Warhorse Studios Weekly Torch

[DrFusselpulli]

Martin Klekner is our Lead Cinematic Designer here at Warhorse Studios. He joined the team after the Kickstarter Campaign back in 2014 and enriches the team with his excellent visual sense. He was born in Liberec in the north of the Czech Republic, but now he is here in Prague of course.
Do you want to know more about Martin Klekner and his job as a lead Cinematic Designer? Don´t hesitate and ask here!
You can find a Spanish translation of this interview here.

1) How did you hear about Warhorse?
I am one of the many people who first heard about Warhorse through their Kickstarter campaign. It’s funny, because I never actually thought that I could become part of the WH team. However, by total accident, I got invited in. Back in 2014 I was working on a student project called Chronicles: Prague - basically an iPhone app, tourist guide and video biography of Charles IV.'s life, all in one - and for this app me and my friends built a pretty substantial 3D model of the 14th century Prague. I wanted to lend a helping hand to Warhorse’s project so I sent an email to Dan Vávra, offering him this model. It turned out completely different than I expected. Several weeks later, Dan sent me a message, in which he told me that he saw Chronicles and he wanted me to join the project. I was to be helping to create the game’s future cinematics. To be honest, I have always been more of a freelance guy, but this was an offer I simply could not refuse. I’m glad I didn’t… and I’m really grateful for the opportunity Dan gave me.

2) Describe your position. What is it about being a Cinematic Lead?
Well, it’s pretty much about trying to persuade the rest of the team that our open-world RPG needs good looking cutscenes as well But really, what I love about this job, is that it’s many things in one. One day I find myself drawing storyboards for Dan’s story, other times I’m directing actors on motion capture, even fooling around in mocap suit myself, the rest of the time it’s about working with a talented team of cinematic guys and animators, editing cutscenes in MotionBuilder and CryEngine and trying to achieve the best results possible in our limited conditions. It’s an adventure, often strenuous, but I guess that’s what I love about it.

3) Have you ever worked on Videogames before?
All of us in the cinematic department - Petr Pekař, Tomáš Kraus, Jiří Švarc and me - have come from the film and vfx industry. Everybody - except Petr - never worked on a game before (Petr worked on Mafia 3)… After three years of doing this, I must say, games are probably the most difficult projects to work on - there’s so many elements that must come together for the game to work, so many different departments, and all of it is constantly buggy and crashing. You may finish some task on Friday and find it completely ruined on Monday, without apparent reason (I don’t actually laugh when this happens). But we’re doing our best, learning on the run, solving one problem at a time. I believe it will pay off in the end

4) Please describe Warhorse Studios:
It’s an adventure, simple as that. Sometimes we hate each other, sometimes we despair, sometimes we feel immense pride in what we were able to achieve. It’s a process of trial and error, so it really can’t be any different. What makes it different from any other studio project I’ve worked on, is the enthusiasm.

5) What is your favorite team activity?
Our (more or less) weekly screenings of cutscenes, where we debate what can be improved. Especially when accompanied by a bottle of beer Also, lighting and fine tuning cutscenes with our Art Director Mikuláš Podprocký. Miki has a great eye for detail, one can learn from him a lot. The fine-tuning phase is when all our work finally comes together - and it’s always a great feeling.

Also, the mocap recording with our team of actors. I think I will never forget this experience

6) Describe your usual day at the studio?
A hot cup of coffee. That’s where it always starts Otherwise, it varies. A year ago, the process was completely different from now (we were mocaping the cutscens), two years ago as well (that was when I drew the storyboards) . After that, we edited the rough cuts of the cutscenes, putting the mocap data together, adding cameras and cuts.

These days we are in the finishing phase of cutscene production. Which means, first thing in the morning, I start downloading the latest data build of the game and in the meantime, I solve some bugs reported by our testers. Then, I start working on my cutscenes, same as the rest of the cinematic team. We polish the camera moves, the lighting, the environment, add particles etc. etc. Anything to make the cutscene look nice, while not lowering the FPS too much.

7) What do you think is the most important part of the game?
There’s this atmosphere of believability about the whole thing. For example, I remember the first time I walked into Talmberg village. It was at night - and suddenly, this huge black shape appeared in front of me. It was the Talmberg castle. And for some reason, it made a greater impression on me than any other castle from any other game. It was not the biggest, not the most awesome looking castle I’ve seen in a game, no. But since it was set in this realistic, down-to-earth environment, it stood out. And I realized: wow, this is how it must have felt to see a real castle in the Middle Ages.

I get the same feeling from all the elements in the game, from the story, the combat system or just from strolling around through the environment.

8) As a lead cinematic designer you can surely tell us more about the Global announcement Trailer?
Well apart from the fact that we had a crazy deadline and generally it was one big chaos, trying to make the best possible result without a final edit of the video up until the last moments… it was fun! Required a few sleepless nights spent in the studio, but it was worth-it. A great team effort. And a lot of people seem to like the trailer, which is awesome

9) You were involved in the recent change of Henrys hair-style, can you tell us more about that?
Well, I’m not really sure about the importance of my role in this change, in the end, it was a joint decision of Dan Vávra, Mikuláš Podprocký and Ivan Čerevko (our character artist working on the characters’ haircuts). But I did make some comments about Henry looking a bit too metrosexual for a son of a blacksmith. And I probably mentioned this to Dan, Miki and Ivan… I think the new haircut is much more fitting, which means it helps to tell the story of the game… And that’s the most important thing for the cutscene department.

