Kingdom Come: Deliverance II Dev Discusses Building of Authentic World
The task of authentically recreating 15th century Bohemia for Kingdom Come: Deliverance II is one that's part careful forensic work, and part respectful artistic interpretation. To learn more, we sat down with senior game designer Ondřej Bittner to find out how the team at Warhorse Studios went about crafting an authentically immersive world in Kingdom Come: Deliverance II, available today. Bittner explains that the team starts with the geographical data, because not a lot has changed when it comes to the formation of hills, valleys and rivers. "Then, there are the military maps created in the mid-19th century. They usually have the layout of fairly static villages," Bittner says. "This was quite a common thing to do in European military history. When you build an army that has hundreds of thousands of soldiers, you need really good maps with individual buildings, logistical points, roads and so on."
Once the top-level geography, settlements and architecture of 15th century Bohemia have all been established, the team then turns to the living curators of those buildings that survived to the modern day. "You can talk to the people taking care of these castles or churches, and see if they have any material on a particular building," says Bittner. "Sometimes they do, sometimes they don't! If they don't, then you have to reconstruct it from more general knowledge about the time."
Once the top-level geography, settlements and architecture of 15th century Bohemia have all been established, the team then turns to the living curators of those buildings that survived to the modern day. "You can talk to the people taking care of these castles or churches, and see if they have any material on a particular building," says Bittner. "Sometimes they do, sometimes they don't! If they don't, then you have to reconstruct it from more general knowledge about the time."
