Warhorse Studios Weekly Torch

DrFusselpulli · November 6, 2017, 1:17pm

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 · August 18, 2017, 11:22am

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

DrFusselpulli · November 6, 2017, 1:19pm

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 · August 24, 2017, 11:05pm

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

DrFusselpulli · February 1, 2018, 10:38am

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 · January 5, 2018, 10:46am

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

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

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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

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.

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.

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 · November 6, 2017, 1:22pm

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 · September 8, 2017, 4:45pm

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

DrFusselpulli · November 6, 2017, 1:23pm

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 · September 22, 2017, 10:19am

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

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.

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

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

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

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 · November 6, 2017, 1:52pm

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 · September 29, 2017, 11:17am

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

DrFusselpulli · November 6, 2017, 1:51pm

Matouš Verner is one of the newer members here at Warhorse Studios. Born in Prague, he started as a Voice Editor in the beginning of this year in the Music & Sound departement. He is more of a quiet person, but that might be because he has to work with all the voices from the game, which probably depletes his conversation pool.
Do you want to know more about our Voice Editor Matouš Verner? 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?
Once you enter the Warhorse office, just follow the stench of schnitzels and generally just junk food and you can’t miss the room with the AI programmers and sound guys, where I also have my desk.

2) How did you hear about Warhorse? How/When did you join?
I had noticed something was going on when the Kickstarter campaign started. Then Vojta, whom I’ve known a little from the same film school we were both attending, told me Warhorse is looking for a few sound guys for editing English dubbing. Since January this year, I am working full-time for Warhorse. Prior to this was a few months of external cooperation.

3) Describe your position. What is it about being a Voice Editor?
Editing English in-game dialogues just about sums it up.

4) Have you ever worked on Videogames before?
I’ve recently finished my studies so working for WH is my first bigger professional experience. During my studies I have worked as field recordist/boom operator/sound mixer/sound designer as a freelancer.

5) What is your favorite team activity?
Breakfasts at Warhorse, passing on the egg slicer and salt to my colleagues (teamwork).

6) How, when and with what platform or game did you first get acquainted with videogames?
It was Wolfenstein 3d and a few other games on my grandparent’s computer. I still don’t know if my grandma finished Wolf on “I am Death incarnate” difficulty level.

7) What was your most touching video game moment?
I will feel all the emotions when I finish KC:D voiceovers, if that counts.

8) Which videogame character are you?
I would be a mixture of Spaz Jackrabbit, B.J. Blazkowitz and a generic Acolyte from Warcraft.

9) How do you relax after a hard day at work?
When I return from work me and my girlfriend spend some time together by reconstructing our kitchen or I try to learn playing some musical instruments. I am kind of obsessed with buying musical instruments that I can’t play afterwards. Recently I bought an autoharp, accordion and bouzouki so our neighbors can listen to rubbish cacophony.

10) Your favorite music playlist
Mainly my playlist consists of metal music and some prog. music. I really love unorthodox bands who are not afraid to experiment in any genre. Last month, all I listened to was Enslaved, Skuggsjá and King Crimson and the Diablo II soundtrack.

11) Your travel tip?
Balkans or Georgia - very pleasant, open-hearted people (except for taxi drivers), beautiful nature and exquisite cuisine!

12) Sport is… ?
…not the thing I do.

13) Is it possible to buy you with candy?
The only candy I can be lured by is food in an all-you-can-eat-China in Karlin.

14) What is your kryptonite?
All-you-can-eat-China restaurant in Karlin.

15) If you could say something to the fans of Kingdom Come: Deliverance, what would it be?
Come to Czech Republic so you can check those KC:D locations by yourselves. Sazava river surroundings is really beautiful!

Do you want to know more about our Voice Editor Matouš Verner? Please ask here!

DrFusselpulli · October 6, 2017, 8:49am

No questions were asked to Matouš Verner so far.