10) with what game did you first get acquainted with videogames?
Prehistorik! I loved that little fella

11) What was your most touching video game moment?
Oh, there’s so many. I think the time around 2003/2004 was when, for me personally, the most influential games were released. Max Payne 2, Half-Life 2, Far Cry, Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time… I realized then, that games are capable of telling a gripping story. The next wave of games I loved came around 2010: Witcher 2, Mass Effect. I am also happiest when I win a battle in Total War games - oh, I love their games.

If I had to pick, though… probably the ending of Max Payne 2.

12) Are there any videogames you repeat playing over and over again?
Total War games. I’ve also played Mass Effect series, Dragon Age 1, Max Payne 1,2,3, Witcher 2 and Half-Life 2 several times.

13) Most hilarious bug you have ever encountered or worst video game experience?
New and exciting bugs are created every single day in our game! There’s a lot of hilarious stuff. I remember a bug from recent days, that made me laugh: “Sir Robard appears to be holding a chair in his hand and flying around the map with it.” You wouldn’t come up with these ideas the game produces even if you tried. Of course, we in the cinematic department, encounter our fair share of strange stuff.

14) How do you relax after a hard day at work?
Reading a good book, swing dancing or brazilian jiu-jitsu sparring. Especially the last one. There’s something about being choked by your sparring partner that makes you forget about KCD… at least for a while

15) Your favorite movie or book?
The Lord of the Rings. Yes, movie and book.

16) What’s your guilty pleasure?
The movie 300. It is atrocious… but awesome at the same time.

17) What was your favorite subject and your most hated one at school?
Now when I think about it, I probably loved history lessons the most. I love great stories. And history is full of great stories.
Most hated? That’s easy - Math, Physics, Chemistry. I can’t really say which I hated the most

18) If you could say something to the fans of Kingdom Come: Deliverance, what would it be?
Thank you for your patience and your faith in our project. It never ceases to amaze me how many people are interested in an RPG situated in 15th century Bohemia, a relatively unknown part of history. I think this is a once-in-a-life-time opportunity to make a game like this and we all do our best to make you happy in the end

If you still have questions for our lead Cinematic designer Martin Klekner, just ask here!

[DrFusselpulli]

here are the answers to your questions about Martin Klekner.

Weekly Torch - the barrel of questions

Who came up with the original hair cut to begin with?

Well, I think that the original idea came from Dan Vávra and Mikuláš Podprocký (our Art Director). And to be honest, the concept art Miki did for Henry’s undercut looked great! He looked gruff, rugged, anything BUT metrosexual. It seemed to work…on paper, but when our character artists tried to replicat that haircut in game, it simply did not work on Tom McKay’s type of head.
It’s worth mentioning, that the undercut is historically accurate. It was quite common among higher classes and fighters of the time, probably because it is easier to put on a helmet, when you have sides of your head shaved.

Weekly Torch - the barrel of questions

So your 4 member Cinematic dept. has less than 1,5 year to assemble animations from mo-cap into polished 3 hours cut-scenes right? Than each of you have to produce 10 minutes of finished product each month? Or do you iterate the whole thing together with with quality passes? How do you work in the team?

Yes, we go through a lot of stages. First there was a rough cut, then polished cut, then some first camera polishes, overall polishes, etc. We schedule the completion of each phase around some important milestone our management gives us. In each round of this process, we try to improve the look of the cutscene as much as possible.

Weekly Torch - the barrel of questions

“trying to achieve the best results possible in our limited conditions”
What do you feel is limiting you the most? Is it just time/money limitation? Or do you wish for better technology or more people perhaps?

All of it, probably But you know what? I think that on every project worth doing, there’s never enough time, money, tools or people. It’s just about what you can do with what you’re given.

Weekly Torch - the barrel of questions

The production quality of your new story trailer exceeded my expectations tremendously (congrats to 2mils views in 8 days just on WH channel), but there are some people hoping for improved facial animations. Will you take some extra care to improve on those in final product?

Yes, we are all very much aware of how Mass Effect: Andromeda ended up, so our animation department will definitely try their best to make the facial anims as polished as possible. It’s a tough job, though, especially in the span of 4 hours of dynamic cutscenes.

Weekly Torch - the barrel of questions

Why do you have procedually generated mouth animations, but have to craft every blink and eye movement yourself? It should be easier to create a similar algorith which automatically lets character blink from time to time, move the eye in a natural way, and so on. Other games have done this as well. Would it not be a waste of your time to handcraft everything?

You are probably referring to the “dead faces” seen in our E3 demo. No worries there, the facial “moods” for in-game dialogues are one of the last things that are implemented. Basically, for each paragraph of our in-game dialogues, a character mood needs to be set and somebody has to set it. This, however, was not finished when we set out for E3 this year. Don’t worry, it will be ready for the final product, the characters will be blinking, have different emotions etc.

Weekly Torch - the barrel of questions

And about the haircut of Henry - why not make a barber ingame, where you can choose between some hairstyles?

Creating different good-looking hairstyles for the main hero takes a lot of time. At this stage, we rather focus on polishing the stuff we already have

Weekly Torch - the barrel of questions

you mentioned a deadline… What’s plan B if a deadline is too short?

That really depends on the type of a deadline. For E3 trailer deadline there really is no plan B, it needs to be finished on an agreed-upon day. For game-related deadlines, there are often plans on how can we make things simpler or what we can cut, to finish everything in time.

Weekly Torch - the barrel of questions

How many hours have you and your team worked on the teaser and the trailer?

