Despite its richness in political and religious conflict, the Bohemian revolution, as well as the larger medieval period, seem difficult to pull off in games. Few make use of the setting without adding elements of magic or mythology, but Warhorse felt they were up to the challenge.
“There are several reasons [why we chose the setting],” Stolz-Zwilling says. “Daniel Vávra [Mafia II], our creative director, who’s also the co-founder of the studio, is Czech. It’s close to him because the story’s located in today’s Czech Republic – Bohemia is a part of it – so that’s the easiest explanation. The other one is that we wanted to tell a story that’s historically accurate and based on realism.
“They thought, ‘what’s actually happened in Europe, what stories are there?’ There’s the Second World War, the French Revolution; a lot of stories to tell, but most of them aren’t in Czech Republic or are already covered. There’re tons of World War II games, lots about the era of the French Revolution.”
“But no one’s really tried to tell a story about the Holy Roman Empire,” he continues, “even though we believe that it’s a huge period of European history that’s extremely interesting because there were several lords fighting each other, claiming to be united but, in fact, they were more fighting each other.
“We think, we hope, we believe, that the story we want to tell, of the Hussite Wars and the Holy Roman Empire is extremely interesting, full of intrigue, war and blood, but also has its sunny sides. We just believe that this story is kick-ass, and we want to tell it to the world.”
Medieval Realism
One genre where the Middle Ages have found success in gaming is RTS. However, games like Crusader Kings and Total War lack the explicit characterization that Warhorse are aiming for with Kingdom Come.
“The medieval times are well covered by books and movies…kind-of,” says Stolz-Zwilling. “It’s pretty popular right now, even though they’re quite Hollywood-ish, where they try to make it more interesting with fantasy elements. So, it’s not unrepresented in general, but in games, for sure. There are games that somehow cover it, but no RPGs. Like Paradox Games’ Europa Universalis, they’re of course showing the Holy Roman Empire, but there’s no deep story; it’s just a setting.
“If you think about RPGs, in most of them you have a sword and shield as your main weapon. The sword and shield are connected to medieval times, and medieval times are connected to realism – because they actually happened.
“No one’s gone this way to the realism part; they stop with the medieval setting. We’re going that step further by trying to make it as realistic as possible.”
