Warhorse Studios Weekly Torch

[DrFusselpulli]

David Horák has known the people around Kingdom Come: Deliverance for a long time now, even before Warhorse Studios was founded, but he did not join the team until 2015 and became one of our designers who worked on the quests and story.
He was born in Prague and grew up in its outskirts. Do you have any questions to David Horák and his job as a designer? Don´t worry, you can ask community questions right here.
You can find a Spanish translation of this interview here.

1) Where can we usually find you lurking in the holy halls of Warhorse?
At the very end in our designers lair.

2) How did you hear about Warhorse?
Actually, I was on first meeting between Dan Vávra and Martin Klíma, when a historically accurate RPG was just an idea in Dan’s head. But I was not on board from the start, I joined the team 2 years ago.

3) Why did you choose to work on Kingdom Come: Deliverance?
Because it is the best job ever!

4) Describe your position. What is it about being a designer?
I have a little different position on KCD than on a Mafia game, where I wrote quests. My first part of work on KCD is reviewing quests and all texts from other designers and feedbacking them (this part is almost done), and the second part is writing shouts and barks for NPCs and Henry for every possible situations (I hope this part is done too).

5) Have you ever worked on a videogame before?
I had a part-time job for Illusion Softworks at the beginning of my game dev career, and then a full-time job in Illusion Softworks, which was later bought by 2K and renamed as 2K Czech a few years later. I worked as one of the designer on Mafia 2 under Dan´s lead and I wrote a script for budget game Chameleon. And, of course, I had a lot of other different jobs, too.

6) Which job would you not want to do?
Whatever job in a corporate company. I tried it a few times and it did not work for me.

7) Please describe Warhorse Studios:
I am amazed by all the talent here every time I walk through our offices, by the creative and passionate people I have the privilege to work with. And in the back of my head I always think: “Omg, what am I doing here with my poor skills…?”

8) Describe your usual day at the studio?
Coffee, reading some text, coffee, writing some text, coffee, and again coffee. Yeah, it sounds boring, but it is fun… Did I mention coffee?

9) What are you currently working on?
I am reviewing Henry´s diary entries, which will reflect on how the player goes through the game and which highlights all his choices and what they caused later on. So, in case you hate Henry’s diary, you know who is responsible: I am.

10) What are some of your notable accomplishments?
I wrote around 20 different versions of a bark: “Please, don´t kill me!” It was very painful.

11) What is the most important characteristic a designer must have?
Simply the constant awareness of the very basic rule: think what a player could do in each moment, because no matter how obvious you make it, often what you want them to do is the exact opposite of what they will actually do. And be aware of memes having power in game writing: “arrow to the knee”!

12) What do you like the most about Kingdom Come: Deliverance?
Except everything? Sound for sure. Our sound department composed outstanding music and mixed awesome sound effects.

13) Who´s your favorite character from Kingdom Come: Deliverance and why?
Cumans. We wrote a few funny situations and dialogues or just one liners in their language, so if you happen to be Hungarian, you’ll have a blast.

14) What is, according to you, the best thing you designed for the game?
The crime system (in collaboration with Martin Ziegler) - it is possibly the most branching dialogue tree in the game.

15) How, when and with what platform or game did you first get acquainted with videogames?
It was possibly Jumping Jack on ZX Spectrum. Pure history. From this time I draw 8x8 and 16x16 pixel art of various heroes for imaginary games.

16) What was your most touching video game moment?
This will be the most selfish answer ever: a reaction by one player of Mafia 2. She screwed up my quest when Vito Scaletta (M2 hero) kills Tommy Angelo (M1 hero) 3 times in a row because she always started to cry. Then I knew that the quest works as I intended!

17) Which videogame character or figure is the best?
Lemmings. I even dreamed about those little unstoppable bastards.

18) Which class, gender, or type do you usually pick?
Because I don´t enjoy looking at male butts, I rather chose a female characters in third-person games. In combination with most underestimated classes, because it is challenging.

19) What would a perfect game according to your wishes look like?
“Geez, is it 3am now!?”

20) How do you relax after a hard day at work?
Going to the cinema with friends, watching movies and TV series on Netflix, playing games, grabbing a beer in a pub, and sometimes home improving.

21) If you weren´t a designer, what do you think you would be doing?
Comics letterer, as I did before Warhorse. Second best job in the world!

22) Your favorite music playlist
Nine Inch Nails is my long-term favorite band, I was on all of their concerts here in the Czech Republic and in nearby countries. And I found few new great bands like Rabbit Junk, 16Volt and to me, the very entertaining Ubiquitous Synergy Seeker from Canada.

23) Your favorite movie or book?
Ugh, I have a looong list. Started with Blade Runner, Alien(s), Princess Mononoke and on the writers side I’ll go with Dashiell Hammett, Raymond Chandler, Richard Stark, etc.

24) What species is your spirit animal?
Sloth apparently…

25) Your travel tip?
I really love Prague, but I highly recommend Znojemské vinobraní. It is great celebration of the end of harvest. Everybody in the wonderful city Znojmo prepares for this event during the whole year. There is a huge historical parade based on a 14th century visit by king Jan Lucemburský with his wife Eliška, there are a lot of concerts, knight tournaments, shops with handmade wares and great fireworks at the end. And unlimited amounts of tasty young wine at every corner. Czech it out!

26) What’s your guilty pleasure?
Walking in Prague.

27) What was your greatest mistake?
In the games on my mind: I didn´t read the script for Chameleon half a year later again, which I should have done. There are a few dialogues that could have been much better. It is my big fault and I apologize deeply to all my coworkers on this project.

28) What will be your famous last words?
beeeeep!

29) Is it possible to buy you with candy?
No. But “please” works quite well on me.

30) What is your kryptonite?
Home cleaning. I will be the first guy in the world who will install any new system, which on simple button press cleans the whole flat with a bunch of showers and, hopefully, it will get dry before I get back from work. I hope somebody is already working on that.

31) Who is your favorite historic character?
Nicola Tesla. His inventions really changed the world, even though lots of them will never be known to the world.

32) Which is your favorite historic event?
Velvet revolution… Freedom!

33) You have to fight in medieval times… who are you? Which weapon do you choose?
I want to be the man with the boomstick.

34) Knights or Samurai?
Knights. I think seppuku is bad for guts.

35) What was your favorite subject and your most hated one at school? What were your grades in history?
I loved math and literature. And I hated chemistry and surprisingly history – those damn dates!

36) If you could say something to the fans of Kingdom Come: Deliverance, what would it be?
I think nobody mentioned it here, but the game is improving every single day, it is far away from the beta version now. Of course, a lot of things still don´t work well, but it is great to see something being polished – even for me. We are working very hard on the game and I hope you will like the result.

Do you want to know more about David Horák and his job as a designer? You can ask your questions here.

[DrFusselpulli]

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[DrFusselpulli]

Daniel Mikeš joined Warhorse Studios in May 2015, after he finished university here in Prague, his home town. As a technical designer he is responsible for bringing the work from the other departments together, in his case with a strong focus on the quest system.
Do you have any additional questions about him or his position here at Warhorse? Please ask here

1) Where can we usually find you lurking in the holy halls of Warhorse?
There are days when you have to spend most of your time visiting your colleagues at a tour de Warhorse. But sometimes you get lucky enough and you can spend all your day at your workspace.
And when there is a crunch and things get heavy, I’m underneath the pile of sticky notes.
You can find a Spanish translation of this interview here.

2) How did you hear about Warhorse?
I first heard about Warhorse during the Kickstarter campaign. A few hours later I became a proud backer of KC:D.
Then I had to ensure that I would get the best results for my invested money! After I finished my last year at the university I had decided to join the team.

3) What is your favorite team activity?
It is without a doubt the closing ceremony of our daily scrum routine!

4) What are you currently working on?
The good thing about working at the script department is that there will always be something to work on. You can choose from many different parts of the game. After you finish working on a quest you can return to the horse script maintenance or just fix the broken door. That`s what I do.

5) What is the most important characteristic a technical designer must have?
Before I had joined the team, I always thought that what only matters are the technical skills. Since then I have learned that the communication skills are also very important. So choose your talent points wisely!

6) What was your most touching video game moment?
I was playing this German RPG Drakensang. I was wandering through the harbor and I met a sailor.
He said that he will sell you his ship for one million gold pieces, which is really a lot in the game. On the other hand, you walk the entire game on foot and you see this amazing longboat. So, I just knew I need it!
Sometimes when I play an RPG I tend to grind. I always gather my gold and don’t spend it on potions which I don’t need.
This time I didn’t pay much attention to the main quest and instead I stole goods from every NPC in the town and sold all the loot to just buy the ship.
I_n the end, I had finally gathered one million, thinking that there will be some hidden minigame. It turned out to be a scam, the sailor sold me his other ship - a tiny half broken boat which was not interactive at all._
Retrospectively, I have enjoyed the gold hunt more than any other guest in the game because I was looking forward to this great reward.