I wish I could tell, sorry, I wasn’t tracking the hours It took us about four weeks from first cut to final polish. That, however, was just a process of polishing shots that have been in production for more than a year. However, in those 4 weeks, I think our team often worked double the normal workweek hours We were also still working on finishing the rest of the cutscenes throughout the production of the trailer.

Weekly Torch - the barrel of questions

I think your job is difficult… Because every piece of work could always improve and there is never time enough for the perfect shot. How do you manage this?

I try not to think about it too much, one can get crazy thinking like this

Weekly Torch - the barrel of questions

Are you just in time for release or will you need some additional help (manpower)? Is outsourcing an option?

It is my opinion, that one has to be familiar with the game we’re making, with its story, the medieval setting, the historical characters etc… generally, you have to live it and put a lot of heart into it, to make good cutscenes set in the world we crafted. Outsourcing is not really an option.
However, the cinematic team is pretty well balanced at this point, everybody is great at something, we work really well together and made good improvement since Beta. So I am confident we can make something worth watching.

Weekly Torch - the barrel of questions

The short haircut of Henry is a result of layer system, or not? Wearing a helmet needs short or no hair for correct working?

The whole layer system adjusts to everything the character is wearing, changing shape so that it can fit to the layer above it. I am not really an expert on this topic, however. I think there is a videoupdate about this, probably update #2.

Weekly Torch - the barrel of questions

Would a series (film) with Henry be a dream project for you?

Filming a movie or a series from medieval era, that would be great.

[DrFusselpulli]

Tobias “Tobi” Stolz-Zwilling has evolved very quickly from the Community Manager when he started in the summer of 2014 to the PR Manager in 2015 and has since become the face of Warhorse Studios. Born in Offenbach am Main he is known as the German intruder in the office.
He just came back from E3 in Los Angeles, and left the beautiful Californian sun behind, just to answer the call of the Weekly Torch for you.
Do you want to know more about Tobias “Tobi” Stolz-Zwilling and his job as a PR Manager? Don´t hesitate and ask here!
You can find a Spanish translation of this interview here.

1) You just came back from the E3 in Los Angeles. How was it there?
Extremely exhausting. People tend to believe that I am going for a fun trip whenever I am attending a convention. However, in reality it’s tons of hard work, from building the booth, fighting with hardware and software problems, buying last minute stuff because everything is broken, to presentations every 30minutes to a new bunch of journalists. I think we did 36 presentations to over 150 journalists in 3 days. In the end of the day I am always so tired that I skip all those fancy E3 parties. But to be honest… it’s still kind of a fun trip!

2) What exactly did you do on E3?
At E3 we were a team of 7 people. While Rick Lagnese and me presented the game the others either helped with technical problems or guided journalists through their hands on sessions. Before E3 my core job is to take care of journalists appointments and while E3 of course presenting the game to them. It’s pretty tough if you consider that you have to present the same thing, with the same enthusiasm up to 16times per day (8h), but I love my job and love to be in contact with the people. The best moment is when I hear those whispers of “wooooow”, “no waaay” or “cooool” while I present my stuff. Always makes me smile!

3) What was your personal Highlight on E3?
Unfortunately, I can’t leave my E3 booth, that means that I almost never see anything else than our own game. Therefore, my highlight every day was when Jiri Rydl came into the booth each evening saying “Done! That was the last bunch for today!”.

4) Where can we usually find you lurking in the holy halls of Warhorse?
I am almost always at my desk in the Marketing and PR Office. And yes! I will forever call it like that even though we share this office with Scripters, IT, Testers and other. However… WE WERE HERE FIRST!!! (and are the only ones who didn’t move back and forth)

5) How did you hear about Warhorse?
I was watching my favorite gaming show back then called “GameONE” and they were talking about “Hardcore” games. So while I was munching my breakfast they introduced Kingdom Come: Deliverance and some bearded Hobo who was presenting it. In the same week I was taking the elevator to my flat and another bearded guy shared it with me. I saw the guy several times and always asked myself who this burglar is. When we shared the elevator, he looked at me and said “Hey I am Dan, do you also live here?”. That was the first time I looked into his face – I had this sudden feeling that I know this guy. I went to my apartment, tried to google him and boom… Daniel Vávra, creator of Mafia and founder at Warhorse Studios – the same guy I saw on GameONE. I tried to sneak on him somehow, wanted to pass my CV to him, but WHS only searched for programmers and alike. I even tried to look out the window to see if he is going on a walk with his baby and/or dog. Didn’t work out. But then one day… I think it was Thursday evening 9pm, I checked the WHS job page and they were looking for a Community Manager. I dressed myself, printed my CV, went down the stairs, knocked on the door. Dan in shirt and his undies opened the door and I said: “I know who you are, I love what you do, here is my CV”. He laughed, said that it was shitty payed, but that he will look over it. Right day, right time I guess.

6) Describe your position. What is it about being a PR Manager?
Whatever job at Warhorse Studios you’ll apply for, be sure that you most likely will do several other things in addition. So as PR Manager I should do strategical planning of our entire communication including media relations. However, I also do press speaking (presentations, interviews, streams and shows), organization of events, supervising our Community Manager, media/community monitoring, organizing team activities like our annual Secret Santa or Team Building, being the captain of our Warhorse football team (the European one… the only real one!!!) and running a very successful business, we call TobiShopTM. In the end my job is all about communications, either to the outer world or to the inside of the holy halls of Warhorse Studios. And hell… I do talk a lot!!!

7) Did you ever worked on Videogames before?
Not at all. I always played a lot of videogames, but I worked as a freelance journalist before. I always thought that I am very good in asking questions and writing. At WHS I found out that I am even better in answering and talking.

