Mount & Blade II - Q&A

[HiddenX]

Mount & Blade II Q&A with TaleWorlds’ founder and CEO: Armagan Yavuz:

Greetings warriors of Calradia!

Today we start a series of interviews with the different team members of TaleWorlds Entertainment. Every video game is the result of the combined efforts of professionals with very different skills, and that applies to Mount & Blade too. Ours is a varied team, with people from different backgrounds: programmers, artists, musicians and writers (among others) from different parts of the world and varying cultures. Understanding their tasks and their daily struggle is a great way to learn more about games development in general – and Mount & Blade II: Bannerlord in particular! Today we start with TaleWorlds’ founder and CEO: Armagan Yavuz. Every important decision passes through his hands; he is the one that makes sure that everyone and everything stays true to the original vision of the game. But it will be much better if he tells you about it by himself!

NAME
Armagan Yavuz

FROM
Ankara (Turkey)

JOINED TALEWORLDS
2005 (founder)

EDUCATION
Computer Science

OFFICIAL JOB DESCRIPTION
Lead game designer and game director

WHAT DO YOU NORMALLY DO DURING YOUR DAY?
“Most of my day is taken up by meetings. In the time not occupied by meetings, I do my tours around the office, and most team members call me over to their desks to show their work and get feedback, or to ask a question. I also play the game for a couple of hours to see if there are any problems. I no longer code as much as I used to and most of my tasks about coding involve directing other programmers and doing code reviews, however every now and then there is something that picks my interest so much, I give it a shot.”

WHAT DO YOU LIKE THE MOST ABOUT BANNERLORD?
“What I like most is seeing how, as the campaign progresses, you as a player write your own story. I am also looking forward to finishing the game and seeing what kinds of mods will come out.”

WHAT'S THE MOST DIFFICULT THING THAT YOU SOLVED SO FAR, DURING THE PRODUCTION OF BANNERLORD?
“Looking back, the biggest challenge for me was deciding on the general directions to take early in Bannerlord’s development. Should we take the game to have a more fully fledged storyline, or should we aim for huge but less detailed battles? Should we drop the dynamic text and go for full voice over?

Decisions had to be made on the technical side too. We first needed to select which scripting system to use: C# (we picked this at the end), Lua, or something we would roll on our own. And then we had to decide how much of the code we wanted to move from our existing codebase and rewrite in the scripts. (At the end we ended up leaving only the combat engine and lowest level combat AI and write everything else in C#) We then needed to decide how to structure various components, how mods would work, etc.

Some decisions turned out to be exactly right while some caused problems and we had to backtrack and change them, costing a lot of time and effort. For example, we went through three different UI libraries and had to implement some screens several times over.”

WHAT DO YOU CURRENTLY WORK ON?
“Today I worked on the design of how army coherence will be affected as an army stays in the field for a long time, and how a player can keep it together longer by arranging its composition and spending influence.”

WHAT FACTION DO YOU LIKE THE MOST IN BANNERLORD?
“I like to play with Empire, because they are going through a period of crisis, and their situation presents interesting questions and opportunities for the player.”

HAVE YOU TAKEN MAJOR INSPIRATION FROM ANY REAL (OR FICTIONAL) PLACES?
“Back when I had started working on the very first prototypes of Mount & Blade, I had the great fortune of seeing this from our window:
[...]

More information.

 

[Morrandir]

Should we take the game to have a more fully fledged storyline

So is it known what they decided for?

 

[Morrandir]

Every time I'm asking this question it feels like digging in some dirty old family secret nobody wants to talk about.

 

[TomRon]

Every time I'm asking this question it feels like digging in some dirty old family secret nobody wants to talk about.

Haha, maybe no one's sure? I think I've read somewhere that the sandbox is still the main focus of the game, but that they've also tried to incorporate a story, something that was pretty much non existent in the first game. If you want s better answer you provably need to ask the devs.

Personally, I want a release date so I know if I should try to forget about the game for the moment or start looking forward to it.

 

[Morrandir]

If you want s better answer you provably need to ask the devs.

Maybe... but most likely I'd had to register on some forums or something. Perhaps the watch could do an interview?

 

[fragonard]

Maybe… but most likely I'd had to register on some forums or something. Perhaps the watch could do an interview?

No point registering on the forums. The old tread that was recently closed had over 3000 pages, pages, not replies. 45000 posts, 5.6 million views and no useful info. Hard to believe but true, the devs were both scarce and unhelpful.

 

[BoboTheMighty]

Should we take the game to have a more fully fledged storyline

See no reason why to go in this direction...one of best sandbox gameplay out there, spending a ton of $ on voice acting/writing/quests etc...would detract from it.
They know what they want and what they can do within their own limitations...Piranha Bytes, Reality Pump, Spiders: take note.