7) Which class, gender, or type do you usually pick?
I usually pick sorcerers, but I’m kind of tired of all the same fire magic spells. Rogue would be my second pick.
…And I will not discuss the gender of my avatars any further.

8) Are there any videogames you repeat playing over and over again?
I always return to Might and Magic 7. Its feels like returning home from a vacation. Sometimes I feel I know Erathia better than Prague.

9) What would a perfect game according to your wishes look like?
The main feature of the game would be… Oh, nice try. I almost told you the game design of my secret personal project!

10) Which videogame character or figure is the best?
I always admired Edwin from Baldur´s Gate. He is intelligent, funny and evil.

11) Which videogame character are you?
I’m the face of Mathew from Skalitz. He might not be the sharpest tool in the shed, he is not even a nice person, but that doesn’t mean you should kill him, right?

12) How do you relax after a hard day at work?
Recently I started watching documents with David Attenborough. Even the Hulk could relax with it and he would still learn a thing or two.

13) A personal story you would like to share?
There are many ways to play a MMO.
I was always the one who did these small conservative steps – the same dungeon for a long time with a stable experience and the average drop to earn enough to buy some persistent equip.
My brother had a different approach. He invested his gold into mana potions in order to visit a high level dungeon with a low-chance drop of a unique artifact.
In the end, it´s not about the game you choose.
Today, my brother has an amazing wife and two little kids. The lesson is: don’t save on potions…

14) Your favorite movie?
I update my favorite movie every ten years. So far, it´s still Amélie Poulain.

15) What species is your spirit animal?
It would be the Tibetan fox. It hunts Pikas (predecessor of Pikachu) and it looks like it´s having the chill of its life. Google it!

16) Do you have a Bucket List?
As far as I can tell, there is:
- release my own game
- visit a rainforest
- fly a Rogallo wing

17) If you could say something to the fans of Kingdom Come: Deliverance, what would it be?
Thank you! I mean, I might not be working on this project without your support.

Do you want to know more about our technical designer Daniel Mikeš? Then use the barrel of questions.

[DrFusselpulli]

here are Daniel Mikeš answers to your community questions:

Weekly Torch - the barrel of questions

How many have you invested at Kickstarter?

I bought only the Knight tier. Don’t tell anyone

Weekly Torch - the barrel of questions

Was it that easy [to join Warhorse Studios]?
You have finished the University as a…?
Have you worked before on Videogames? Maybe on MODs?

I have finished Czech Technical University with a master in Computer Graphics. During the studies, I have worked on some small game project, but never managed to finish it so it could be released. So this is my first well known project. I have very few experiences with MODs.

Weekly Torch - the barrel of questions

“I´m the face of Mathew from Skalitz”
Wait a moment,…what the hell… WH had downgraded your nose. Why???
Which nose do you like more? Yours or Mathews?
Have you punshed the face designer on his nose?

But, but… he will die after the start of the invasion, or not?

I prefer my own nose. It has more vertices and the texture is so detailed. So its the oppoosite way, WH could not recreate such amazing nose

Weekly Torch - the barrel of questions

Back to the game… how many different leisures have the NPCs? On the pictures I see walking, fishing, and pub.

There is also praying, shopping, chatting with other people or visiting some events like the mass or the pillory. And I have certainly forgot some

Weekly Torch - the barrel of questions

If a NPC goes later to bed (maybe he had trouble in the pub), does he sleep longer in the morning?

If something unexpected happens he will try to get his schedule right. If there is work to do in the morning you just need to sleep less. We could easily add a debuff caused by the short sleep.

Weekly Torch - the barrel of questions

Looks like the beta quests(sick bastard, lostkey, losthammer,…) from Samopesh are included. Have you worked on them?

I have joined the the team after these quests have been scripted. I have worked on the quests for the following beta release.

Weekly Torch - the barrel of questions

Which quest do you like most?

I cannot decide

[DrFusselpulli]

Michal Hoz already worked for Foundry 42 on Star citizen, but now he is one of our Character Artists here at Warhorse Studios. He was born in Bratislava in Slovakia, which was split from the Czech Republic in 1993 to become its own country.
Do you want to know more about Michal Hoz or his position here at Warhorse? Just ask here!
You can find a Spanish translation of this interview here.

1) How did you hear about Warhorse?
My friend told me about Warhorse, when was looking for a job during my time at the university in the UK. That was the first time I applied. Unfortunately, I was too busy trying to graduate, so I didn’t manage to finish the art test. Luckily, about 2 years later, there was a job opening and another chance for me. It all worked out and I joined the team about year ago.

2) Describe your position. What is it about being a Character Artist?
It is lot of work, each piece of clothing or armor usually runs through many iterations until it gets its final form. Most of the assets are usually touched by other artists later during the optimization or when the lighting changes. But I like the process, my favorite part is sculpting and texturing. It is nice to see things come alive in front of your eyes.

3) Did you ever work on Videogames before?
When I was still in the uni I worked on bunch of small projects that never get published. It was a great experience though and I made my first decent stuff at that time. Then I was fortunate enough to get hired by Foundry 42 and I worked on Star citizen, where I met many talented artists.

4) Which job would you not want to do?
Librarian - I have an allergy for letters.

5) What is your favorite team activity?
Lunch

6) Describe your usual day at the studio.
I start with breakfast and a cup of English tea. First, I catch up with what I’ve done on the day before and set up a goal for the current day. Then I put my headphones on and focus on the task. Occasionally we chat around with colleagues and give each other feedback or discuss the latest films and games.

7) What are you currently working on?
We are now after the content lock, so pretty much all the assets are already done. Now we are mainly focusing on bug fixing and optimization. I am currently trying to improve skinning and adaptation morphs for our clothing system.

Before:

After:

8) What do you think it’s the most important part or thing in the game?
What I appreciate the most is the aesthetic and believability of the universe. I mainly look for good lighting, concept art, storytelling.

9) What is the most important characteristic a Character Artist must have?
Patience and a good eye for detail.

10) What do you like the most about Kingdom Come: Deliverance?
The game is very authentic with amazing visuals. I like that it is set in actual locations which are not that far from where I was born.

11) How, when and with what game did you first get acquainted with videogames?
My sister’s Tamagotchi, which I was occasionally stealing from her. I don’t know if that counts

12) Which class, gender, or type do you usually pick?
Human, Male, Assassin.
I like stealth games.

13) Are there any videogames you repeat playing over and over again?
Last of us, Uncharted, Tomb Raider, Shadow of Mordor

14) What would a perfect game according to your wishes look like?
Currently I’m playing horizon zero down, which is very close to perfect.

15) How do you relax after a hard day at work?
Ideally, I like to go out with my friends for shisha.

16) Your favorite music playlist
To be fair, recently not much. Mostly Joe Rogan podcasts or audiobooks. When I need to focus, I listen to ambient music.

17) Your favorite movie?
Probably Blade Runner or the TV show Rick and Morty.

18) Sport is:
table football

19) What was your greatest mistake?
Spicy burrito last week.

20) Is it possible to buy you with candy?
Wasabi nuts and dark chocolate and, no, I’m not pregnant it is an actual thing.

24) What is your kryptonite?
Writing emails

25) How do you like living in the Czech Republic?
Prague is great city - nice food, beer, people and it is not too far from my home town -Bratislava.

26) What was your favorite subject and your most hated one at school?
I enjoyed all the art and technical classes. My least favorite were the theoretical subjects but history was fine. I think I had a first or second mark from history of art.

27) If you could say something to the fans of Kingdom Come: Deliverance, what would it be?
Everybody in the studio works hard to deliver a nice game, so I hope you will like it

Here you can ask questions to Michal Hoz.

[DrFusselpulli]

Here are Michal Hoz answers of your community questions

Weekly Torch - the barrel of questions

“We are now after the content lock, so pretty much all the assets are already done.”
Does this mean that changes in the model will not be made in the future?

No, content lock means that we shouldn’t add any new models but we can polish stuff that is already in game. In fact, that is exactly what we are doing now.

[quote=“Kakyou, post:328, topic:29619”]Are the scabbards ready or not after the content-lock?

Moreover does this mean, that the bows will always be glued retarted to the back as in beta-times or will they be held over the body and shoulder like this

[/quote]
I have no control over that.

Weekly Torch - the barrel of questions

I think this is a ton of work. Do you need to optimize every possible combination of the clothing? Or have you a automatic tool which improves all pieces with the same form/shape?

The weakest point is, if the NPC (or Henry) moves and parts glich out. If the animators build in a new movement/amimation, do you start from the beginning and test every part again?

I think sitting on a bench (the NPCs) is very frustrating, because of the big number of possible gliches.
What kind of tricks do you use to motivate yourself and what kind of tricks do you use to optimize the result?

Looks like the layer system with the morphing is very time consuming and buggy. I think now it´s to late to change, but wouldn´t be a fixed combination of parts the better choice and in the end less work?