8) Which job would you not want to do?
In Sims 3 there was an ability you could add that was called something like “Enthusiastic” or so. I always took it because this describes me pretty well. It said that you are happy about all the small things in life - I think I would try all jobs and would give my usual 110%. However, I really sucked at programming at University… almost break my neck… I am almost sure… it would break my neck for sure if I had to do this as a living.

9) Please describe Warhorse Studios:
Warhorse is a great place to work! It surely has its flaws and tends to be a bit too punk rock from times to times, but on the other hands it gives a chance to proof that you are worth it. It gives you the freedom to develop your skills and pitch new ideas projects that might or won’t find its way into the project KCD. One moment everyone loves each other the other one everyone hates each other. It’s almost like working with friends rather than with coworkers.

10) Please describe one of your colleagues or your department:
Jiri Rydl is a great guy… in his own weird, crazy, annoying, hateful, dick-move way. He really is… trust me… like for sure!!! Ooooooookay it might be true that whoever meets him for the first time thinks that he is a total unfriendly douche… but that’s only a facade. If you are able to look through that you’ll meet one of the most loyal and diligent persons at WHS. He was my tutor and coach when I started here and turned out to be my best friend at the studio… in his own dick-move way :). He didn’t get me a birthday present… DOUCHE!

11) What is your favorite team activity?
I am proud to call myself the founder of the WH Soccer team, the teambuilding at fortress Malesov, the Secret Santa Christmas Party and dealer of sweet treats at TobiShopTM. I love my baby’s equally!

12) Describe your usual day at the studio?
My work varies strongly from day to day. Usually I start my day with our free breakfast and a cup of coffee and go over though monitoring the internet, searching for articles, tweets or general mentions about the studio or the game. However as I said, since my job changes every now and then there are always different challenges.

13) What are you currently working on?
I just finished some E3 paperwork, internal reports about our performance. My next task is a live stream we are going to have today, on this Friday 23rd at 6pm CEST. But to make things a little trickier, I also have to welcome ESO today, a YouTuber from UK at the WHS who will get my full attention. But he agreed to join me at the stream which could be really great. I am looking forward to it.

14) What are some of your notable accomplishments?
Well, whenever I prepare myself for a big show I play through the presentation build and start my usual hate speech about how I dislike this and that. Our devs hate me then thinking that I hate our game which is not true at all. I love it… I am just really nitpicking when it comes to the stuff I am presenting. In the end this potentially benefits the bug hunting and optimization since I have a different view on the game. And then my biggest fail – I have a small voice over role in the game… and I hate it

15) What do you think it’s the most important part or thing in the game?
Every department thinks that their feature is the most important one in the game. However, I really like the combat. I know that some might have issues with that… but hey… I finished DarkSouls 1, 2 and 3 :). I really love the way it is. Hard, tactical and technical. Even after 3 years of fighting, I still feel great after each fight I win. And this really is something special!

16. What is the most important characteristic a PR Manager must have?
Being a PR Manager at WHS requires you to be an extrovert. You need to be able to present the game, yourself and be full of enthusiasm.

17) How, when and with what platform did you first get acquainted with videogames?
It was a Atari 2600, but I went to many platforms. Sega Mega drive, DOS gaming, a Gameboy… but the one that I still play today, and consider the best platform ever is my SNES. I love it… and it’s actually in the studio. We even had a Tetris league once… I think we never found the true master of blocks.

18) What was your most touching video game moment?
Finishing Final Fantasy X… I thought I have nothing to accomplish anymore in life… I didn’t know what to do next… it was just such a great game. I finished it another 5 times later

19) Which videogame character or figure is the best?
Tobi in which ever I can create and name my own character!

20) Which class, gender, or type do you usually pick?
I almost always play as a mage with fire attacks.

21) Which videogame character are you?
Tobi from the character editor.

22) Are there any videogames you repeat playing over and over again?
Well I finished Final Fantasy X 6times, I play my Snes over and over again (preferably Super Mario World) and I really love Xcom 2. Hmmm… I also play those games no one understands… like Football Manager.

23) How do you relax after a hard day at work?
I keep telling myself… today I am going to plays some games… end up sleeping on the couch… DAMN!

24) Your favorite music or Spotify playlist
I like electronic music but I am able to listen to all kind of stuff, so it really depends. I found an old Offspring CD yesterday… so guess what I am playing on full Volume when driving to the studio.

25. Your favorite movie or book?
To my shame I must admit that I am not a great reader. I read the Harry Potter books before the 1st film was aired. It was great but nowadays I almost only read news.

26) Your travel tip?
You’ve never been to Prague? Do it! There is tons of great food and beer… which is pretty much the only thing you can get cheap in Czech Republic.

27) Sport is…
The greatest thing on earth. I played Handball for 19years and made it even to contracts. However I have a bad luck for injuries, so after 9 surgeries my career ended. But on the other hand, if I stay fit and made it to be a professional. I most likely wouldn’t ended up at WHS.

28) What’s your guilty pleasure?
I love cookies… and everything that is baked like cakes and stuff. Hmmmm… CAKE… wheeee…

29) What was your greatest mistake?
My greatest mistake is about to come… and I am still waiting for it.

30) Do you have a Bucket List?
Well actually… I could imagine myself living and working in USA or Canada. So maybe that might be something?

31) What will be your famous last words?
I actually hated all of you…

32) Is it possible to buy you with candy?
Sure, I mean one hand washes the other… right?