DrFusselpulli · November 6, 2017, 1:51pm

Darina “Vladimirovna” Polevyk was in Russia to visit IgroMir last week and wants to report about her impressions from the convention and about her job as a tester here at Warhorse Studios.She joined the team in early 2016 to follow her friend Alisa, who also works here passionately on Kingdom Come: Deliverance.
Do you have questions for Darina “Vladimirovna” Polevyk and her position as a Tester 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 Alisa worked at Warhorse. She always told (with delight) about the life at Warhorse and about Kingdom Come: Deliverance. It always was my dream to be a part of such an interesting project. One day, she told me that they were looking for a new colleague in QA. After my interview, I realised that this is exactly the place where I would love to work, and I definitely wasn’t wrong. KingdomCome: Deliverance is a game that I believe in with all my heart and I just can`t wait for its release.

2) Please describe Warhorse Studios:
At Warhorse Studios there is a good sense of team spirit. A strong work ethic is obviously important, but the human side is also important. I enjoy working with people who have a decent sense of humor and while they may take their work very seriously, they don’t necessarily take themselves overly serious!
I really enjoy working as a part of a highly committed and professional team.
My colleagues are absolute professionals who are devoted to their work, each of whom appreciates the work of their colleagues. There is a positive atmosphere in the group, a good relationship between co-workers and we are always trying help each other, which is why I always go to work with a smile.

3) What are you currently working on?
At the moment I’m testing 3 main quests and 4 side quests as well as testing all that is related with the Sazava Monastery. This is a big part of the game which requires a lot of attention. My favorite bugs are tricky and complicated bugs, for the debugs of which you need to use logic and deductive skills. When I find the bug, I’m trying to do the right repro and debug in order to help the scripter quickly fix the problem.

4) How was the IgroMir convention?
This Saturday, our PR manager Tobi and I returned from IgroMir, which took place in Moscow. IgroMir is the biggest exhibition in Russia for all fans of interactive entertainment: computer games, games for consoles, mobile phones and other platforms. We had a booth where gamers could try to play KCD. I’m really happy that I took part in IgroMir and I had an opportunity to personally meet Russian fans of KCD. I have heard a lot of positive and delightful reviews about KCD, which is very inspiring and motivating to make the game even better.

Also, I was very happy to hear that many people already pre-ordered on Steam and are looking forward to the game release on February 13, 2018.

5) Was IgroMir your first gaming convention or did you visit other ones before?
IgroMir was my first gaming convention. Prior to this, I was never at any such event. In addition, the exhibition was combined with Comic Con Russia, where you could learn about movies DC and the Marvel Universe. The multi-day program of IgroMir was accompanied by various impressive performances. According to organizers, this exhibition was visited by more than 160 thousand people for four days.

6) What exactly did you do at IgroMir?
For the most part I helped in our booth together with the guys from Buka Entertainment. Since I know the Russian language, I entertained and communicated to the players and fans, talked about KCD, helped them pass the first quest as well as other challenges. I was very pleased to see many players passing the first quest completely for their first try and then they were very surprised when I told them, that the quest could be completed in multiple ways. Some players had problems with the combat system, but after explaining the basic principles, they were delighted. Most people who played KCD for the first time were impressed with the beautiful and realistic graphics in the game.

7) What do you like the most about Kingdom Come: Deliverance?
When you play Kingdom Come: Deliverance you forget that you are playing a game and you feel a sense of creativity, improvement, and power as you overcome challenges.
Kingdom Come: Deliverance is known for its creative, unique design and music. I cannot tell you how many times I’ve stopped just to look at the beautiful scenery and enjoy the music.

8) How, when and with what platform or game did you first get acquainted with videogames?
When I was a child, my father (all by himself) assembled a computer based on the ZX Spectrum processor. The games were recorded on cassettes and it took 30 minutes to download it. While the game was loading, there were unusual noises from the speakers of the recorder. We often played games with our parents and it is one of the brightest memories of my childhood.