How much possible combination (all together) of clothing are now in the game?

I have no idea how many possible combinations we have, probably more that I can count. Fixing the worst possible combinations first, usually solve most of the problems. In addition, we also have some automated tools that also helps. We try our best to avoid as many glitches as possible.

Weekly Torch - the barrel of questions

What do you thing about (the coming) Blade Runner 2049?

I can’t wait for it!

[DrFusselpulli]

Gábor “Cuman” Molnár, was born in Southern Slovakia, a region inhabited by half-a-million Hungarians. Here in Prague at Warhorse Studios he has become known as our Studio Cuman, and as a coincidence he also like to practise archery as a hobby, but his job is to be a Programmer and he enriches the Team with his prodigious technical skills.
Do you have any questions for Gábor “Cuman” Molnár? Just ask here!
You can find a Spanish translation of this interview here.

1) Why exactly are you called “Cuman”?
As you might already know, Cumans were a nomadic tribe, who were allowed to settle in Hungary in return for their military service. After a century they presumably learned Hungarian. In the game, this Cuman army lead by Hungarians is invading Bohemia and they are a very dangerous foe. Personally, I don’t have any Cuman inheritance, but I speak Hungarian, which was enough to get awarded the “Warhorse’s only Cuman” title. But I don’t really mind, those Cuman masks look cool.

2) Where can we usually find you lurking in the holy halls of Warhorse?
I’m usually sitting at my desk staring into endless lines of code, or occasionally at colorful profiling graphs. Sometimes I appear standing silently behind a tester to see if my build works. You can also see me getting a glass of water from the kitchen.

3) How did you hear about Warhorse?
Back in 2014 my brother showed me a trailer of an upcoming videogame, which had just started its Kickstarter campaign. It was a medieval single-player RPG in a realistic Middle-European setting. The player in the video was walking in a lush forest and he was hunting with a bow. At this point I immediately backed the project. Later I started thinking if there is something more I could do to have the game released sooner. At the time, I was still studying programming in Bratislava. One year later, in 2015, right after graduation I moved to Prague and joined Warhorse to help this game come to life.

4) Describe your position. What is it about being a Programmer?
I’m one of the last programmers who joined the team, therefore I don’t have a single specific core system to work on (like AI, RPG, Combat or Graphics). Because of this I have left my mark almost everywhere. One of my first tasks was to create dynamic rain for our weather system. Then I made the foundation for achievements and statistics, which is built on top of the RPG event system. This had to be flexible enough to make the designer’s weirdest ideas come to life. I have also created countless buffs, perks and potions, and other features like jail, the morale system or the game over screen.

5) Have you ever worked on Videogames before?
Yes, but not professionally. I was making some silly games for my own enjoyment as long as I remember. Earlier on I used various game maker tools, later on I used actual programming languages. Sadly, I never finished any of them. Before Warhorse I worked for a company which designs and manufactures slot machines and betting terminals. It wasn’t a bad job, but I didn’t feel at home there because I’m not a gambler, I’m a gamer.

6) Which job would you not want to do?
QA. You are playing the same quest over and over again, but no matter how hard you test, it still doesn’t work as it should be. Then on some magical day everything beautifully comes together and works like a charm. Next day you come to work expecting to start with a brand-new quest, when you realize that the quest from yesterday are broken as hell, even to the point of crashing the game and you have to start from the beginning. It must be a devastating feeling.

7) What is your favorite team activity?
Going out to non-vegan street food festivals. Luckily in Prague there is one almost every weekend.

8) What are you currently working on?
Bug fixing and optimization, like all my fellow programmers. I’m mostly working on optimizing the game for the Xbox One. Among programmers I’m considered as some kind of an Xbox guru because I have a lot of experience with the platform’s profiling tools and setting up and configuring devkits.

9) What are some of your notable accomplishments?
This happened when we were struggling to get the game to fit into Xbox One’s limited memory. I have found that there is a somewhat-experimental feature in the CryEngine which allows you to remove the physics on objects and stream it just when you need it, thus freeing up some memory. When I tried to enable it, all hell broke loose: NPCs started falling through objects, invisible walls appeared in places where you would least expect them, and other weird bugs occurred. After a few weeks of work, I managed to fix most of the issues. At the end this saved us hundreds of megabytes of memory. Sometimes I still get bugs of NPCs falling through the floor, but it’s usually caused by some Artist’s mistake with the 3D model.

10) What do you think it’s the most important part or thing in the game?
Lore and gameplay. Some games have engaging plot and characters with interesting backstories. Other games have awesome gameplay elements which are easy to learn but hard to master. My favorite games have both.

11) You speak Hungarian, what can you say about the Hungarian voiceovers in Kingdom Come: Deliverance?
I have translated some of the texts and I also helped to teach the English voice actors a few sentences in Hungarian. Fortunately, these actors usually played a character who wasn’t a native Hungarian speaker, so the correct pronunciation wasn’t very important and a foreign accent was more than welcome. We also had real Hungarian voice actors from the Hungarian Institute in Prague. They helped translate the remaining texts, which consisted mostly of battle cries and swear-words.

12) How, when and with what game did you first get acquainted with videogames?
I’m younger than most of my colleagues here in Warhorse, so I don’t remember the pre-Windows era. I started my gaming career on my parents’ PC, which run Windows 95. The first games I remember were Prehistoric 2, Commander Keen, Bomberman, Lion King and Prince of Persia. Then somehow I got my hands on F-16 Fighting Falcon, a flight simulator. It was way out of my league. I had no manual for the game, moreover there were no youtube tutorials or even google at the time, and I understood only a few words in English. It took me days (or weeks?) trying different keyboard combinations until I could take off, but it was worth it. When I got my own PC, it was already running Windows XP.

13) What was your most touching video game moment?
The Mass Effect series had a few inspiring moments, and I also liked Max Payne 2’s grim atmosphere, but I was mostly astonished by Miasmata’s ending.

14) Which videogame character or figure is the best?
The Nameless Hero, because you don’t have to give him a name.

15) Which class, gender, or type do you usually pick?
I always end up with a sneaky archer. And if it is a third-person game, then usually female.

16) Are there any videogames you repeat playing over and over again?
Here’s just a few of them: Gothic 1-3, Jedi Academy, Vice City, KOTOR I-II, Heroes of Might and Magic 3, Age of Empires II, Rome: Total War, Civilization V, Elder Scrolls and Fallout series. I could never get bored of these.

17) Most hilarious bug you have ever encountered or worst video game experience?
In Gothic 1 there was a main quest where an NPC could get stuck, thus preventing the finishing of the game. The developers knew about this, but for some reason couldn’t fully fix it, so they created a special book for it. You could then cheat in that book and read it to fix the stuck NPC bug.

18) What game have you been really looking forward to but turned out to be a total disappointment?
MMO-ified RPGs, like SW: The Old Republic, LotR Online or Elder Scrolls Online. I’m always expecting something more, but all I get is some skinned generic MMO with fetch quests and endless grinding.

19) How did you get acquainted with archery?
As a teenager, I have spent many summers in a horse archery summer camp. There we lived in yurts like our ancestors, and we were taught bareback riding and shooting at a moving target with traditional recurve bow. Currently I’m out of practice, but back then I could shoot up to 4 arrows in the sky before the first one hit the ground, or hit a 15cm disk flying in the air.

This is my horse archery teacher, Bíró Gábor.

20) Your favorite movie?
Back to the Future

21) What species is your spirit animal?
Turul, a mythological bird of prey, similar to a hawk or a large falcon, but mightier in every way.

22) Sport is…
A movie marathon.

23) What will be your famous last words?
Wait! Just… one… more… turn…

24) Is it possible to buy you with candy?
I buy my own candy. I buy a lot. If you want to buy me, try something more interesting, like a 3D printed fishbone.

25) What is your weakest trait?
Resisting the urge to rewrite bad code. It never ends well when you rewrite a duct-taped piece of code. But I can’t help it and sometimes it just happens and I end up with huge changelist which nobody wants to review.

26) Imagine you are a cake, what kind of cake are you and why?
Pancake with strawberry jam.

27) You have to fight in medieval times… who are you? Which weapon do you choose?
Is this even a question? Of course I’m a horse archer with a traditional recurve bow.

28) Knights or Samurai?
Horse archers!

29) What was your favorite subject and your most hated one at school?
I always liked subjects where you could rely on logic and didn’t have to memorize a lot, such as math, physics or programming. An exception was history, which I liked very much thanks to our amazing teacher. His lessons felt like watching the new episode of Game of Thrones, but without dragons, and in Europe.

30) If you could say something to the fans of Kingdom Come: Deliverance, what would it be?
Remélem hogy már nagyon várjátok hogy elkészüljön a játék. Akkor majd végre kipróbálhatjátok milyen érzés egy középkori kovács fiának a mindennapjait élni vagy az erdőben csatangolva visszacsapó íjjal őzre vadászni. Ha bármi kérdésetek van, nyugodtan írjatok, akár magyarul is. Tudja meg a világ hogy vannak magyar rajóngói is a játékunknak!