33) How do you like living in the Czech Republic?
I had the advantage that I was able to talk Czech since my mum is from Czech Republic. So when I moved here in 2012 I had an easy start. But my plan was to finish my studies and return to Germany… but then I worked as a journalist… and met that bearded dude… well and now I am here. But Czech Republic is great… the Texas of Europe!

34) What is your weakest trait?
I am not patient at all. And I tend to be really pissed and angry if things are not going the way I imagine it. I mean… let’s talk about stuff… but I am too German to miss deadlines!!!

35) Who is your favorite historic character?
I liked Alex the Great when I was younger… I don’t even know why.

36) What was your favorite subject and your most hated one at school? What were your grades in history?
I was pretty good in all “talking” subjects obviously like history, politics and alike. I was pretty bad at Maths and Physics. There was only one way… become a Journalist… … or PR guy.

37) If you could say something to the fans of Kingdom Come: Deliverance, what would it be?
I know many of you people for a long time. Back then, when I started as a Community Manager I was closer to you, but I always like to remember the goofy discussions we had at the forums. Well, we came a long way together and we are almost at the finishing line. I hope, and know, that you are as excited as I am so let’s bring that baby home!

Do you want to know more about Tobias “Tobi” Stolz-Zwilling and his job as a PR Manager? Just ask here!

[DrFusselpulli]

Here are Tobi´s answers to your community questions.

Weekly Torch - the barrel of questions

is there a story behind your (new) beard? A bet maybe,… or do you just want to look more serious?

Not really. My girlfriend asked me to grow a beard… I refused… well… you know the result.

Weekly Torch - the barrel of questions

Was it hard to start as a “nobody” with a new studio and an unfinished product? What has changed in the last 3 years? Is it now easy(ier) to get attention at journalist/game magazin?

I don’t know. I can’t compare it to the situation of starting as “someone”. However, when I started at WHS, they were in an office made for 20 people, but they already were a team of almost 40. So my first month at Warhorse Studios was on Home Office… I think you can consider this an easy start. And yes, but this is a general phenomenom, the closer you get to the finishing line the more attention you create. In the beginning it was “Wow, that KickStarter success” then “Wow, it’s really a thing and they are developing it”, and now “Wow, it’s on the finishing line”. Fingers crossed to get it to “Wow, what a great game” stage.

Weekly Torch - the barrel of questions

Everyone wants more information about the game; much more than you can give. I wounder how you stay always so cool and friendly. Have you a trick?

I don’t know. I inherited this from my parents I guess. My father is an introvert and very professional (German), my mother is an extreme extrovert and very creative (Czech). I guess I actually am a mixture of both. Professional extrovert… hmm… sounds good!

Weekly Torch - the barrel of questions

Have you ever lied as the PR guy, or are you 100% trustful?

No never. That breaks your neck and is never good. No matter if at work or in your personal life. However, I said stuff that got changed afterwards, which is unfortunate but life is a process, so is game development. And processes change sometimes.

Weekly Torch - the barrel of questions

Is there a secret about the game, you want to share?

Yes. But since it’s a secret I can’t tell you. Which is actually a real pain. For those who know how I present the game… .I LOVE TO TALK… and I would love to praise all the secret cool stuff.

Weekly Torch - the barrel of questions

Was there a question from a journalist, which was surprisingly good/bad and unexpected?

Something that caught me off-guard you mean? Being a good PR means to have satisfying answers on questions you have no clue about. Like politicians!

Weekly Torch - the barrel of questions

What is in the free breakfast?

Everything you wish for: cereals, fresh boiled eggs, fresh bread and different cream cheeses. Vegetable and fruits and the souls of broken developers. Yummy!

Weekly Torch - the barrel of questions

Hi Tobi, should KCD and its sequel succeed, what will you guys do next? Since Warhorse was pretty much established to make KCD, is there a future beyond it?

Hmm… we’ll see. KCD would certainly have many more stories to tell, so there is no dead end. However, I’ll see where my feet bring me…

Weekly Torch - the barrel of questions

what do you do when there is no PR event to prepare, or are you always preparing one?

There is always PR to prepare. No matter if Social Media activities, streams and stuff. But since I also do a lot of internal stuff there is always work to do. Currently we are working on Gamescom preparations, then eventually Paris Games Week and so on… well… and then there is the release… so I guess the window for possible vacation is slowly closing down for me

Weekly Torch - the barrel of questions

Did your surrounding have an influence on you growing a beard?

Yes. My girlfriend forced me into it while everyone else hated it. Now almost everyone likes it.

Weekly Torch - the barrel of questions

Did you receive any significant feedback after E3 previews?

Of course, constantly. We get feedback on several stuff: The booth, the game, the e3 build, my performance and so on and so on. The Media feedback is pretty good. People really seemed to like what we showed.

Weekly Torch - the barrel of questions

Did it shift any of your priorities in final run to release date?

Not at all. It just tells us what to focus on on the next show. Something like “The seemed to have trouble in XY, so we focus our presentation on YZ”. Not talking about optimization of the game. This continues of course.

Weekly Torch - the barrel of questions

Are you overall satisfied with how E3 went?

Yes! It was great.

Weekly Torch - the barrel of questions

Did you expect more/less covfefe from major websites?

Well Angela Merkel will be at Gamescom, POTUS should have been at E3 as well. He would like Wolfenstein

Weekly Torch - the barrel of questions

Will there ever be linux/mac versions or are they scratched?

Not scratched, just postponed to unknown.

Weekly Torch - the barrel of questions

What was the one thing you wanted most in the game that was changed?

