the original Adventure Path, and Kingmaker explores plenty that goes beyond the book. "Any changes or alterations - 'Hey, we'd like to add this, or we're thinking about taking this character in this direction' - we just talked it over with Paizo, and they were pretty cool," says Avellone. "I think it just helped knowing a lot about Pathfinder in the first place, because that meant that a lot of our suggestions [garnered a response like] 'Oh, we see where you're going with that, and because you understand the universe, that proposal makes a lot of sense to us.'" If you're a Pathfinder veteran, you'll be pleased to know that Kingmaker includes extensive character customization (complete with classic alignment matrix of Lawful/Neutral/Chaotic and Good/Neutral/Evil), 145 locations, 100 monster types, and all the races from the core game (plus the Aasimar for good measure).
In one small sidequest, I attempted to resolve a dispute between a group of cantankerous kobolds and curmudgeonly mites. I tried and failed to solve the conflict peacefully, but you can choose a side, stay out of the feud entirely, or investigate further to find out what started the hostilities. All the while, your companions (with 11 available in all) chime in with suggestions that you can heed or ignore. "Companions really like to insert themselves into dialogue and provide their own opinion on what's happening," says Mishulin. As you grow more and more attached to your companions, you can adjust the incredibly detailed difficulty settings to determine how much peril they might be in. There's the option to have fallen companions pop back up after combat, or those who want a challenge can set it so that they're sent back to heal at home base if they're defeated a second time.
Speaking of home base, your kingdom in Kingmaker is as much a part of your roleplaying as the whole 'explore dungeons, kill monsters, and chat with NPCs' part. You start as the leader of a small barony, but over time will make choices that expand your territory until you're calling the shots in an expansive empire. You can build structures that'll affect your kingdom's stats, or just go into automation mode if you're not a fan of city management and just want to focus on the story. No matter how you choose to rule your domain, there will be constant threats from the outside world - like invading hordes of fireproof trolls, for instance - that you'll need to deal with, lest your 'Unrest' meter tip from stable, to riots, to crumbling. "If you go beyond crumbling, [those forces] will destroy your kingdom, and the story will be over - because your story is really tied to the story of the kingdom," explains Mishulin. "Some [threats] are more time-pressing, some less, but you're always get several warnings, like 'In two months, they will swarm us - do something, please!'"
Executive decisions regarding politics and infrastructure are also a big part of how you rule. You'll have the chance to negotiate with other baronies or vie for territory in the Stolen Lands, all of which come with tradeoffs for economic stability or diplomatic relations. None of it is colored by explicit morality: "There is no good or bad... it's up to you to decide what is really needed at the moment," says Mishulin.
You'll also have to make some hard calls along the way. "You can't do everything by yourself," says Avellone. "Where do you deploy the guards? Do you secure trade routes, or villages? Those are choices that you make, and then the results of those have different consequences for the economy, for unrest... It's not all just 'I'm going to go find the main dungeon and kill them all.' There are other things you have to manage as well."
The other preview of Kingmaker is at PC Gamer, who don't seem to have gotten access to the developers. It doesn't cover the kingdom management but has more information about the the regular content and mechanics. The writer dislikes the game's RTwP combat, but I'm not sure I trust his opinion. Read the article and you'll understand.
Another game that was at Gamescom last week was Owlcat Games' Pathfinder: Kingmaker. Thanks to Owlcat's partnership with German publishing label Deep Silver, Kingmaker got to appear on Gamescom's main stage alongside the likes of Cyberpunk 2077, presented by creative director Alexander Mishulin. Unfortunately every word he said was repeated in German by the host, making the stream annoying to watch, but it does offer a good look at the game's kingdom management system.
Kingmaker has gotten a couple of previews as well. The more interesting of these is at GamesRadar+, whose reporter got a look at the game in a private session with Mishulin and Chris Avellone. Here's an excerpt from his report:
Having never played the original tabletop game myself, I asked Mishulin to explain what makes it stand out from other fantasy RPGs. "It's a world filled with very interesting subsettings that somehow connect together," he says. "It allows you to transition from being in standard medieval fantasy, to go to France in the Renaissance period, then go fight some mummies, then explore a spaceship. It's very crazy. The [video] game is focused on one Adventure Path that's more contained and just references some of this stuff - but when you're playing on the table, you can experience a lot of different things in one fantasy."