P.S. Google Translate does a poor job translating Hungarian

Do you have any questions for Gábor “Cuman” Molnár? Just ask here!

[DrFusselpulli]

Placeholder for Gábor “Cuman” Molnár answers

[DrFusselpulli]

Petr Smrček, was born and got to university here in Prague, this are excellent conditions if you want to work for Warhorse Studios. As a AI Programmer, his job is to take care of the behaviour of the entities and NPCs in the world of Kingdom Come: Deliverance. Creating virtual brains for the characters.
Do you have any questions for Petr Smrček? Just ask here!
You can find a Spanish translation of this interview here.

1) How did you hear about Warhorse?
I first heard of it about 5 years ago when I randomly met Martin Klíma at university and he gave me a business card for some unknown company called Warhorse. A few years later KCD went to kickstarter and I backed it, since I liked the idea. Finally, when I was picking my Master’s thesis I asked Tomas Barak to be my advisor and I discovered that he was actually working there! After successfully graduating, I realized this couldn’t be a coincidence and destiny wanted me there. So here I am!

2) Describe your position. What is it about being a AI Programmer?
There are 4 of us currently in the position of an AI programmer. Apart from generally making things work a bit smarter, we mostly cooperate with scripters and create a high level interface into game features for them. E.g. when they want some dude to go somewhere, they just specify a destination. Our part of the job is to get him there – to find a correct path and make sure he won’t bump some passersby to death.

Latest improvement on pursuing. Henry hid behind the wall and the NPC trying to find him is just estimating where he could go.

3) Which job would you not want to do?
Have you ever heard of magic? It’s a real thing. Must be. Because it is happening in our physics system. It’s probably the worst feature in our version of CryEngine and I admire those brave enough to peek into it.

4) What are you currently working on?
I’m tweaking formation movement. We call them “formations” since the system is used during battles and also, in fact, used anytime we want multiple NPCs to go somewhere together. I really feel like I could work on it and improve it forever. The NPCs can’t be perfectly accurate or they will look like robots. They have to make room for each other and flow through other NPCs and obstacles, go through doors etc. When fighting, they can change formation shape or regroup as some of them die. And all this must look natural.

Combat in formation.

Formations are sometimes used when you would not expect them. Do you recognize this quest?

5) What are some of your notable accomplishments?
We have a quite big living world with hundreds of NPCs. They are simulated at all times so their lives are realistically affected by your impacts in the world. However, when we tried to really fully simulate them, we got a smooth 2 FPS on consoles. Eh. Big surprise. So we cheat a little bit. We still run all of their brains so everybody does what they should do, but the other stuff like movement, clothing, animations, physics, etc. is computed just for the ones near player or in a simplified manner. I was working on this cheesed version of NPC simulation for correct switches from and to it as the player moves through the world. We call it NPC LOD.

Henry is standing in the middle of Skalitz. Only NPCs close to him with the green UFO above their head are fully simulated.

In cities, there would be too many simulated NPCs close to Henry to compute. Thus we use more detailed distinction of what can be seen and can switch more NPCs to LOD.

6) What do you like the most about Kingdom Come: Deliverance?
I like that most of the stuff that we do, others don’t. We make NPCs really live their lives. We make the horse throw you off when you treat it like a pig. We don’t show crosshairs, since Henry is not a cyborg. I really love all those features that other games feared to implement because they make the game more real. Yeah, it can be challenging and many people might actually hate it. But it is something new and inspiring and I’m really glad I’m a part of it.

7) What was your most touching video game moment?
I felt the strongest emotions during the final part of Planescape: Torment. I was really pulled into the story and its many often horrible secrets. If you like storytelling, I strongly recommend this game. I’ve never played a game with a better one (or one better implemented).

8) Which class, gender, or type do you usually pick?
I mostly play agile types, sneaking around and killing enemies silently. Or smart guys deceiving and persuading others. Often combined . I don’t really like mindless hack and slash games.

9) What would a perfect game according to your wishes look like?
I dream about a MMORPG without NPCs. Everybody would be a player. Players could build, create, teach each other new skills (those would be procedural e.g. like Borderlands weapons). They would have to eat and defend themselves against each other – they would probably group into cities or factions. Justice would be at least partially achievable (to mitigate trolls), probably with some karma system. It’s just a dream.

10) Most hilarious bug you have ever encountered or worst video game experience?
I once uninstalled Blood & Magic twice, when the first uninstall didn’t seem to do anything. It wiped Windows from my computer. Yep, hilarious.

We had a bug where you could meet guys sitting in the air on roads. When they switched to NPC LOD, their invisible horse without physics could no longer carry them and let them stranded.

11) What game have you been really looking forward to but turned out to be a total disappointment?
I was looking forward to Pillars of Eternity and Torment: Tides of Numenera, since Planescape: Torment is my most favorite game. But PoE turned out to be more about mechanics rather than story and after some time playing it I just gave up. I now put my hope to ToN but I sadly haven’t tried it yet because lack of time (I can’t risk getting addicted to it right now).

12) How do you relax after a hard day at work?
I go out with my dog, smooch my girl, play sports, guitar, Dungeon & Dragons and some computer games. Or board games. Magic the Gathering, lately.

13) Your favorite movie or book?
I mostly read fantasy. Recently I discovered Patrick Rothfuss and his The Kingkiller Chronicle which made me drool for the latest anticipated book. I like when the story, character decisions and world laws make sense in books and movies. That’s why I actually don’t really like superhero movies. I can watch that to turn off my brain and relax but I prefer things like Sherlock Holmes (the Cumberbatch version).

14) Your travel tip?
Mountains. Since my body relaxes when I’m at work, I need my mind to relax on vacation. I enjoy going somewhere without civilization and everything I need for a week or two. With friends of course. It makes you feel truly independent and free. You have your own food, accommodation (tent) and transport (legs) and you can just simply go wherever you want without needing anyone or anything. There are beautiful views, lakes for baths and berries to eat. And last but not least, climbing the hills with stuff on your back will get you into shape .

15) Sport is…
Volleyball. I played competitively for about 12 years and I still play it recreationally now. But I like most of the sports, preferably team ball games. Haha, very mature.

16) Is it possible to buy you with candy?
Not really. I’m salty man.

17) What is your weakest trait?
I’m too kind and altruistic. I sometimes have to forcibly make myself more evil since we don’t live in an utopic world.

18) What was your favorite subject and your most hated one at school?
I’m good with natural science stuff and math. I don’t think I hated any class. Or even disliked one- I had a great high school. I really like history, but unfortunately my brain refuses to remember dates and names. And faces. And anniversaries. But back to history – I actually had good grades, because I was able to learn all the stuff, but in a week I forgot most of it.

19) If you could say something to the fans of Kingdom Come: Deliverance, what would it be?
I’m really glad you like this game and support us. And that there is quite a lot of you. It gives me hope that the world is not yet completely drowned in Hollywood brainwashing productions and one button games where you kill without even looking at who the enemy is. I hope you’ll enjoy playing KCD and be brave, only few months remain!

Do you have any questions for our AI Programmer Petr Smrček? Please ask here!

[DrFusselpulli]

Here you will find Petr Smrček´s answers after Gamescom.

[DrFusselpulli]

Peter Novák was born 1997 in Trenčín, Slovakia. This makes him the youngest member of Warhorse Studios. He is part of the Quality Assurance departement, where he is testing the quests.
Do you have any questions for our tester Peter Novák? Please ask here!
You can find a Spanish translation of this interview here.

1) How did you hear about Warhorse?
The first time I heard about Warhorse and Kingdom Come was sometime in 2013, when Dan Vavra was hinting about what is he currently working on in a Czech game podcast.

2) Have you ever worked on Videogames before?
No. This is my first full-time job!

3) Which job would you not want to do?
Anything with graphics. I’m totally lame at drawing or visualization of something. I don’t understand how somebody could draw something like our concept artists do. It’s black magic!

4) Please describe Warhorse Studios:
The atmosphere at Warhorse is very relaxed. The thing I like the most about this company is that you can talk to anybody about anything, no matter if it’s one of our colleagues or our CEO. “A Homo corporatis would have no chance to survive in this environment!”

5) Please describe one of your colleagues or your department:
Well, there are situations when you have to seriously put the headphones on. Sometimes, I just can’t stand my colleague’s dialogues about videogames because my life isn’t only about playing them. Nevertheless, working on a team like this in future would be a pleasure for me just as much as it is now. Everybody is always ready to help each other. I always feels sad when somebody is leaving us.

6) What is your favorite team activity?
It’s not crunching

7) Describe your usual day at the studio?
The core has been described many times before, but there’s one thing I want to tell you: every day is unique. There’s no place for stereotypes in our department. Every day brings new challenges and problems which we haven’t faced before.

