I remember a quest early on in Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2 that almost made me quit the game. You're tasked with carrying some random drunken jerk around from one arbitrary location marker to the next before having to kill a band of poachers and steal back the drunkard's horse, a grueling test of patience I very nearly failed. I'm glad I completed the quest, because Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2 ended up being one of the best RPGs I've ever played, and according to lead designer Prokop Jirsa, the very attributes of the game that pushed me to the brink of insanity are exactly what make it so rewarding.
"Our design approach is a little bit different," Jirsa tells PC Gamer. "For example, if you do playtesting—which you should, everybody! It's really useful—they especially measure these points of friction.
"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.'"
There's definitely something to be said for the satisfaction of overcoming adversity—isn't that why video games have bad guys to begin with?—but Warhorse takes a full spectrum approach to that philosophy that layers in real challenge to almost every single task in the game, no matter how menial. Brewing potions, crafting weapons and gear, picking locks, and walking straight after consuming too much ale all require a great deal of focus. Higher stakes stuff like killing people is all the more challenging to master. That is very much by design, according to Jirsa.
"The usual answer [in game development] 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," he says.
Jirsa doesn't bemoan players looking for what he calls "this smooth experience" and acknowledges that those kinds of games "have their place," but says Warhorse is "intentionally different" and that "the fact those miniscule things [in KCD2] felt like real achievements, it explains our way, and how we design things."
That oftentimes punishing approach to game design is likely to color Warhorse's next game, whether that's the rumored Lord of the Rings RPG, Kingdom Come: Deliverance 3, or something else entirely. I know I'll be first in line to see what's next, even if I'm already bracing to trudge through some seriously thick muck to get to the good stuff.