9) Are there any videogames you repeat playing over and over again?
I have to say that I almost do not play games because I have no time
Sometimes on weekends we play Fifa and GTA with my husband. He is also a fan of KCD and is looking forward to the release of the game very much.

10) How do you relax after a hard day at work?
The best kind of rest for me after work is sport/physical training. I’m a big fan of Les Mills training – it’s a fitness program that includes heavy strength training, powerful music, energy and bright dynamic elements of sport choreography. Sport trainings enhance my mood and also charge me with optimism and good spirits.

11) A personal story?
I was born in Chernigiv, in the Ukraine and moved to Prague when I was 21. I graduated from the University by IT Specialty. I also met my husband here in Prague and I`m so happy that I have an opportunity to work on such a wonderful project as KingdomCome: Deliverance.

12) Your favorite movie?
Futurama is my favorite animated series. I saw when I was 13 years old and to this day, I’m still in awe.

13) Your travel tip?
New Zealand – one of the most impressive places in the world.

14) Sport is…?
Football. The European style Soccer.

15) Is it possible to buy you with candy?
Of course, I have a sweet tooth.

16) How do you like living in the Czech Republic?
Czech Republic – an amazing country, with an interesting history, beautiful architecture, excellent cuisine and nice people. Moving to Czech Republic was the most important step in my life that totally changed everything.

17) If you could say something to the fans of Kingdom Come: Deliverance, what would it be?
Thank you for your trust and support. We appreciate you so much! You are cool.

Do you have questions for Darina “Vladimirovna” Polevyk and her position at Warhorse? Just ask here.

DrFusselpulli · October 13, 2017, 4:36pm

Here are Darina´s answers to your community questions

I`m pleased to hear that you liked photos from IgroMir

We presented the same build like at the Gamescom.

It`s hard to say the exact number, but there were a lot of players. Some of them played for a long time and wanted to pass the quest by any ways.

Yes, several times there were new bugs, which we have not yet seen. Players were fairly attentive and critical, have found problems in the game and advised how to fix them. Thanks to all players for that, because their opinion is very important to us.

Yes, of course we use a bug tracker to recreate and track the bugs in Kingdom Come: Deliverance. At the moment there are quite enough critical bugs, but with every day they are less and less.

One of my favorite quests is «Playing with the Devil». I think , you will like it too.

I listen to different kind of music. Lately I like indie rock and Latin - American music.

Recently one of my favorite books is «Airport» by Arthur Hailey .

At the moment 13 women are working here in the Studio.

DrFusselpulli · November 6, 2017, 1:51pm

Jakub Guman is one of the core members of Warhorse Studios as he is was already a member of the design team before our Kickstarter campaign in early 2014. He was born in the city of Kyjov in the more rural Moravian part of the Czech Republic, where the stars are beautiful during the night. This is important as astronomy is one of his favorite hobbies, so you can expect a pretty realistic night sky in Kingdom Come: Deliverance.
Do you have any questions to Jakub Guman? Please ask here!

You can find a Spanish translation of this interview here.

1) How did you hear about Warhorse?
I knew about this project from the beginning, but I wasn’t interested because I already had a job in the game industry. However, the project ended and my new game-related job was a disaster. At that time, I accidently saw “warhorse looking for designers” on my friends Facebook, so I applied and succeeded. I’ve been with Warhorse Studios for four years now and I’m pretty glad I landed right here. It’s beautiful to see the whole process of Kingdom Come, starting with the Kickstarter to the present day, getting closer to release!

2) Describe your usual day at the studio?
Read, write, read, write, play, argue, listen, argue, listen, yell, scream, explode with furious anger, calm down, listen to chill out music, read, write, play and argue again 'till the evening.