8) What are you currently working on?
At the moment I’m finishing up my work on the Gamescom build that is going to be shown to the press in Cologne. In general, I’m focused on checking quests from the main story line, but I’m also keeping my eye on some features/game mechanics used in parts of the game that I’m responsible for, like the perception system.

9) What is the most important characteristic a tester must have?
If somebody wants to join our team, I think that there’s nothing more important than having the willingness to quickly learn new things. When you’re willing to learn new things as soon as possible, the door will always be open for you.

10) What do you like the most about Kingdom Come: Deliverance?
It may sound strange or corny, but it’s the main character. I don’t remember playing such a game as a 17 to 20-year-old boy. I think that the concept of playing as a teenager or a young man is awesome. Young people are very emotional and since they’re young, it allows the writers to work with their feelings and be able to be much more flexible, which can often result in some interesting and funny situations.

11) How, when and with what platform or game did you first get acquainted with videogames?
I’m a child of Counter-Strike 1.6 and PC Master Race.

12) What was your most touching video game moment?
I liked the story about Bloody Baron from Witcher 3, especially when I’ve read the “story behind the story“ article retrospectively.

13) Which videogame character or figure is the best?
GLADOS from Portal. She was extremely funny even despite her being bad.

14) Which class, gender, or type do you usually pick?
Ehm, are we talking about videogames or reality? I’m usually picking the characters that are able to move quickly rather than tanks. Gender is totally irrelevant in this case, but I feel more comfortable playing as a male.

15) Which videogame character are you?
Nathan Prescott from Life Is Strange, except that I’m not rich.

16) Are there any videogames you repeat playing over and over again?
Far Cry and Crysis. I’ve spent a lot of time with these two games.

21) What would a perfect game according to your wishes look like?
I lived near Čachtice, where the countess Elizabeth Bathory spent most of her life. It would be great if there was something like “Kingdom Come: Bloody Countess.” It’s a shame that there’s no AAA videogame with such a character.

22) How do you relax after a hard day at work?
Walking is great. I usually walk about 8km with headphones in my ears and after that I feel better than after ten hours of sleep. Unfortunately, as we are getting closer to release of the game, it seems like that after a hard day at work will ultimately follow up with a hard night at work.

23) Your favorite music playlist
It’s like my favorite DJ says: “One day you like to eat fish and the next you like to eat steak. One day you eat this, and the next you eat that; It’s just how it goes.” It’s same with the music. You can’t listen the same music genre over and over again. Primarily I listen to trance, but occasionally I’ll listen to metal or rap or anything that sounds good!

24) What species is your spirit animal?
Cacatua.

25) Your travel tip?
Spending two or three days in Vienna or Budapest, regularly.

26) Sport is…
The thing that some guys from Warhorse do to look cool.

27) What’s your guilty pleasure?
Apple products. But I don’t mean apple products like Caramelized Apple or Apple Pie, I mean those that start with “i”.

28) Do you have a Bucket List?
To accomplish all of my traveling dreams. I also want to improve my German language skills so badly! Unfortunately, it seems that it’s not going to happen any soon.

29) Is it possible to buy you with candy?
Any free food is always appreciated, but if you want to buy me (like really buy me), you have to bring me Starbucks coffee. I’m demanding.

30) How do you like living in the Czech Republic?
It won’t surprise you if I tell you that it’s pretty similar to living in Slovakia. I can’t find many big differences.

31) Who is your favorite historic character?
I like modern history, so it’s Milan Rastislav Stefanik. The story of his life is pretty interesting and inspirational. Unfortunately, he is a little bit forgotten of because of T.G. Masaryk.

32) What was your favorite subject and your most hated one at school?
I liked informatics and basics of programming because it was easy all the time, but I definitely hated biology.

33) If you could say something to the fans of Kingdom Come: Deliverance, what would it be?
One big thank you for supporting Kingdom Come! With backing projects like ours you’re not helping just a few guys to make their dream come true, but you’re affecting the whole game Industry.

Do you have any questions for our tester Peter Novák? Please ask here!

[DrFusselpulli]

Here you will find Peter Nováks answers for the community questions.

[DrFusselpulli]

Christian “Dr. Fusselpulli” Piontek moved from Düsseldorf in Germany to Prague in the Czech Republic to become the Community Manager for Warhorse Studios. He has a foible for realistic games and movies and started in the community as a moderator before he joined the team.
Do you have any questions to Christian “Dr.Fusselpulli” Piontek? Please ask here!
You can find a Spanish translation of this interview here.

1) Where can we usually find you lurking in the holy halls of Warhorse?
My place is in the PR department, in the middle of the Studio with short distances to every other office. It is the spot right behind the huge pile of paper of dialogues for the voiceovers and next to the sweets of the Tobi-shop.
The view from the window is quite nice, as I can see the Statue of Jan Žižka up on Vítkov Hill.
The interesting part is, that this was not just a nice hill for a monument like this, it was the actual place from where he defended Prague against Sigismund during the Hussite wars in the Battle of Vítkov Hill in 1420.

huge pile of voiceover papers.

2) How did you hear about Warhorse?
I heard about Warhorse Studios in the late Summer of 2014 after the Kickstarter campaign. I wanted to watch an RPG let´s play on YouTube, because RPGs can be quite interesting to watch. They often have an interesting story and some YouTubers put some effort into the background story of their characters.
On my search for a new RPG (which I hadn´t discovered yet), I came across an RPG called “Kingdom Come: Deliverance." It looked very interesting because I am a fan of realistic games and movies about history.
I was hooked by this game instantly and had to look for more information about it and then I joined the community here on the forum.
At first, I didn´t wanted to spoil myself, but then I couldn´t resist. Warhorse was already quite open about their idea and what the game would be about, but I wanted to know more! I knew Kingdom Come: Deliverance would tell a historical story, so if I found out what happened in that area in Bohemia in 1403, I would know what the story is about. So, I began to dig deeper and posted my findings on the forum.
Tobi noticed my passion as I was very active in the community. He then asked me if I wanted to become a moderator, which I did!
A few months later, in the late summer of 2015, Tobi asked me if I wanted to help Warhorse Studios in the Public booth at Gamescom, and I said yes. I also provided shelter for our two voluntary knights from Zitadelle.
This was the first time I met the Warhorse Studios team in real life. It was a lot of fun, but also very exhausting. Afterwards, Tobi asked me if I wanted to join Warhorse Studios as a Community Manager. In October 2015 I moved from Düsseldorf in Germany to Prague in the Czech Republic, and here I am!

3) Describe your position. What is it about being a Community Manager?
My job is to answer the questions from the Community, which is basically everyone who contacts us, except for business partners and press.
I get all types of questions about the game and the development on social media, the forum and email. People want to know about all kind of things, or want to send us their idea of the perfect game, but we are already busy on developing Kingdom Come: Deliverance. I also get a lot of technical requests about the Launcher or problems with their profile or their game. If I can´t solve them on my own I get help from our QA-Team (most of the time I ask Proky in this cases).
I am like the bridge between the Community and the Development team, and this works both ways. With my answers to questions, posts on social media and the weekly torch, I want to provide an inside view into the development of the game and be a contact for the team. At the same time, I collect requests and the mood from the community and carry this information back into the team.
I also support Tobi as an assistant on his task of being a PR manager. For example, I help him to prepare for a Livestream or every week I´m collecting all the Media articles for an evaluation.

4) Have you ever worked on Videogames before?
No. I studied social science in Düsseldorf and worked as a freelancer for an advertising agency as a graphic designer, so I know how to use photoshop.
It is the first time I’ve work on a Videogame. I was working on some mods for ArmA II and Skyrim before, but I haven´t gotten very far and my work never saw the light of day.
What I really enjoy even more than playing a game is creating scenarios, as long as there is an editor option. Back then I spend a lot of time on the editors of Warcraft II and Age of Empires, but I really went crazy on Operation Flashpoint and the ArmA series. It is amazing how creative you can get in this series and it is a pleasure now to work on the same team as Viktor Bocan, the creator of Operation Flashpoint. He is the hero of my childhood.

5) Please describe Warhorse Studios:
I really like it here at Warhorse Studios. It is very calm and friendly, even if it can be stressful from time to time, because developing a game like Kingdom Come: Deliverance is a very complex task. But the team is awesome, sometimes we like to go in a pub together and you can have very interesting conversations.

6) What is your favorite team activity?
In the end of summer, we go a team event at a small castle in Malešov, where we have a barbecue, drink beer and play board games. Tobi likes to bring his collection of Settlers of Catan, but I also enjoy the rounds of Codenames pictures or Secret Hitler.

