The new creative director at Warhorse Studios, the developer of the Kingdom Come: Deliverance series, has opened up about its approach to development and explained why their games are deliberately difficult.
In an interview with PC Gamer, Prokop Jirsa — who joined the studio as a designer in 2014 straight from university and has been there ever since — admitted that Warhorse’s “design approach is a little bit different” from other studios, which sets them apart from competitors.
“For example, if you do playtesting — which you should, everybody! It’s really useful — they especially measure these points of friction,” Jirsa explained. “They say, ‘Okay, this is the friction point.’ People are getting confused, they are getting confused, or a little angry, and this percentage of people said they would stop playing the game at this moment.
“The usual answer is, ‘Okay, let’s get rid of the friction.’ We don’t work like that. We feel if you overcome the friction, or the friction is intentionally there… then the friction helps you! Because you overcome the friction, you feel better about yourself, you feel that you’ve actually overcome some actual problem or difficulty.”
It’s because of this that the team accepts that while they could lose some players looking for frictionless experiences, “we are intentionally different.”
“You will lose some players that are really not there for any friction, they just want to have this smooth experience,” Jirsa admitted. “And there’s nothing bad about smooth experiences! They have their place… but we are intentionally different. And I think Kingdom Come 2 — 1 as well, but 2 mostly — works so well in this regard.”
IGN’s Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2 review returned a 9/10. We said: “Armed with excellent melee combat and an exceptional story, Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2 is one part sequel and one part coronation, bringing a lot of the original’s ideas to fruition.”
While Warhorse has enjoyed significant success with Kingdom Come: Deliverance, it has come under fire recently for its use of generatve AI. Daniel Vávra, the previous director of Kingdom Come: Deliverance, stepped down from his role in February to focus on making a Kingdom Come: Deliverance movie. The studio is yet to announce its next game, although it is heavily rumored to be working on a Lord of the Rings RPG.
Vikki Blake is a reporter for IGN, as well as a critic, columnist, and consultant with 15+ years experience working with some of the world’s biggest gaming sites and publications. She’s also a Guardian, Spartan, Silent Hillian, Legend, and perpetually High Chaos. Find her at BlueSky.
