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Kingdom Come - Realistic open-world Medieval RPG [Kickstarter]

Not sure if Sean Bean is a good VA but I just want them to spend money on getting good Voice Actors rather than going after Hollywood guys and spending lots of money for just one guy.
 
Finnish flags lol.
They're not Finnish flags. The cross is black. I think it's the flag of Knights Hospitaller (but not sure), one of the biggest christian military orders at the time (and I think they still exist actually).

When I saw the flag for the first time in the video the thought crossed my mind too, "why on earth is there a Finnish flag in the battlefield?". But that's about it, just a little thought, because knowing they're trying to make it at least somewhat realistic, it wouldn't make any sense at all, so I looked again better and found a better pic too.

I meant that if You design controls around tons of buttons/mouse navigation on PC, You cant recreate that on Xbone, but You can on PS4 with touch pad.
The worst thing about past generation [next to RAM limitations] were controls, like for example Mass Effect 2, where one button was dodge, resurrect and cover ..., that was so annoying in MP.
Ah ok, I see your point. I'm somewhat skeptical about it though seeing how the touchpad is placed. I don't think many devs would use it for buttons that you'd actively have to use at least. More so in menus since then it's not a bother to move your hands a little. But dunno really, I might be wrong of course.
 
imo when making a melee combat system, it HEAVILY depends on which view you use.

Third person might be nice just to see your armor but you can do that in the inventory screen so maybe just to take pretty pictures......... that's about it.
And, you know, having a dodging mechanics worth something. And the feel of weapon animation and weight. And a completely different camera angle. And... you're wrong, sorry.
 
And, you know, having a dodging mechanics worth something. And the feel of weapon animation and weight. And a completely different camera angle. And... you're wrong, sorry.

There's no reason the bolded can't be done with FPP, and a Souls-esque roll/dodge wouldn't be appropriate for this game One of the .gifs on the first page seems to show some sort of ducking or side-step ability, anyway.
 
And, you know, having a dodging mechanics worth something. And the feel of weapon animation and weight. And a completely different camera angle. And... you're wrong, sorry.

Someone needs to play the Zeno Clash games! It's too bad you're not into first person melee. Condemned and Zeno Clash are so weighty and feel great, and work with controllers. But yeah, dodging and parrying are musts for this kind of game. Shit, now feel like doing a second playthrough of ZC 2.
 
Everything sounds good up until the part about ARMA... nobody wants an RPG inspired by ARMA.


"We’re mixing the freedom and mechanics of Skyrim, the setting of Mount and Blade, the storytelling styles of The Witcher and Red Dead Redemption, and the tough combat dynamics of Dark Souls into a single, gorgeous package. You could say we’d like to give ArmA (a franchise many of us worked on) an RPG makeover, streamlining the systems and controls and polishing the overarching world while keeping the unique, genuine feeling of its action and environments. Interested?"
 
Everything sounds good up until the part about ARMA... nobody wants an RPG inspired by ARMA.


"We’re mixing the freedom and mechanics of Skyrim, the setting of Mount and Blade, the storytelling styles of The Witcher and Red Dead Redemption, and the tough combat dynamics of Dark Souls into a single, gorgeous package. You could say we’d like to give ArmA (a franchise many of us worked on) an RPG makeover, streamlining the systems and controls and polishing the overarching world while keeping the unique, genuine feeling of its action and environments. Interested?"

I think they were talking about how ridiculous the control scheme for ArmA was, but still allowing many kind of actions? They've admitted the game won't be a full simulation, so I don't think it will be this extreme.

armacontrols2vh3.jpg


But we’re not trying to simulate the world as an ecosystem. The cities have some ecosystem, the world has some ecosystem, but we’re not trying to simulate it like Mount and Blade. There are dependencies between events and stuff, but you probably won’t be able to destroy merchants if you destroy a city where their supplies come from or something. It’s more low level than games like Mount and Blade.”

You can, however, kill almost anyone. A few crucial characters will be off-limits, but otherwise you’re free to go wild. Just, you know, expect consequences. What sort, you ask? On the bottom level, there are little things. Say you kill a bartender, for example. NPCs probably won’t visit that bar anymore because they know better than to stand there and pray for a frosty beverage from their longtime pal nobody. But also look forward to losing some serious karma and reputation, not to mention making things pretty difficult on yourself in the future. Really though, what else would you expect? Past, present, probably future – wanton murder isn’t exactly something people take lightly.
 
How do they deliver console physical and download versions? I assume no disc version, but how about Sony/MS wanting their share of digital downloads?
 
How high can we go?

"Jeremy Motherfucking Soule is in"

That high.