Hm I am not sure what you are referring at. I am no Designer so I don’t add anything to the game per se. However, when it comes to fine tuning before events, I want to make it more accessible for media and players. Devs tend to presume that the person who is going to test the game saw all of our videos and heard all of our presentations. Dumb down would be the right term, but this sounds way to negative. Just more accessible!

Weekly Torch - the barrel of questions

What do you like least about the game?

Hm… hard to say. I vocalize the things I hate before events, so they usually get fixed or changed . But to be honest, I really like our game.

Weekly Torch - the barrel of questions

was there reservations about releasing Kingdom Come Deliverance in the same possible time frame as Red Dead Redemption 2?

Actually no, there is always some game. No matter which day or month you release it. But of course, the further away from such huge titles, the better. But this is only one factor of many to determine the “right date”.

Weekly Torch - the barrel of questions

I gotta say it seems like a trend with the people at warhorse and their coming across the studio. is the studio like some Alice in wonderland? Dan falling down the hole and gathering a ragtag bunch of misfits along the way or is he the smoking caterpillar? just remember what the door mouse said…

Hmmm… now that you mention it…

Weekly Torch - the barrel of questions

I want to make a suggestion. now you have the noice beard. I think it’s time to rock the suspenders with the shirt look. take that shit to the next level. you can hold out of them when you are having profound ideas.

Naaaahhh I think I already passed the acceptable amount of Hipsterness. That’s a really thin line and I don’t want to overdo it. However, the coffee tastes a lot better now!

Weekly Torch - the barrel of questions

you said you like to be critical of the game when warming up for a presentation. I guess like a worst case scenario. know your games flaws to own them type thing. it is a good tactic. Sun Tzu agrees. was there any huge f ups at E3 worth noting?

Show (first presentation) started at Tuesday 12:00pm nothing worked (hardware), and I had to sacrifice my presentation laptop for the first Hands on session at 12:30 pm. While the first bunch of people played we had to crawl beneath the tables to wire stuff. We even accidently unplugged a PS4 while someone was playing… this is one of the moments were I get super angry. But in the end we made it!

Weekly Torch - the barrel of questions

what would you like for your birthday, dear friend?

Hmmm… It’s no present if there is no display!

[DrFusselpulli]

Anna Pačesová started as a tester in 2014 here at Warhorse Studios, but her dream was to become an Environment Artist, and here in wonderful Prague -the city where she was born- that was definitely in the realm of possibilities. So her new job is to work on the beautiful countryside and create assets to bring it to life.
Do you want to know more about Anna Pačesová and her job as an Environment Artist? Don´t hesitate and 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?
You can find me in our dark vampire artist cave, where is no light at all, so we can see the colors properly (or maybe we are light sensitive, because if somebody accidentally switch the light on… mayhem! Everybody starts to scream - “Light! Switch off the light! It hurrrrrts!”)

2) How did you hear about Warhorse?
I like to play video games, so I like to read about them as well. I´ve probably read about Warhorse somewhere on the internet for the first time. I actually started here as a quality assurance person and then I clawed my way up to the 3D department, because that was the thing I wanted to do all my life and I am really happy I´ve got the chance. I am here for almost three years now.

3) Did you ever worked on Videogames before?
I have worked previously on “Attentat 1942” (or “Československo 38-89”) as one of the game designers. It is a project of Charles University, where I am studying, so this is how I ended up with the project. I also like to play historical games and currently I am writing a thesis about them.

4) Please describe one of your colleagues or your department:
His head is shiny and round like the moon!
When he will see this, awaits me the certain doom!

5) What is your favorite team activity?
Ehm…drinking?

6) Describe your usual day at the studio?
When I am able to wake up early, I come around 8am and eat our Warhorse breakfast, which consists of eggs and bread. Then I download the new data and start to work on various tasks (modelling, creating the actual environment, optimizing), lately it was a lot of creative work and final touch ups in our areas (every artist has a part of the map, which he takes care of - for example - mine is Úžice area), like creating the points of interests, which I´ve really enjoyed and I am looking forward what will people say about them. Then I work, work, work (while listening to some music and audiobooks), tea time with other art colleagues , work, work, and after that I submit my work and go home.

7) What are some of your notable accomplishments?
I don´t know if it is notable, but at least is is noticeable – I´ve made the shop signs and the dice for the minigame.

8) What is the most important characteristic an environment artist must have?
A good eye for detail, a lot of imagination and passion.

9) What do you like the most about Kingdom Come: Deliverance?
The environment of course!

10) How, when and with what platform or game did you first get acquainted with videogames?
When I was three years old, I played Prince of Persia for the first time on my mum´s laptop. I think I had died every five seconds, but I really liked that Then I spend a lot of time with Prehistorik, Stunts, UGH, Heroes of Might and Magic III, Age of Empires and all those old time classics.

11) Which videogame character or figure is the best?
Geralt or Ezio Auditore… I can´t decide which one is better, but they are both sexy, clever and funny
Oh, and I can´t forget to mention Guybrush Threepwood!

12) Which class, gender, or type do you usually pick?
Stealthy, pretty females (boring, I know).

13) Which videogame character are you?
I am a random villager in Kingdom Come: Deliverance Yes, you can find me there!

14) Are there any videogames you repeat playing over and over again?
No. I hate to repeat things. So every game which is repetitive absolutely frustrates me. I´ve tried to play Fallout: New Vegas for more than once, but I´ve ended up trying to break the game and did really silly things. Another exception are story driven multiple choice games - I sometimes go back and see what would happen differently.