7) What are you currently working on?
Right now, we are at Gamescom in Cologne. It is very loud and crowdy, but this year we have the biggest booth we ever had. Guests can try out the first quest of Kingdom Come: Deliverance on 1 of 30 computers.
Humans and machines are getting to the limit there. the computers get very hot, running all day, and we are on fire to get all the people to play the game. But it is amazing to get in contact with so many people. We are working extremly hard in our booth and we have an awesome team there. A big thank you to the people from Deep Silver and the Berliner Rittergilde.

8) What do you think is the most important part or thing in the game?
I think the most important thing of the game is the realistic atmosphere. If you play Kingdom Come: Deliverance you are really immersed into the game; it feels very realistic and you can truly imagine yourself being there.

9) What is the most important characteristic a Community Manager must have?
As a Community Manager you need to have a lot of patience, because people ask the same questions over and over again. But I assume teachers have the same problem. They teach the same facts to the kids every year, over and over again.

10) What do you like the most about Kingdom Come: Deliverance?
I am a big fan of realistic games and movies, so Kingdom Come: Deliverance is the right game for me.
I like to visit the reconstructed churches and castles. I have seen the Talmberk castle and I was in Rattay, Samopesh and the Sazava Monastery. It is fascinating to compare it to the buildings in the game, and it feels like you’re walking into a time machine.

11) How, when and with what platform or game did you first get acquainted with videogames?
My father bought an Atari ST in the end of the 80s. We played Dungeon Master and Test Drive together. It is amazing to see how games have developed since then.

12) Which class, gender, or type do you usually pick?
I really like to play as a sneaky archer. I prefer to play as a male one, but gender is not so important to me.
I just don´t like to play as a magician.

13) Are there any videogames you repeat playing over and over again?
Every then and now I come back to play ArmA. Operation Flashpoint was my favorite game for a long time, and the ArmA series is basically the same game, but with better graphics and more possibilities.

14) What would a perfect game according to your wishes look like?
Probably a mixture of ArmA, Kingdom Come: Deliverance and Crusader Kings II.

15) Most hilarious bug you have ever encountered or worst video game experience?
There was a very strange bug in Operation Flashpoint, back then before the 1.30 patch.
When a Tank got destroyed, it was slowly sliding uphill over the ground.
There was a canyon in the west of the island Malden in the game, the slope of the cliff itself was way too steep for the tank to slide uphill, but the plateau on the top was also not flat either.
I used the Editor to put an already destroyed tank on this plateau, and let it slide slowly into a group of anti-tank mines to catapult it with a huge explosion into the canyon, where I waited as a player to watch a tank dropping next to my feet. Sometimes it hits me…

16) What game have you been really looking forward to but turned out to be a total disappointment?
Ohhh… the U-boat simulation Silent Hunter V was such a huge disappointment. I was a huge fan of Silent Hunter III, and I was quite active in the community. When I heard the news about a new Silent Hunter part I was thrilled. The ideas were quite amazing as they wanted to make a Simulation with RPG-Elements where you could walk through the boat like a real captain.
However, during the development the game got ripped apart slowly. They scrapped all the other U-boats except the VII types. It was the most common type in the war of course, but for the very important “Unternehmen Paukenschlag” during the second world war, you also needed boats of the type IX.
They also ended the game in 1943 already, which was a bad joke in my opinion.
It was easy to see that they just wanted to close the development and release an unfinished game early. Although I was a huge Silent Hunter fan, I never bought part V of the series and I was not the only one. The game sold badly and Silent Hunter V was the last part of the series. What a pity.

17) What species is your spirit animal?
I like the common Bohemian Bacon Dumpling.
Such friendly and tasty creatures, you have to love them.

18) Sport is…
I like to practice traditional archery with a longbow. Sadly, my equipment is still in Germany.
Every time in the summer when I go back home for a couple of days, I really enjoy to go and shoot a few arrows together with my girlfriend. just for fun.
It is not a medieval bow, but a modern version with laminated fiberglass. Thanks to CSWBS who helped us to create the right sounds for the archery in Kingdom Come: Deliverance, I also got the opportunity to shoot a medieval recreation of an 80lbs war-bow.
You can´t compare my small arrows to the beasts you have to shoot with this equipment.
I was only able to shoot a few times, because my arms got soft and I was not able to shoot properly anymore. Unbelievable that 80lbs is just the start of a war-bow, and they also used way heavier bows back then. Lars Andersen can´t deal with powerful equipment like that.

19) Is it possible to buy you with candy?
Yes definitely.

20) Imagine you are a cake, what kind of cake are you and why?
If I would be a cake, it would probably be a fluffy mint cake with dark chocolate.
A bit odd and bitter from the outside, but sweet and fresh from the inside.

21) Who is your favorite historic character?
Count Adolf VIII. of Berg (Adolf V. in German literature), who gave the rights of a City to Düsseldorf in 1288. By the way: He is a family member of King Wenceslaus IV. and King Sigismund from Kingdom Come: Deliverance.

I really like his story: he once was an unimportant count in the west of the German lands of the Holy Roman Empire. Then his uncle, Waleran IV., Duke of Limburg died without a male successor and therefore Waleran´s daughter, Irmgard became Duchess.
She was married with Reginald I, the count of Guelders, but she died in 1283 before him.
Reginald I became the new duke of Limburg, but count Adolf VIII. claimed this to be his title, because Irmgard was his niece. That’s how the war of the Limburg Succession started.

He had no power to do anything against Reginald I, but he was clever and he sold his claim of the title to his mighty friend John I, duke of Brabant for 32,000lbs of silver.
Now Siegfried II. of Westerburg, the Archbishop of Cologne had awakened. He was one of the most powerful people in the Empire, with a lot of lands in the lower Rhine region. However, he had to fear the alliance between the duke of Brabant and the count of Berg, especially if they claimed the Duchy of Limburg because they would get too powerful for him, which would lead him into a difficult situation. So, he claimed a veto, Reginald I. needed to keep dutchy of Limburg. Siegfried II. would even fight for him.

John I. didn´t care because he paid a lot of money for his title and occupied Limburg in 1285.
They would fight for 3 years, leading to the big battle of Worringen in 1288 near Cologne.
The citizens of Cologne hated their archbishop, so they saw their opportunity to rebel against him and joined the site of Adolf VIII. and John I. against Reginald I. and Siegfried II.
A battle occurred with around 6,000 knights and a lot of infantry.
Reginald I and Siegfried II lost the battle and both got imprisoned. Reginald I had to acknowledge John I. as the true duke of Limburg and he renounced all claims on Limburg.
Siegfried II. had to pay over 3 tons of silver and most of his lands to Adolf VIII. to get free after 13 months of imprisonment, and Cologne got a free city under the Empire because it was no longer a property of the catholic church.

Although Adolf VIII. was a very powerful count in the Empire now, he looked with worries on the situation about Cologne. This was one of the biggest and most powerful cities in the Empire. Now without their archbishop keeping them occupied, they would become even more powerful quite soon, and this would be his next problem in the future.
That´s why Düsseldorf got the rights to the city from him, a few miles down the river Rhine, every merchant from the north had to stop in Düsseldorf first and expose their wares.
The people of Cologne hated Düsseldorf, this new city which got rich on their backs, but there wasn´t anything they could do about it.
In 1292 Adolf VIII. of Berg got into an ambush of Siegfried II., who imprisoned him and tortured him for four years.
Adolf VIII. died 1296 without children in the dungeons of Siegfried II.
Siegfried II. died just one year later, as a late cause from the imprisonment in Adolfs dungeon.

22) You have to fight in medieval times who are you?
I would become an Archer, because I properly know how to use a bow.

23) If you could say something to the fans of Kingdom Come: Deliverance, what would it be?
I really like the Kingdom Come: Deliverance community, which is more mature than other communities and I still see myself as a part of the community, because that´s where I came from.

Do you have any questions to Christian “Dr.Fusselpulli” Piontek? Please ask here!

[DrFusselpulli]

I notice, that is my time to answer your questions now:

Weekly Torch - the barrel of questions

what is your favorite memory on this forum?

when Tobi noticed that I know too much about Kingdom Come: Deliverance. Such fun days.

Weekly Torch - the barrel of questions

Tell us, was the gamescom a success?

Oh yes, gamescom was a huge success for us. We won the 2017 gamescom award for the best PC game, we had two very awesome booths with beautiful details like a real fake fire and wallpaintings in the press booth.

Weekly Torch - the barrel of questions

How many people visited your booth, and tested the game?