3) What are you currently working on?
Most of the time I’m playing my own quests and trying to polish them, filling some excel tables in a database and discovering what I could have designed better two years ago that can’t be fixed now…

4) What are some of your notable accomplishments?
Growing my own vegetables in the garden, despite the endless war with slugs. If you mean accomplishments with Warhorse: I guess I’m most proud of the Sazava monastery, which is basically like my own little cosmos - a small, unique and living world with its own rules, aside from the daily open world business. You will see about it in the game

5) What do you like the most about Kingdom Come: Deliverance?
That the world really does look alive. I enjoy wandering around and enjoying the nature, observing the day cycles and finding all the cool features around.

6) Which videogame character are you?
The Nameless One from Planescape Torment or Robed Figure from Journey.

7) What was your most touching video game moment?
“The Caves” chapter in Dear Ester, played after I had a drop of acid. I got lost in the cave, found some shiny carvings on the wall which looked like a chemical formula, got lost and found again, wandered through the miracles of blue stalactites, followed the mushrooms trail and finally found an exit. Then I went back to the cave, because it was so nice and cozy there…

8) What is your worst video game experience?
Worst video game experience: after 300 hours of playing Diablo III, I found myself wondering: what the fuck am I doing with my life?

9) What would a perfect game according to your wishes look like?
Hey, whichever of the endless Gods are reading this right now! Can you kindly add “save” and “load” or, “choose your character” options to the real world?

10) How do you relax after a hard day at work?
My deepest and longest love is astronomy. I love you can’t imagine anything better than a clear night sky far away from Prague – just me, my telescope and endless counts of stars. For the last two years I’ve been flirting with astrophotography. I’m still a beginner, but learning fast.
Some of my pictures: http://astrofotky.cz/~dansemacabre

11) Do you have a favorite spot in the sky?
Yes. It’s the Milky Way between the Swan and Cassiopeia – observing this part in scope is just… astounding! Many star clusters and nebulas all around. Unfortunately, the best parts of sky are on the southern hemisphere and can’t be seen from here. I’m planning go back to Chile this summer to enjoy it once more. This time with a camera!

12) Your favorite music playlist
I’m a psytrance-freak, grown-up from a hardcore scene – HC, screamo, power violence, neo-crust… basically left wing political music. Currently, I prefer deeper psychedelic music - electronic or guitar.
Favorite Bands: Lvmen, Tool, Fall of Efrafa, Isis (the band, not the terrorist group)
Favorite DJ’s: Penta, Aioasca, Aes Dana, Carbon Based Lifeforms, Whitebear

13) Your favorite movie or book?
Movie: Marketa Lazarová (Czech classic) and a The Wall (Pink Floyd classic)
Book: Recently, it’s the The Education of Little Tree (Carter), but it changes over the time

14) Your travel tip?
Visit Patagonia at least once! One day, I will move there…

15) Do you have a Bucket List?
Of course, and I’m successfully fulfilling it!

16) What will be your famous last words?
“I want to see a sunrise back on Planet Earth once more…” And then die at an age of 161 as an oldest colonist of Trappist-1e.

17) Knights or Samurai?
A partisan guy in the forest waiting for the right time to beat them both.

18) What was your favorite subject and your most hated one at school?
Literature and history. I have the best university degree from both

19) If you could say something to the fans of Kingdom Come: Deliverance, what would it be?
Please, don’t try to kill everyone in the monastery right after beginning of game. I beg you: please don’t!

Do you have any questions to Jakub Guman? Please ask here!

DrFusselpulli · October 20, 2017, 1:41pm

Here are the Answers to your community questions.

Yes, the object-shadows in the picture were switched off in the game settings for testing purposes.

25 quests and short quests (or more likely activities) are present in the recent game, other quest didn’t make it to final pass and were scratched year ago. I really regret some of them and hope they’ll be present in DLC!

I like Sassau monastery! Because its complex microworld (maybe too complex) and its torn out from the main game as a separate story inside another story.