15) What would a perfect game according to your wishes look like?
True open world RPG in Dishonored world. It would be nice to walk around freely and discover the stories of inhabitants and not just be hiding and be hunted all the time

16) Most hilarious bug you have ever encountered or worst video game experience?
The flying people in KCD. It does not happen anymore, but it was hilarious. Especially this one I have managed to capture.

17) What game have you been really looking forward to but turned out to be a total disappointment?
Assassin’s Creed Syndicate. I used to love AC series (mainly those with Ezio), but after so many parts it became soooooo repetitive and stupid. I love victorian London as a setting, so it was very disappointing when I have realized it kind of bores me.

18) How do you relax after a hard day at work?
I like to eat good food, so I either like to cook or hang out in some great restaurant. Also I relax a lot while painting or drawing. Or I read some book, play games, do yoga, ballet, learn new things…

19) Your favorite music playlist
So many genres, so little time! I love especially the older music - jazz, big bands, 80’s. From the newer interprets - Lana del Rey, Nick Cave, Marilyn Manson. And the best soundtrack ever -The Witcher III.

20) Your favorite movie or book?
The Last Unicorn - movie (I am not ashamed of that!) Other than that I like movies by Tim Burton, Wes Anderson, Jim Jarmush, David Lynch and also weird japanese movies.
From books - Neil Gaiman is my favourite writer. I love Kafka on the shore by Haruki Murakami lately and comics by Guy Delisle - also other serious comics are my favourite thing to read.

21) What species is your spirit animal?
Jack Daniels

22) Your travel tip?
Japan and Canada! People are nice and kind there, nature is beautiful and food delicious! What more do you want? (Tip: Best sushi is in Kanazawa.)

23) What’s your guilty pleasure?
Eating french fries with ice cream. And watching high school themed movies … while eating the french fries with ice cream.

24) What will be your famous last words?

25) Is it possible to buy you with candy?
Oh, yes. For a period of time I was subscribed to Japanese candy boxes. They have sent me box of various weird treats every month. Omnomnom.

26) What is your kryptonite?
Stupid evil people. I want to commit suicide when I have to deal with them.

27) What is your weakest trait?
When I am hungry, I get grumpy.

28) Imagine you are a cake, what kind of cake are you?
Sushi cake

29) Who is your favorite historic character?
Cleopatra. She had cool hair and boyfriends. And when I was young I had always the feeling that Jan Žižka is my uncle for no reason at all

30) Which is your favorite historic event?
World War II, because it is fascinating and also terrifying how people can be manipulated.

31) You have to fight in medieval times… who are you?
The leader. I have no weapon. I am in the tent… where the food is. I just point on the map and send people to die.

32) Knights or Samurai?
Samurai! Obviously!

33) If you could say something to the fans of Kingdom Come: Deliverance, what would it be?
Find all the easter eggs!

Do you want to know more about Anna Pačesová or her job as an Environment Artist? Just ask here!

[DrFusselpulli]

And here are Anna Pačesovás answers to your community questions:

Weekly Torch - the barrel of questions

What type of wildlife can we expect to see out in the wilderness environments?

You can expect deer, red deer, roebucks, hares and wild boars.

Weekly Torch - the barrel of questions

Which would you choose: frozen grapes or ice cream?

I have never eaten frozen grapes, so I would probably choose ice cream… but I need to try those frozen grapes! Thanks for the tip!

Weekly Torch - the barrel of questions

Have we different sounds in the environment when it rains, or is it the same like on sunny days?

Sure – there is the sound of rain, and for example, birds are little more quiet too

Weekly Torch - the barrel of questions

You are limited to the assets of the game. I hate it if they are repeatedly used. For example the red and yellow clothes on the lines (in the first quest!!). Once you “discovered” such a thing , it’s everywhere… It would help if the colors were different!!!
Do you crosscheck the work of your coworkers for this kind of “bug”?

There are more types of clothes on the lines now, so you don´t have to worry anymore
When we don´t like something in our game, everybody can write a bug or feedback and it is discussed then.

Weekly Torch - the barrel of questions

Your dices look nice! How many different sets do we have in the game?
Have you worked also on the look of the real dices of KCD?
( I have a set ) They are great!

Thanks! You can make your own sets in the game from the dice you find (maybe buy?). There is 16 types, you can combine, and each of them have special abilities.
No, I didn´t work on the look of the real die of KCD. I made the KCD die in the game based on the already made one. Other dice are based on real historical dice of that time.

Weekly Torch - the barrel of questions

Any plans for the future?

Work on more amazing games!

[DrFusselpulli]

Vaclav “Wenceslaus” Fliegel made its way as a moderator from the Kingdom Deliverance community forum to a tester in the quality assurance deparement here at Warhorse Studios since spring 2017.
We was born here in Prague and he bears the same name as the king of Bohemia in 1403, Wenceslaus. Luckily our Wenceslaus is much more productive and not as lazy as Wenceslaus IV.
If you have any questions to Vaclav “Wenceslaus” Fliegel, don´t hesitate any longer and ask here.
You can find a Spanish translation of this interview here.

1) How did you hear about Warhorse?
Back in 2012 I was curious what are creators of the Mafia or the operation Flashpoint doing . And I’ve found Dan Vavra‘s blog and topic “Overkill design“…
Since then I start following the project that then eventualy came to Kickstarter.

2) You came directly from the Community, how is working at Warhorse different from your expectations?
I tried not to have specific expectation. I know that it will be different to what I did.
Even before I came here I was interested in game development (as a player). I listen to GDC vault recordings and visit similar event in Prague, I seach forum sand blogs where various developers describe how they do thing and such… hmm…. so perhaps I had some idea after all.
All in all, I really like it here!