This is not very easy to estimate, but around 5500 people. We thought we would have around 4000, when it will run very well, but we were able to beat that number.
This was only possible because we were working so hard. We had four lines of computers, one with 8 computers, and three with 7 computers. My idea was, that we can safe some time, if we not exchange all computers at the same time, but each line seperately. Because it would cost around 4-5 minutes to exchange it all at once but only around 1 minute, do it all line by line.
Our idea was that we exchange the next line every 5 minutes, so players would be able to play the first quest for 20minutes on each computer. If there were a lot of people waiting, we could shorten the time to an exchange of the lines every 4 minutes, which would give the players 16 minutes on every computer.
I invented a card system, which would tell us, at what exact minute we had to exchange which row, because you would get confused if you would do it all day.
But we had more people waiting in line than expected, and we were barely able to let them play for 20 minutes, because the queue got so long, that we had to put a sign at the end that people are not allowed to queue beyond this point anymore. They would just block the entrance of the hall and then security would come and shut us down.
People did it anyway. They just said “Oh, we don´t queue here, we just wait here to queue.”
Anyway… we got extremly fast with the exchange of the computers, and after a couple of hours we were able to do it in under one minute. That means that we were able to exchange all 29 computers in less than one minute!
That might be the fastest exchange on gamescom, because I have seen other booths doing it way slower than us.
With this system we were able to keep the maximum waiting time in the queue under two hours. This seems to be a lot, but on gamescom, its not!
On the flipside, this was extremely exhausting for us, because we had to exchange the lines every 4 minutes for more than 11hours straight. And we had to do it on point, without any delay, because then some players would get less than 15 minutes of gameplay, and 15 minutes in kingdom come deliverance are already very very short. The absolute minimum that we had in mind.
We also worked overtime, because we didn´t wanted to dissappoint our community.
In the end, it was running like a well oiled machine.

Weekly Torch - the barrel of questions

There is much feedback from the gamers. Is WH abel to listen to their sugestions and make changes (till release)?

Yes, every 4 minutes, I got 3 minutes of time to talk to the community and take a look at the screens.
One thing we noticed was, that people had problems to understand the stamina system, especially during combos. They were beating their opponent in the game like they had gotten mad, and wondered why combos were not working.
It was simple, they didn´t had stamina anymore, but they didn´t know about it and had gotten frustrated.
We will focus on that issue for example.

Weekly Torch - the barrel of questions

Which feature they love, and which do they hate?

Most people really liked the game, and all the different decisions they were able to choose.
Some people didn´t got how the shop worked, something we probably have to make a bit more intuitive.

Weekly Torch - the barrel of questions

Reading the comments (of the gamescom videos); there are many people happy with the progress of the game, but there is also (constuctive) critic…about the animations and transitions between them. They expect WH have to improve this issues(looking stiff and robotic). Do you think this is possible

That´s a tough question. Yes, we are still working on the animations, and they will get better (otherwise we would not work on the anymore). But I think they will never get perfect, this is just a very complicated and complex task.

Weekly Torch - the barrel of questions

How realistic is archery in KCD?

It is some time since that I have played the archery in Kingdom Come: Deliverance the last time. But I really liked how the archery worked back then. I think it was one of the most realistic archery system in a game I have every seen. You really can use your real life archery skills in the game. If you have the feeling for a bow in real life, shooting in Kingdom Come: Deliverance will be a bit more easy for you.

Weekly Torch - the barrel of questions

Will WH be on the Games Week in Paris (with your booth)? Will you be there?

Yes, we will be on Paris Games Week, but I will probably not be there.

Weekly Torch - the barrel of questions

Will you continue with the Weekly Torch after release?

Probably not. My plan is to continue with the Weekly Torch till release. Unfortunately not everyone from the Studio wants to participate, some people are shy and it is not easy to push them into the interviews.

Weekly Torch - the barrel of questions

How good is your Czech after 2 years?

Good enough to know what to order in a restaurant, but apart from that I can´t really speak czech. Which is a shame, and I should work on this. Because I think it is important to speak the language of the country where you life, and I am not proud of the fact, that I can´t have a conversation in czech.

Weekly Torch - the barrel of questions

Any aspect you consider hard in your job?

Not really hard. Sometimes it can get stressful, especially if we had an update (which we didn´t had for a long time). Then we were working in PR till 4am in the morning to answer as many questions as possible.
The work in PR comes in waves. Sometimes there is not much to do, and then there are times when there is way too much work for our small department.
Another thing is, that you need to be careful about your words every time. Especially if you don´t know something for sure. I am the one who write the official responses to questions, and if you say something wrong to the wrong person, this can be very harmful. For example if you didn´t know that the person is a gaming journalist. The the word will spread fast!

[DrFusselpulli]

Mikuláš “Miki” Podprocký is our Art Director here at Warhorse Studios responsible for the gorgeous art design in Kingdom Come: Deliverance. From the magnificent map in the game, to the label of our beer bottles. He was born in Košice in Slovakia and joined the team in early 2014, shortly after our Kickstarter campaign.
Do you have any questions to Mikuláš “Miki” Podprocký? Please ask here!
You can find a Spanish translation of this interview here.

1) Where can we usually find you lurking in the holy halls of Warhorse?
We have holy halls here? Wow, cool. Didn’t know that. Probably because I’m sitting in the most distant edge of the shady art office.

2) How did you hear about Warhorse?
Well I knew a lot of people who were starting this project. I believe that the first time I heard about KCD was in some pub with beer in my hand, talking to my good friend who was working here as a concept artist. The second time it was in my bathroom. I received a call from Dan and he offered me the job. Than we met in an old office and I joined shortly after the kickstarter.

3) Describe your position. What is it about being a Art Director?
Currently I am working here as an Art Director. My responsibility is to keep all visual aspects of the project with consistent visuals and aesthetical quality.

4) Have you ever worked on Videogames before?
I started to work in the gaming industry in 2002. I first worked on a few projects as a 2d artist, then I turned into a character artist. I did characters for Mafia 2 (Joe is my handiwork). Then I worked in preproduction of Mafia 3 as a senior/lead character artist and at the same time I was also a concept artist. I even completed and released a small mobile game.

5) Which job would you not want to do?
It’s a job that includes a lot of time spent by looking and editing some weird xml files. Damn… in fact I am looking at some xmls right now. Should rethink my priorities

6) Please describe Warhorse Studios:
Crazy people creating crazy cool stuff.

7) What is your favorite team activity?
Creating KCD.

8) Describe your usual day at the studio?
Morning coffee, then another one just for filling in the gaps and some rough music to wake me up. Then I check the bugs list while downloading the build. I check if the bugs are really fixed, eventually reporting new ones. Then by the time other people show up I check what the concept artists are cooking up. Then I attend some meetings fixing up some UI element or collecting some references. Again… some meeting, giving feedback to a random artist who needs it and yeah, I also eat.

9) What are you currently working on?
I am trying to clean up as many UI elements as possible by trying to improve the readability of the UI and making some important information more visible.

10) What are some of your notable accomplishments?
I hope it is the Game itself . No seriously, it is probably the in-game map design. Seems like a lot of people like it.

11) What do you think it’s the most important part or thing in the game?
Believability in every aspect of the game.

12) What is the most important characteristic a Artdirector must have?
The ability to listen to the Creative director and the will to understand his vision.

13) What do you like the most about Kingdom Come: Deliverance?
The setting. I was interested in medieval history for a long time, even before KCD was announced. I even did some amateur fencing and I attended some live history events, and I even dressed in armor (but that was really a long time ago )

14) How, when and with what platform or game did you first get acquainted with videogames?
We had a Sinclair ZX Spectrum. I think it was in 1988 or around that time, but I’m not so sure now. I remember playing these games for long hours: Adastra, Jetpack, or my favorite, Thanatos (count in the loading times and tape loading errors ;))

15) What was your most touching video game moment?
My happiest is probably a moment when I saw the A-Doom game finally running on our Amiga 1200, so I had the chance to really play through the entire game at home and not oa friends PC. (A-Doom was probably a pirate conversion of Doom for Amiga. Actually, I am probably one of few who played this legend on Amiga. I even deathmatched through LAN against PCs… and winning. Those were crazy times ;))

16) Which videogame character or figure is the best?
Gordon Freeman, because he never talks ;).

17) Which class, gender, or type do you usually pick?
Hermaphrodite giant ork , who is an elite chess player, usually blind. (No, I am really not a MMOlike RPG game player.;))

18) Which videogame character are you?
Hopefully none.

19) Are there any videogames you repeat playing over and over again?
DCS world with Oculus. Yeah, I am a flight sim freak.

20) What would a perfect game according to your wishes look like?
C’mon, we don’t need a perfect game. We are already living in one.

21) How do you relax after a hard day at work?
In my free time I am creating a comic book series. One book (200 pages) is already out. The second is almost finished (300 pages) and will be released this year. The third is in the concept stage. Yes, I am workoholic. In fact, I am not relaxing much at all.

22) Your favorite music playlist
Apex twin, Operators, Dead weather, Electric wizard, Ramones, Dead boys, Botanist, or Dmitri Shostakovich. It depends on my mood

23) Your favorite movie or book?
Movie : Le Magnifique with Belmondo. (Muž z acapulca). Book/comic book: Incal.

24) What species is your spirit animal?
All of them.

25) Your travel tip?
Africa. Go there before doing a smart-talk about it.

26) Sport is…
Hiking

27) What’s your guilty pleasure?
Buying cold weapons.

