The inside story of how Kingdom Come: Deliverance 1 & 2 were made |...
The inside story of how Kingdom Come: Deliverance 1 & 2 were made | Developer interview
Kingdom Come: Deliverance and its sequel Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2 stole the hearts of RPG fans for its commitment to historical accuracy, intricate quest design, and emergent, systems-driven gameplay. PC Gamer News Writer Joshua Wolens recently got to chat to Prokop Jirsa, a 12 year veteran of @WarhorseStudios who recently stepped up into a Creative Director role. In this fascinating interview, Jirsa tells the behind the scenes story of how Kingdom Come: Deliverance 1 almost never happened, how its success was far from certain even after release, and what lessons Warhorse applied for Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2.
00:00 - Intro 01:10 - How did Jirsa get a job at Warhorse Studios? 02:34 - KCD1's Kickstarter was the last resort 04:17 - Overcommitting to stretch goals 05:09 - The surprises of making KCD1 06:12 - Inspirations & design philosophies 07:37 - What it means to be 'hardcore' 10:01 - KCD1's bumpy release 10:52 - The PC Gamer article that led to a mechanic in KCD2 12:12 - Did KCD1's success change the approach for KCD2? 14:23 - The appeal of 'jank' 15:57 - Why was KCD2 a hit? 17:29 - 12 years at Warhorse (and what's changed?) 19:17 - Layoffs and genAI in game development
#kingdomcomedeliverance #kingdomcomedeliverance2 #rpg #gamedev #interview #pcgaming #pcgamer
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Kingdom Come: Deliverance emerged from a bold premise and a meticulous approach that set it apart in the landscape of modern role-playing games. To understand its journey, one must walk through the studio's corridors, where decisions are weighed with care, and every frame is a testament to craft, not spectacle alone. This is the story of how two iterations of a deeply ambitious project were shaped, step by careful step, by the people who built them.
From the outset, the core challenge was clear: create a historically grounded, open-world RPG that respects the nuances of medieval life while delivering a compelling, personal narrative. The team aspired to authenticity, drawing on extensive historical research, period-accurate environments, and a commitment to player agency. The initial concept was not merely to recreate a fantasy of the era, but to invite players into a lived world where choices carry weight, consequences ripple through communities, and skills emerge through patient practice rather than quick gratification.
Technical ambition followed the same trajectory. A realistic combat system required physics-driven responses, weighty armor, and a stamina model that would force strategic thinking rather than button-mashing. The development cycle emphasized modularity: systems for combat, quests, alchemy, crafting, and navigation needed to interlock seamlessly while remaining extensible for future updates. This meant investing in custom tools, robust AI routines, and a narrative framework that could accommodate branching paths without fracturing the core lore.
One foundational decision was to favor atmospheric detail over cinematic spectacle. The team prioritized authentic sound design, local dialects, period-accurate costume design, and meticulously recreated towns and countryside. Every village has a history, every character a motive, and every encounter a potential shift in the social fabric of the game world. The result is a living space that rewards exploration, observation, and patient deduction.
For Deliverance 1, the scope demanded careful calibration of risk and reward. The world was large enough to feel immersive, yet not so vast as to dilute narrative intent. Quests were designed to unfold through dialogue, environment, and role-playing choices rather than linear prompts. The team embraced the uncertainty of emergent gameplay, acknowledging that some player decisions would yield unpredictable outcomes. This was not a flaw to be ironed out but a feature to be refined, tested, and documented for the community to experience and learn from.
With Deliverance 2, the studio applied the lessons learned from its predecessor while pushing into deeper technical and thematic territory. The sequel refined the combat model to respond even more authentically to the player’s weight, stance, and timing. It expanded the world’s political complexity, allowing factions to interact with greater nuance and for players to influence regional stability through diplomacy or force. The quest design pushed for moral ambiguity, presenting scenarios where there is no one right answer, only a series of measurable consequences that ripple across alliances, economics, and daily life in the realm.
Collaboration across departments defined the rhythm of both projects. Designers, narrative writers, artists, and engineers synchronized through iterative cycles, frequent playtests, and transparent critique sessions. The feedback loop prioritized readability of the game’s internal systems—so a designer could predict how a small change in an enemy’s behavior would alter combat pacing or how a new economic rule would affect town dynamics. The result was a product where many seemingly small details contributed to a coherent, believable world rather than competing with one another for attention.
Community engagement also occupied a central role. Early prototypes were shared with players who offered candid insights about accessibility, balance, and authenticity. The team listened closely, translating feedback into practical adjustments without compromising the project’s artistic integrity. This openness created a cultural contract: the more players contributed to shaping the experience, the more the final product reflected a shared vision rather than a singular team directive.
Narrative threads in both installments honored the era’s complexities—class structures, religious influence, agricultural cycles, and the stubborn realities of survival in a world where scarcity and risk are constants. The writing aimed to honor history while embracing the universal human traits that transcend time: courage, betrayal, loyalty, and the constant negotiation between personal desire and communal responsibility.
Looking back, the stories behind Deliverance 1 and Deliverance 2 reveal a studio that treated craft as a form of inquiry. Every asset, every line of dialogue, and every engine tweak served the larger aim: to create a plausible, immersive medieval experience that invites players to think, plan, and reflect as they move through a world that feels consequential and alive.
If there is a throughline to these journeys, it is this: authenticity through disciplined artistry. The developers pursued accuracy not as a constraint but as a frontier—an ongoing invitation to explore, learn, and contribute to a living universe that continues to resonate with players who value depth, responsibility, and depth of character within a historically grounded sandbox.
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