Lots of info on the new update, my favorite parts:

Sandbox

Many people wonder how much of a sandbox our sandbox is going to be. You will be able to solve quests in multiple ways, kill most of NPCs or influence their day/night cycles. We have a complex system of reputation, relationships and law. You can influence local economy to an extent (price of goods).

The player’s character is going to have a place to stay and live, but you will not be able to buy and sell real estate. Nor you can control other characters. Companions/henchmen have their own AI and they are quest-specific. Your character will develop relationships with NPCs.

Map size

Some people are concerned about our maps size and seem to think that 9 sq. km. is not enough. Please trust us that it is. Our map is bigger than the one in Read Dead Redemption. The population/point-of-interest density is going to be on par with RDR. We want the world to look natural.
 
That was a really great update. And I'm impressed they were able to put that together so quickly.

Somebody posted this comparison on their facebook:
 
I know it was more fantasy, but I'm reminded of project Offset and how impressed I was when I first saw it. I wonder whatever happened to that game...

Intel bought the guy behind Project Offset, made him to start developing game for Larrabee and then when Larrabee failed, they killed the project ;\
 
Update #6

Questions, more questions, thousands of questions and some answers

When we were readying our Kickstarter campaign we were wary of announcing stretch goals and stuff like that. We didn’t want to be in a situation where we announced £2,000,000 stretch goal and in the end did not manage to raise more than £200,000. We wanted to wait until the project was on solid footing before announcing more about our ambitions.

We didn’t anticipate needing to raise our target goal in less than two days. We’re humbled and deeply thankful to our supporters. However, we are simply overwhelmed at the moment! Consider the following: the Kickstarter ‘Comments’ forum has almost 9,000 posts in five days, we got almost 1,500 private messages (mostly questions), our Inboxes are overflowing with hundreds extra emails, and of course there are questions on our Facebook page and on Twitter. All our designers are working around the clock to answer all the queries, but they are still lagging behind. We’re doing our best, but as this is our first crowdfunding effort, we’re learning as we go along. So, to hopefully get a bit caught up and answer the most pressing issues, we’ve created this update and summarized the answers to the most frequently asked questions.

There is also FAQ section down on the project description (Home) page of Kickstarter and this update repeats some of the material there, however, we think it may get more attention here.

To our supporters: if there are things the FAQ, doesn’t address, please continue to keep the inquiries coming!! We WILL get back to you. Thank you everyone!

PayPal

Lot of people would like to pay through PayPal. Unfortunately, we are not able to set up new payment methods, this is fully controlled by Kickstarter and they chose not to support that platform. Once the campaign ends, we will continue with pledges on our web site with more options. We are doing everything we can to launch our PayPal store as soon as possible. So if PayPal is your only option of backing us, it's going to be possible in near future.

Character customization

There are many questions about possibilities of your character customization. Our game is story-based and the hero is a specific character, whose background, personal history, etc. are already developed. You cannot change his gender, voice or face. However, you can change almost everything else – we have a very sophisticated equipment/clothing system, you can change hair styles (in-game, not before starting the game), there are no class limits on attributes.

Females

A specific type of character customization question is the one about option to play as a female. This is unfortunately not possible, as explained above. However our stretch goal will allow you to take the role of a female character for a while.

Localization

We’re creating the game in English and with English voiceovers. We would like to make French, Italian, German and Spanish versions of the game as well. Our past experience also suggests there will be a Polish, Russian and Czech version of the game, not necessarily with voiceovers, though.

The other languages are matter of contracts with local distributors. We are not going to create the localizations ourselves and we do not know at this moment of time what are they going to be.

Sandbox

Many people wonder how much of a sandbox our sandbox is going to be. You will be able to solve quests in multiple ways, kill most of NPCs or influence their day/night cycles. We have a complex system of reputation, relationships and law. You can influence local economy to an extent (price of goods).

The player’s character is going to have a place to stay and live, but you will not be able to buy and sell real estate. Nor you can control other characters. Companions/henchmen have their own AI and they are quest-specific. Your character will develop relationships with NPCs.

Map size

Some people are concerned about our maps size and seem to think that 9 sq. km. is not enough. Please trust us that it is. Our map is bigger than the one in Read Dead Redemption. The population/point-of-interest density is going to be on par with RDR. We want the world to look natural.

Multiplayer

There seems to be demand for multiplayer experience. Unfortunately, Kingdom Come: Deliverance is a singleplayer game only. We are thinking about cooperative multiplayer in some further future, but definitely not for Act I.

Oculus Rift

Oculus Rift captured the imagination of many players and you ask about it very often. Cryengine supports Oculus Rift by default, however we realize that the game has to be developed with Oculus in mind and we are aware of their recommended Best Practices. We shall try to stick to these recommendations, but VR is still an uncharted territory and we can’t guarantee ideal results from get go. To create horse riding experience that won’t give you motion sickness looks like a real challenge.