28) Do you have a Bucket List?
Yes I do … But it never fit into any bucket, so I am screwed.

29) Is it possible to buy you with candy?
No. Newer. Only money

30) Who is your favorite historic character?
Wright brothers.

31) Which is your favorite historic event?
Fall of the Roman empire or when the Dinosaurs die out? Actually, the the two are quite similar, so I can’t decide.

32) What was your favorite subject and your most hated one at school?
I was a very bad student in almost every subject. I didn’t care much about what people expected me to deliver on. But somehow, I ended up at an art academy and finished with a red diploma (means: best classification), but at that time I was already working in the gaming industry, so who cares.

33) If you could say something to the fans of Kingdom Come: Deliverance, what would it be?
It is with a great responsibility that you guys laid on us by backing this dream project, and we’re really trying to not screw that up. We truly thank you for all the support, ideas and feedback. I hope you will like what we will deliver.

Do you have any questions to our Art Director Mikuláš “Miki” Podprocký? Please ask here!

[DrFusselpulli]

Due a recent case of illness, there will be no Weekly Torch today. We apologize.
Thank you for understanding.

[DrFusselpulli]

Martin Labut´ majored in artificial intelligence here in Prague at the Czech Technical University, and now he is working as one of the scripters here at Warhorse Studios since early 2016. Prague is also his hometown, where he was born.
Do you have any questions to Martin Labut´? Please ask here!
You can find a Spanish translation of this interview here.

1) How did you hear about Warhorse?
I always wanted to work in game development and when I was nearing the end of my studies, I was naturally looking for game development jobs first. The only position I found and was qualified for was here at Warhorse, so I sent my CV, went to the interview and started working here the next week after my finals (I majored in artificial intelligence).

2) What are you currently working on?
Right now I am working on beds, which the player can sleep on. This turned out to be a much bigger problem than I anticipated, with all the animation variations that can be played on all types of beds. But mostly I am just fixing bugs, as we are near the end of the project.

3) What are some of your notable accomplishments?
I partially designed and scripted most of the random events you will be able to encounter in the game. Those are quick, small encounters in deserted locations which are randomly generated and not related to the storyline. Using the original design idea to make the events variable, I’ve devised a system that generates many different random properties of the event, which combines them together and therefore results in thousands of possible combinations.

4) Have you ever worked on Videogames before?
This is my first actual job, but not the first time I worked on video games. I have been a modder for more than ten years now - I modded Warcraft III, Minecraft, even Fallout 4. I am actually still modding to this day. I recently returned to Minecraft again and I am creating a mod based around magic.

5) Most hilarious bug you have ever encountered or worst video game experience?
My favorite bug was the water quest in Sacred, where the water very often got bugged and you had to type “wasser” to the console in order to get it.
Not sure if this is worse, but I had a very bad video game experience just last night, where I lost 4 maxed-out heroes in Darkest Dungeon in, what I thought, would be a simple mission.

6) How, when and with what platform or game did you first get acquainted with videogames?
I started gaming on a PC, on intel 486, which I built with my father. One of my first games was Warcraft, which I used to play with my brother. Ever since then I have gamed on PC and I’ve never owned a console of any kind. Now that I’ve experienced consoles from the developer side, I never will.

7) Which class, gender, or type do you usually pick?
If possible, I play as a necromancer even though they are highly impractical in most games. My second pick is rogue, as that was my first World of Warcraft class and I’ve stuck with it ever since.

8) Which videogame character or figure is the best?
Morrigan from Dragon Age. She is a total badass.

9) What was your most touching video game moment?
The end of Witcher 3. I loved the books, but it felt like the real ending of the story was in the video games.

10) How do you relax after a hard day at work?
I play video games and watch Netflix, often at the same time. I try to work a bit on my own projects, but I don’t always have the will to do anything after work.

11) Your favorite book?
Harry Potter. It’s the only book I’ve read more than once.

12) Sport is… ?
Historical fencing and archery. I have been fencing training for over 10 years and archery for about five. I also do some hiking and biking (I often ride a bike to work actually).

13) What’s your guilty pleasure?
Coke (the soft drink). I used to drink at least a bottle a day (the 2l bottle), but recently I managed to lower my dosage, as I fear it would kill me soon.

14) Who is your favorite historic character?
Julie d’Aubigny, a swordswoman and opera singer. She ran away from her husband at 14, then made a living by performing fencing. Once she pretended to enter a monastery in order to help her girlfriend escape, setting fire to it as they ran away. She also wounded some people in duels, but then was granted pardon by Louise XIV, so that she could sing in the opera. Her whole life was just fascinating.

15) If you could say something to the fans of Kingdom Come: Deliverance, what would it be?
We have spent a lot of time making this game for you. I really do hope you like it.

Do you have any questions to Martin Labut´? Please ask here!

[DrFusselpulli]

Here are Martin Labut´s answers to your community questions:

I partially designed and scripted most of the random events you will be able to encounter in the game.

Weekly Torch - the barrel of questions

That sounds interessting. Can you explain how it works? Give us some example for events.

One of the simplest events we have is an ambush – couple of NPCs are waiting for the player to come by. The event randomly generates type of enemy encountered (bandits, cumans, boars, …), the way they set up the ambush (they can use a different ways to block your path as a player), their behavior after player comes close, etc… This ensures that each ambush will be a little different from the last one, even if the “story” of the event is the same.

Weekly Torch - the barrel of questions

Can the player sleep outside without a bed? In a kind of sleeping bag?

No, you can only sleep on actual beds. There will be some abandoned shacks and camps in the forest though.

Weekly Torch - the barrel of questions

Which games do you waiting for? Coming out this year!

South Path: The Fractured But Whole and Mashinky, both coming out next month.

Weekly Torch - the barrel of questions

Will you make mods for KCD? Which one?

I don’t think so, I have already spent countless hours scripting KCD.

Weekly Torch - the barrel of questions

Is there any encounter that you consider special?

I have written an event myself, called “Carcass on the road”, where you can find a dead body, gather clues, interrogate a passing by NPC and then decide whether this NPC was the murderer or not. The result was a 15-page dialogue with many levels of branching, which however resulted in some weird dialog flow at some moments.

[DrFusselpulli]

Jan “Honza” Kudrnáč started here at Warhorse Studios in 2014, after he left Bohemia Interactive where he was working on DayZ. He was born in Nová Paka, in the far north of the Czech Rebublic.
Do you have any questions to Jan “Honza” Kudrnáč? Please ask here!
You can find a Spanish translation of this interview here.

1) Where can we usually find you lurking in the holy halls of Warhorse?
Behind a desk in the corner of our graphic design department. It’s the darkest room in the studio.

2) How did you hear about Warhorse?
I first learned of the studio from a podcast on games.cz. I joined the Warhorse team more than three years ago.

3) Did you ever worked on Videogames before?
I got my very first taste of professional videogame development as a summer temp at Keen Software House. At the time, the studio was working on a game entitled Miner Wars and I joined them towards the end of the project so the main focus was on graphics optimization and I was able to learn quite a lot. At the same time I was helping my friends studying at the Faculty of Mathematics and Physics of the Charles University in Prague with their student project. I was still at secondary school back then so I was assisting them as an external graphics designer. The project was entitled Motordead and it was an invaluable experience as it was the first time I had to deal with something so complex. After graduation, I joined Bohemia Interactive to work on DayZ but moved to Warhorse after less than a year.

4) What is your favorite team activity?
Going to the pub.

5) What are you currently working on?
Right now I’m working on scripts for 3ds Max that send statistics to the database, and on various debug tools.

6) Can you show some of your projects besides of Kingdom Come: Deliverance?
Sure, please take a look at my Artstation submissions.

7) How, when and with what platform or game did you first get acquainted with videogames?
The platform was an MS DOS PC, a 286 I think, and the game was some Disney puzzle

8) Which videogame character or figure is the best?
I guess Agent 47, an elegant, genetically-enhanced killer.

9) Are there any videogames you repeat playing over and over again?
Max Payne 2 because it’s short and I would say well concentrated. And The Guild Europa 1400, mostly as a co-op with my friend with whom we try to pull off various political plots.

10) Your favorite music playlist
Some years ago, all I listened to was metal, but since I’ve started working full-time, I now have more listening time so I began exploring all genres. At the moment, I’m a lot into synthwave, but I still enjoy a bit of metal from time to time.

11) Your favorite movie or book?
My favorite book series is Harry Potter and I guess my favorite film would be the first Matrix.

12) What is your weakest trait?
I hate getting up.

13) What was your favorite subject and your most hated one at school?
I suppose the subject I hated the most was PE with Economy a close second.

14) If you could say something to the fans of Kingdom Come: Deliverance, what would it be?
Thank you very much for your support.

Do you have any questions to Jan “Honza” Kudrnáč? Please ask here!

[DrFusselpulli]

Here you will find Jan “Honza” Kudrnáč quite soon, when they are translated to english.