We don’t have ANY bugs in Warhorse! We only have a lot of cool features incompatible with the rest of the game.

Not much. Its mostly about polishing and final touching the dialogue animations.

Nope. I already played most of the quests multiple times and I guess we will play it again and again few more times.

Nope. But I would appreciate 3rd person camera. It looks beautifull if you can see Henry running to the sunset.

Unfortuantely @GingerFOX asked his questions after Jakub had already send his answers to me. I have sent the next bucket of questions to Jakub yesterday, but he didn´t replied yet.
Please stay tuned, @GingerFox.

DrFusselpulli · December 18, 2017, 3:00pm

Dominik Roháček just joined Warhorse Studios a couple of months ago as a programmer. He came so fresh from university, that he is still a part time student! His heritage is Třešť, a small city in the south of Czech Republic.
Do you have any questions to Dominik Roháček? Please ask here!

You can find a Spanish translation of this interview here.

1) How did you hear about Warhorse?
I am pretty new in this company. I joined just 3 months ago. But let’s go and give it a try to answer the questions.

2) Which job would you not want to do?
Programming websites. I used to do this job to earn some money during my university studies and it is a very demotivating work. Maybe it was just bad luck with customers. Just imagine, changing the colors of elements on a website all day long and trying to explain to them what they really want, not what they think they want.

3) What is your favorite team activity?
Camping, sitting by the fireplace and singing with a guitar.

4) Describe your usual day at the studio?
Because I am new to the company, usually when I come into work, I start with looking for the information about a system which I should fix. Then a couple of hours of desperation, then committing the change and starting again.

5) What do you like the most about Kingdom Come: Deliverance?
How good the AI is. Every NPC has its own brain, which is mostly unpredictable.

6) How, when and with what platform or game did you first get acquainted with videogames?
It was around 13 yo on basic school when I received my first computer. Some family friend installed Heroes of might and magic III.
I spent hours with my friends playing offline multiplayer. It was a turn-based strategy so you have to wait until all the others finished their round before you can play yours.

7) Which videogame character or figure is the best?
Kerbals from Kerbal space program. Have you ever seen their happiness right at the moment before the collision? How many did I kill? Poor Kerbals!

8) Which class, gender, or type do you usually pick?
Usually, I pick sneaky and agile rogue. Just sneak behind your back and crush your throat!

9)Are there any videogames you repeat playing over and over again?
Might and Magic 6. But not the strategy but the old RPG with 2D trees rotating after you, bad mechanics, bugs but I still like the story of this series!

10) Most hilarious bug you have ever encountered or worst video game experience?
Do you remember Skyrim physics?

11) How do you relax after a hard day at work?
Since I don’t usually have time to relax because I am still a part-time student I usually don’t relax. But if I can then I take a wood and chisel and carving some jewellery or decorations.

12) Your favorite book?
The book of five rings. Unfortunately, I will never be able to read it in original.

13) Your travel tip?
Ireland! Definitely, I can recommend that country. It is full of magic, people here still believe in leprechauns and forests are full of witches. Live music everywhere and kind people. Just go there and start a hitchhike around the island, enjoy the countryside, the people and definitely visit Galway and go to a concert of one of the local street bands!

14) Do you have a Bucket List?
Of course and last year I am checked off many points. So maybe my end is coming?

15) Is it possible to buy you with candy?
Yes, high percent chocolate is my weakness.

16) Which is your favorite historic event?
Almost any event from second world war Czechoslovakia. There are so many interesting moments. Operation anthropoid, the start of occupation… And also there are many nice movies about this moments. Just watch Dark Blue World.

17) If you could say something to the fans of Kingdom Come: Deliverance, what would it be?
Ash nazg durbatuluk, ash nazg gimbatul,
Ash nazg thrakatuluk agh burzum-ishi krimpatul.

Do you have any questions to Dominik Roháček? Please ask here!

DonHart · October 22, 2017, 3:13pm