Mount&Blade - Interview @ RPS

Rock, Paper, Shotgun interviews Armagan from Taleworlds about Mount & Blade, having recently reached v1.0 and its commercial release:

RPS: Could you talk about the moment of conception of the game? Was it a Eureka moment, or did it grow from games that you love?

Armagan Yavuz: Initially we wanted to make a game where sword fighting felt like you were actually involved by using your reflexes; parrying, feigning, etc. Then, while we were working on that bit, we wanted to add more aspects of medieval combat such as horseback fighting, and interesting and realistic archery. At another level, we wanted to make the general gameplay like a sandbox game because we do love those kinds of games. Sid Meier’s Pirates!, in particular, inspired the feel we were trying to create in Mount & Blade. Pirates! had a unique randomness about it that would make the player feel like he was having a completely new experience each time he played the game, and we strived to give Mount & Blade that same sense of freedom and replayability.