Even in my short time with the Kingmaker demo, it was immediately clear that it'll please anyone who's enjoying the recent Western RPG renaissance. The isometric view gives you a good sense of the action, as you position your custom hero and AI companions during the real-time combat, which can be paused at any time so you can plot out your preferred tactics. Dice rolls happen behind the scenes to determine your prowess in a fight, or when performing actions in the world like defusing traps (something I failed to do during one attempt, resulting in a mist of poison gas enveloping my poor party). It instantly evokes classic PC RPGs like Baldur's Gate, Fallout 2, and Planescape: Torment - all of which just so happen to be part of Avellone's prolific body of narrative and design work.
Avellone also worked on more recent hits like Pillars of Eternity, Into the Breach, and Arkane Studios' Prey, along with the upcoming Dying Light 2 - but Pathfinder: Kingmaker presented a chance to expand the story of a tabletop game he knows and loves. "We did want to include some of the classic Pathfinder characters, so Amiri can actually join your party, and you can have a storyline quest arc with her," he says. "We didn't have to do any of that, but we thought it'd be a cool way to integrate both the pen-and-paper version and the computer game version. Players familiar with Pathfinder can say 'Oh wow, we recognize Amiri from the books! Now we can journey with her in the party.'"
But this isn't a one-to-one recreation of the original Adventure Path, and Kingmaker explores plenty that goes beyond the book. "Any changes or alterations - 'Hey, we'd like to add this, or we're thinking about taking this character in this direction' - we just talked it over with Paizo, and they were pretty cool," says Avellone. "I think it just helped knowing a lot about Pathfinder in the first place, because that meant that a lot of our suggestions [garnered a response like] 'Oh, we see where you're going with that, and because you understand the universe, that proposal makes a lot of sense to us.'" If you're a Pathfinder veteran, you'll be pleased to know that Kingmaker includes extensive character customization (complete with classic alignment matrix of Lawful/Neutral/Chaotic and Good/Neutral/Evil), 145 locations, 100 monster types, and all the races from the core game (plus the Aasimar for good measure).
In one small sidequest, I attempted to resolve a dispute between a group of cantankerous kobolds and curmudgeonly mites. I tried and failed to solve the conflict peacefully, but you can choose a side, stay out of the feud entirely, or investigate further to find out what started the hostilities. All the while, your companions (with 11 available in all) chime in with suggestions that you can heed or ignore. "Companions really like to insert themselves into dialogue and provide their own opinion on what's happening," says Mishulin. As you grow more and more attached to your companions, you can adjust the incredibly detailed difficulty settings to determine how much peril they might be in. There's the option to have fallen companions pop back up after combat, or those who want a challenge can set it so that they're sent back to heal at home base if they're defeated a second time.
Speaking of home base, your kingdom in Kingmaker is as much a part of your roleplaying as the whole 'explore dungeons, kill monsters, and chat with NPCs' part. You start as the leader of a small barony, but over time will make choices that expand your territory until you're calling the shots in an expansive empire. You can build structures that'll affect your kingdom's stats, or just go into automation mode if you're not a fan of city management and just want to focus on the story. No matter how you choose to rule your domain, there will be constant threats from the outside world - like invading hordes of fireproof trolls, for instance - that you'll need to deal with, lest your 'Unrest' meter tip from stable, to riots, to crumbling. "If you go beyond crumbling, [those forces] will destroy your kingdom, and the story will be over - because your story is really tied to the story of the kingdom," explains Mishulin. "Some [threats] are more time-pressing, some less, but you're always get several warnings, like 'In two months, they will swarm us - do something, please!'"
Executive decisions regarding politics and infrastructure are also a big part of how you rule. You'll have the chance to negotiate with other baronies or vie for territory in the Stolen Lands, all of which come with tradeoffs for economic stability or diplomatic relations. None of it is colored by explicit morality: "There is no good or bad... it's up to you to decide what is really needed at the moment," says Mishulin.
You'll also have to make some hard calls along the way. "You can't do everything by yourself," says Avellone. "Where do you deploy the guards? Do you secure trade routes, or villages? Those are choices that you make, and then the results of those have different consequences for the economy, for unrest... It's not all just 'I'm going to go find the main dungeon and kill them all.' There are other things you have to manage as well."