3rd person view

We are sorry, but we do not plan to allow you to control your character in 3rd person view (you will be able to see your character e.g. in cutscenes, dialogues or on the inventory screen, you can also see your body and hands all the time). We believe that FPV allows for better immersion in the world; we also think that we can make the FPV combat work.

Platforms, HW requirements and digital vs. physical

The subject of platforms, digital vs. physical distribution and extra licenses is complex and bit overwhelming. We’ll try to do our best untangling it:

Let’s start with hardware. We are developing the game to run smoothly on “good gaming PC” and next-gen consoles. If you have a PC, hardware-wise similar to Xbox One or PS4, you should be able to run Kingdom Come: Deliverance well.

We are using proven technology (Cryengine by CryTek) that runs on both PS4 and Xbox One, as well as on Windows PC, Mac and Linux. While we are developing on Windows, we definitely want to bring the game to other platforms, like Mac or Linux. On closed platforms we need to deal with the platform holders and we cannot prejudge their decision. In an ideal world, we would release the game on all five platforms at the same time.

In our world, we can offer you PC/Mac/Linux version in all tiers. From the Baron tier above, you will be able to choose our game on any platform you wish from those mentioned above (i.e. Windows PC / Mac / Linux / Xbox One / PS4), with the proviso that on consoles the game must be approved by the platform holders first. In case we are not able to finish or release the game on the platform you chose for any reason, you will be able to choose again (from available platforms) or demand your money back.

You don’t have to specify your desired platform in advance. Just choose a pledge that suits you. Your pledge will be filed and you will be asked to choose a platform once the release date draws nigh. You can change this any time later – we will inform you how to do that via an e-mail.

However, on lower tiers at least you have to decide whether you want physical or digital copy of the game. For Soldiers and Knights we are unable to give you both, so you have to choose the one you want.

While it may seem that from Baron upward you get two copies of the game, it’s important to understand the distinction between copy and license. On Baron and Earl tiers you will get both digital and physical copy, however, it’s just one license (e.g. the same Steam key). So you can play either one, but you cannot for example sell the box and keep the digital copy. Obviously, both physical and digital license have to be on the same platform.

From Duke tier upwards you receive additional digital copy, meaning extra digital license. The physical and 'first' digital copy again have to be for the same platform, but the extra license can be for a different one.

To sum it up:

Soldier: Win/Mac/Linux, 1 license, digital OR physical
Knight: Win/Mac/Linux, 1 license, digital OR physical
Baron: Win/Mac/Linux/Xbox/PS4, 1 license, digital AND physical
Earl: Win/Mac/Linux/Xbox/PS4, 1 license, digital AND physical
Duke: Win/Mac/Linux/Xbox/PS4, 2 licenses, digital AND physical
… all higher tiers are like Duke in this respect

DRM

We get many questions about DRM and whether our game is going to be DRM free. Frankly, we have to admit we are not sure at this moment. We are planning to use Steam on open platforms, so the game will be using Steam default copy protection mechanics. Other options including GOG.com are being considered but can't be confirmed as of yet.

Modding

We definitely intend to release most of our game-making tools to allow the community to create mods for Kingdom Come: Deliverance. Part of our heritage are games like Operation Flashpoint and we realize how important the modding community is. We plan to support it as much as we can. It should be noted though, that the modding tools will be available for PC only.

Sword

The sword in higher tiers is a medieval European 15th century type of one-handed sword (for Emperor, Wenzel der Faule, and Pope tiers) or hand-and-a-half sword, also called bastard sword (Illuminatus and Saint tiers). It is a real-sized hand-forged weapon created by a local blacksmith, not a serial production. It can be used for combat or combat training; you can choose whether it's sharpened or not.

Delivering the sword should not be a problem to most countries (US, EU). There are countries where ownership of cold weapons is regulated (UK has ban on Katana swords, but normal sword should be OK). We are not able to verify the legal aspects of sword ownership in your country and therefore we have to ask you to check the appropriate regulation beforehand and if it appears that a life-sized sword could be a problem, we ask you to kindly select a different tier.

There are various exceptions, so to help you with the checks, here are the salient points: our sword is traditionally hand-forged, it’s straight (i.e. not curved), and we can deliver it with blunt edge. Our sword is not a toy! We cannot deliver it to persons under 18 years of age.

Act structure

This is a complex topic that is subject of many questions. We shall deal with it in one of the future updates.

Combat and Weapons

This is one of the key features of the game and one of the video updates will deal with it exclusively.

Forums

We shall be launching our own forum in the next few days. They will provide a better and more structured way of talking about game features, discussing various aspects, plans and expectations. We shall be sending you a message via Kickstarter about the details of creating your account on our forums with the right backer's badge.
 
