So there’s more to Viking than epic battles and spurting blood?

Suthers: Sure, we wanted to explore the open-world genre, which is the soul of the game. The large-scale battles are there to bookend the chapters and side-quests found in the bulk of the game. The quest system is vital, and how you perform in these quests will determine the size of your army in the final battle of each world.

Why Norse mythology?

Suthers: We wanted to make sure there was an essence of reality to the battles, but also a core fantasy feel too. Before settling on Norse mythology we looked at all sorts of different historical periods, including Egypt, but it was the Norse myths that we kept coming back to because it’s ripe for use in a game, it features a reality to the battles but also a strong fantasy aspect when you look at the stories of the period.

Many games last no more than six hours - is this a bad thing?

Suthers: As long as you deliver a solid, enjoyable experience then the length of the game doesn’t matter. In Viking the main plot and side quests probably total more than 16 hours of gameplay. But we never had a target to reach we just wanted to deliver a great experience, whether that’s five or twenty hours.

Does setting a game in historical periods constrain what you can do?

Suthers: No. Though Skarin may only use an axe and a sword, you can upgrade the weapons using a Shaman and there are loads of new moves to unlock. We didn’t make a game that’s constrained by history.