 

[Aerth]

That game was a pure gem and I just hope than they will go on with those open-world/sandbox mechanisms.
The very few weak moments of the game were when they actually tried to add some texts/quest like when you are courting someone or just talking with your followers.

 

[wolfing]

They could just make the game moddable enough so it's easy for modders to create single-player stories and campaigns.

 

[BoboTheMighty]

Only thing I'd improve basic combat physics/feedback..think that's what's keeping them back from "more success".
Oh, and dynamic music mixing...would do wonders if evertherewasone.
Following whole change of dynamic in large scale battles, up and down, done right, that would be something.
Deaaaath!Crush Bethesdards into ruin! 'ere the Sun rises!
Heh.

 

[Morrandir]

See no reason why to go in this direction…one of best sandbox gameplay out there, spending a ton of $ on voice acting/writing/quests etc…would detract from it.
They know what they want and what they can do within their own limitations…Piranha Bytes, Reality Pump, Spiders: take note.

Well yes, but a company can develop skills by buying or building know-how over time. They could take small steps. I'd consider buying this if there even was a small story camapign with 10-20 hours. Perhaps that would be the case for some more gamers.

 

[Aerth]

This is the ultimate and only game of Here is a map, do whatever you want. it is a sand-box, open world game. If you have to follow a story it is not anymore a sandbox.

 

[Morrandir]

Right, but having a sandbox with working mechanics (like combat, trade etc.) might be a good base for a story-driven campaign.

 

[BoboTheMighty]

Right, but having a sandbox with working mechanics (like combat, trade etc.) might be a good base for a story-driven campaign.

It would be a nightmare to have it implemented right in, like you said, story driven campaign. Just on paper, think of all the branching paths ( from player builds/starting location/etc) you have to take into account...kind of like Tyranny's conquest multiplied by a dozen, then each choice further splits into another dozen, and then another, etc...and somehow you need to "weave" everything into a single, coherent storyline.
Or easier: render every player choice as pointless.
TES/GTA/Saints Row are typically referred as sandboxes, but are very shallow in comparison...they simply give you "freedom" to go in whatever direction and you can pick some interaction/activities to go along with it ( crafting, build your home, sports, conquer outpost, whatever...).
Imo, better they focus here on designing as many emergent gameplay scenarios with player's own imagination providing it's own narrative context for it.

 

[Aerth]

Some people loves sandboxes and open worlds others prefer structured stories and more focused world. It does not look very practical to do both without cutting corners and just waste that excellent game.

 

[BoboTheMighty]

Some people loves sandboxes and open worlds others prefer structured stories and more focused world. It does not look very practical to do both without cutting corners and just waste that excellent game.

I could see some kind of compromise working, though for almost it's entirety it would not be story driven...certainly not in the beginning or you can kiss pacing goodbye.
More like a narrative structured as a web of smaller storylines/based on world regions, tracking player progress/influence that advances to the next stage of the main plot, uncovering mystery, very slow build up, little explicit storytelling, more emphasis on scattered clues/hints, agency in player hands with progress through your own understanding of the plot, sort of detective game with picking pieces of the larger puzzle, antagonist(s) working behind the scene sort of thing.
Not sure if we'll ever see this in AAA, this would require a very close collaboration between different dev departments.

 

[Aerth]

The game was doing a bit of that with the factions, the personal vendettas of the people you had previously vanquished, taken the family hostage or even your own followers who once they were granted titles could start to want to become independent from you and some turned very unfaithful.

I would really love than they expand that. The game already manages betrayals, or alliances using the same interwoven web of personal relationship and duties to the different lieges. A bit of storytelling is just what is needed.

That is why this game has so much potential. In my last game I conquered a Kingdom and was at war and campaigning against the King of Nord when suddenly my 3 first followers, the ones who were with me since the beginning, the ones I had granted titles and towns, turned on me to join the King of Nord with their castles, Towns and armies. It took me really by surprise. Lot of fun.

 

[SpoonFULL]

I think this is called simulation, and what sets it apart from the rest. Time marches, trade continues, prices change, wars take place, kingdoms change, .. etc. all happening and the player has choice of interacting with this living world. I did not see this anywhere else, and I don't need a story for this - there are million stories there already and I can make my own adventure.

An alternative way of looking at this game is in similar vein to Diablo and Dark Souls - you 'want' to progress to get more money/loot to manage stats/skills/armies/kingdoms and get more powerful. I don't think Diablo and Dark Souls players are there for the story!