Great video update..my hype for this game is going through the roof. It seems too good to be true but everything they're saying is completely hitting the mark.

^ Those gifs O_O
 
It's been a while since a Kickstarter project really blew me away. This one deserves all the looks that it's getting and more.
 
I've seen their stretch goals and I'd rather them just release the whole game if they get the money - instead of the episodic method they intend.
 
I've seen their stretch goals and I'd rather them just release the whole game if they get the money - instead of the episodic method they intend.

Releasing the whole game would push the release date by another 18 months, that's including the Alpha and Beta.. delaying the game would piss off the backers on Kickstarter and its a bigger financial risk to the developers.


Is this a 2015 release?

Act 1 - 2015
Act 2 - 9 months after the initial release
Act 3 - 9 Months after Act 2 release
 
I really like these guys, and am thrilled to see this project doing well. May up my pledge even higher before all is said and done. And the beard on their lead man. Love it.
 
The Kicktraq projection for this game is setting the lower bound at £1.6 million... does that seem reasonable? It seems a bit high to me given how much Kickstarters seem to slow down in the middle, but that would be a pretty nice amount of money (around half the funds they originally needed for the rest of the game).
 
This game looks amazing. It's going to be the first game I ever back on Kickstarter. Gonna buy the tier that gets alpha access as I can't wait to get my hands on it. Anyone have a rough estimate on when that might happen?
 
TGonna buy the tier that gets alpha access as I can't wait to get my hands on it. Anyone have a rough estimate on when that might happen?
Perhaps read and Ctrl+f the KS page? :)

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1294225970/kingdom-come-deliverance

Warhorse Studios said:
In about 6 months, we will release an early build of the game, with one smaller location (village and a part of the countryside) where you will be able to test core mechanics of the game. We will start with the basic mechanics (interaction with the world, inventory, map, NPC cycles) and we will constantly update this build with new features as we progress with the development (dialogues, bows, hunting, crafting, combat, horses). This is the access to Alpha version of the game and it will be available to all tiers from the Baron onwards.

EDIT: 40MB GIF gfycat'd:

 
From the comments, in response to questions about the game's length:
Warhorse said:
Cannot talk about lenght of main quest line in Act I yet. But the 30 hours are estimated for main plot and secondary quests. Activities, wandering and events are not included. Fallout New Vegas and Skyrim had about 50 hours of designed gameplay and people spent 100+ hours in there anyway. But if you follow the instruction from NPCs and ignore all your freedom you should hit the 30hour mark by the end of the game.
 
Comparing the real locations to the in-game stuff was awesome. I like that they're honest about their limitations and don't have their head in the clouds.
 
Comparing the real locations to the in-game stuff was awesome. I like that they're honest about their limitations and don't have their head in the clouds.


I like how grounded the stretch goals are.
There is no "give us 100k more and we double the size of our game world!!!" nonsense, which lets me trust these guys a lot more that they can actually pull this off.
 
Them mentioning how many emails and messages they have to sort through is a good reminder that having a Kickstarter campaign is a full time job especially when it's quite popular. You can't really get back to work during that month, because you've got to answer pertinent questions, give interviews, and generally market your game around.
 
Perhaps read and Ctrl+f the KS page? :)

EDIT: 40MB GIF gfycat'd:


It's not hi-res so this is a preliminary opinion - The hill in this gif/video (12:36 point of the 1/27 update), the vegetation is beautiful. I don't recall ever seeing such good looking grass in a game. How denser pockets interlace with lighter is superb. Particularly the crest of the hill. How the top edge of the grass fades into the blue of the sky. The use of transparency (I guess?) in the various forms of vegetation across that hill just give it a great depth and immersion.

If it gets great shimmering in the wind animation, then glory be.

We're still in the billboard plant era of graphics so whatever tricks and art choices they're making are working. It's mixing paint with photography just right. The best hill of grass I've seen in gaming, AAA or not.

I could be deceiving myself. The video is compressed and my imagination might be filling in the blanks. But I do love me some vegetation graphic evolution in games thus this long-winded post about a hill. Sorry, back to gameplay.
 
Kickstarter update said:
Multiplayer

There seems to be demand for multiplayer experience. Unfortunately, Kingdom Come: Deliverance is a singleplayer game only. We are thinking about cooperative multiplayer in some further future, but definitely not for Act I.
Fuck multiplayer. Not every game needs it.
Just make an amazing singleplayer experience.
 
Fuck multiplayer. Not every game needs it.
Just make an amazing singleplayer experience.

There are very, very few RPG games with coop, unfortunately.

I still dont understand for example why Skyrim does not have coop, it would be so great addition. I really hope that next Elder Scrolls and Mass Effect will have coop implemented.
 
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