3) Your Name is Vaclav, or Wenceslaus. How is it to have the same Name as the King of Bohemia in the Game?
Ha! You mean “His drunken majesty”?
Anyway, it is quite common name here. So no special feeling about this. It is not the only Wenceslaus in our history either. Even the Charles the IV was born Wenceslaus and accepted the name Charles in France.

4) Did you ever worked on Videogames before?
No, I never have worked in game industry before.
Previously, I worked in the National Film Archive. I mainly work with old documentary from 30’s and 40’s. It is quite interesting if you like history (I do!) – seeing all the historical events, even the propaganda or just a daily life.

5) Describe your usual day at the studio?
After arriving to the studio, I download the new data, check yesterdays reported bugs and our forum and then we have meeting. Then it’s time to test, getting trough the quests step by step or retest already reported bug sent to retest.

6) What are you currently working on?
Except quests that each tester have to test I now test also an archery. So, I sometimes equip bow & arrows and just start shooting first NPC I met! For example to test if the animation stuck when I pull the bow and was hit in the same moment and so on. That is no doubt my favorite thing to test.

7) What do you like the most about Kingdom Come: Deliverance?
The combat! I think it really makes you feel like you are fencing. More than any other game I played.

8) How, when and with what platform or game did you first get acquainted with videogames?
When I was 8 or so I think. I get Atari 800 and played River Raid a lot with my older brother.
Not sure if that was first game I played though. That could be Mario, Duck tales or Golden Axe as friends also have something to play on.
Anyway, I remember I really wanted “486” back then to play Warcraft I.

9) Which class, gender, or type do you usually pick?
I actually prefer premade character as it usually fits more to the story. So I do not mind any of those option.
But if I have to create one, I usually made some sneaky, male character.

10) Are there any videogames you repeat playing over and over again?
IL-2 BoS and War Thunder (tanks) probably. I also played Fallout 1&2 quite a few times. I like simulators but I often prefer playing faster games due the time.

11) What would a perfect game according to your wishes look like?
I can play The Talos Principle, then the Withcher and then the Il-2 BoS and have fun with all of those. So I do not think there is guide to make a perfect game.
But there is one thing I would love to see more in games; that realism doesn’t mean it can‘t be fun. It can! And it also could add to the immerion.
So I like games that keep some sence and authenticity where they could. Like if there would be a viking game where you fight mythical creatures but the armour and equip and such would be kept historical (no horns on helmets and such).

12) What game have you been really looking forward to but turned out to be a total disappointment?
Dawn of War III. I really hoped for something more closer to the 2nd one or the CoH.

13) How do you relax after a hard day at work?
Except for playing games I also try to make models in Blender and then export them to the Unreal engine and see what happens.

14) Your favorite book?
I like the 1984 book.
But I now rather read about military history, like Cromwell IV user manual and such.

15) What will be your famous last words?
I don’t know.

16) Is it possible to buy you with candy?
Do you have any or Is this just a rhetorical question? If the latter, then the answers is – definitely not.

17) What is your kryptonite?
Why should I tell you?!

18) How do you like living in the Czech Republic?
I do a lot! A lot of history there around as well as nature just few minutes from the city.

19) Knights or Samurai?
Seriously? Knights of course…

20) If you could say something to the fans of Kingdom Come: Deliverance, what would it be?
We now have a specific release date!

Do you want to know more about Vaclav “Wenceslaus” Fliegel and his job as a tester? Don´t hesitate andask here!

[DrFusselpulli]

here are Vaclav “Wenceslaus” Fliegel´s answers to your community questions:

Weekly Torch - the barrel of questions

The T-34 is the best tank ever, agreed?

Good enough to do the job, cheap to produce and upgradable. Which is basically all that is needed.
But it has its flaws as all tanks. It suffered from technical problems at early stages, crew has not enough room and the visibility from the tank was poor. And the armour wasn‘t great after Germans came up with KwK 40.
And it has wide tracks which is certainly good for mobility in difficult terrain, but the clutch-break steering wasn’t as good as differential steering which loose less energy (speed) while turning.
I would probably rather choose a Sherman than a T-34 in late WW2. For all its equip, realiability and maintenance.

Weekly Torch - the barrel of questions

What would you say is the funniest bug that you’ve come across during testing?

Hard to tell. You would have to see them. Like if you shoot a hare and his ragdoll drops to the river and that somehow amplify his movement and after few bounces the water surface shoot this poor creature high to the Sun and far over the hills. That looked hilarious.

Weekly Torch - the barrel of questions

Are there any bugs that have resulted in new ideas and features being added to the game?

None I know about. But I’m here just for few months.

Weekly Torch - the barrel of questions

Tell the true… you just play the game for having fun.

Fun has to be tested!

Weekly Torch - the barrel of questions

Bow: Is this a bug, if nobody cares, when shooting the bow and missing (a NPC). In reality everybody would try to hide (also animals) if somebody shoots on them. After hitting they are alarmed. That´s to late…

Currently, even if you miss, the civilians start to panic and soldiers start to looking after you.

Weekly Torch - the barrel of questions

Shooting with an arrow to the head: If the NPC has no head protection he ist (mostly) dead. But if he wears a helmet he is protected, no matter if you hit him into the face (without visor/unprotected). Not realistic!! Will this change till release? Only the really protected part of the head should be save!

Look at the third printscreen I posted. The one with the dead cuman. That was the first shot and I killed him only because I hit the face part.
So if the helmet does not cover the face, then it is unprotected.

[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]

This is a placeholder

[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.