Kult: Heretic Kingdoms Wrap Report

Technology Peter Nagy: We operated within a very tight budget. This was our most restricting factor for every decision we made. Every feature, even the smallest one, had to be discussed several times before proceeding. The engine was completely developed in-house - we have provided the tools we used to create it with the game itself, so it is possible for the modding community to play around with what we've done. The engine and tools we have used provide all the functionalities we used while creating Kult: Heretic Kingdoms. The documentation for the tools is available online on Kult's website and in the open discussion forums.

we didn't exactly reach our originally intended goal - a simple hack 'n' slash RPG with development time of about 12 to 16 months

For our future games, we are considering using licensed engines so that we can focus on gameplay and visual the experience without being limited by technologies. It's a terrible drain on a small team to be building and maintaining the game engine, so in the future, we hope to be able to focus more on content.

I really feel that we have only just begun with Kult... there's so much more we can achieve in the future.

Development Timeline Peter Nagy: The project started sometime in 2001 - although it was not known as Kult at the time, and in fact, we didn't really know what it was going to end up as! In 2002, we had our first ideas for storylines and expanded our team. At the end of 2003, we signed the deal with Project 3 as a publisher for Europe. A few weeks afterwards, I found an interview with Chris Bateman from ihobo on Gamasutra. We knew that we had talent and motivation, but we needed some experienced game designers to help us make it happen, so I contacted them immediately, looking to find a basis for cooperation. We were able to reach an agreement and they started work on Kult immediately.

They did a really great job - they redesigned the entire game in three months based upon the existing artwork, storyline and so forth, devised an entirely original RPG system and created the Attunements system. When we received the first materials... well, a hard times struck us as we had to throw away almost the whole work we had done so far - except for the graphics engine and the graphics - and start from scratch. Completely new gameplay and RPG system, storyline, scripts and quests were all implemented. It took about seven months of implementation time plus about three of testing, but I believe it was well worth it.

So as you can see, we didn't exactly reach our originally intended goal - a simple hack 'n' slash RPG with development time of about 12 to 16 months.

We severely underestimated the work that is necessary for even a relatively small RPG project like Kult, but we won't make that mistake again. An RPG is definitely not the best starting project for an inexperienced team without a very strong long-term investment partner. I think it is something like teaching a newborn child sprinting instead of walking first. :-)

RPGs are especially hard to get balanced and debugged - the complex system and world with myriads of combinations make a very difficult task for even strong QA team. Additionally, we ran into a number of financial problems, which several times resulted in us almost having to close development.

Changes and Enhancements Chris Bateman: When 3D People first got us involved, we were impressed by what they had... the graphics engine was isometric, but it felt really modern and up to date. Plus, they had reams of concept art that was really interesting and inspiring. But, the RPG mechanics consisted of a few pages of scattered notes - the classic 'scribbled on the back of a beer mat' kind of design - and the story, although promising, needed a lot of polish and revising.

Now, to be honest, this is true of a lot of game projects - the difference with this one was that 3D People knew they needed help. It's always a good sign to meet with developers who are willing to listen to external feedback on their projects, especially with regard to designing for specific audiences.

We knew we needed a new set of mechanics, and we also knew that they had to be familiar enough for fans of RPGs to get to grips with quickly, yet offer something a little bit different. So, we looked at the strengths of their initial development, and used that as our key inspiration. One of the tightest things - and this is unusual for first-time projects - was that the interface design was really quite good; you could pretty much work out what to do straight away - so we wanted a system that would build on this. We aimed to create RPG mechanics with the depth of any other system, but without any wooly mess.

So, we ripped out all the potions (and other elements which always seem to go with these games but seldom add anything but tedium) and replaced spells, abilities and pretty much everything with a single set of mechanics that would support the core elements of an RPG. That's where the Attunement system came from. Basically, the player character's abilities are defined by a set of Attunements, which they can change dynamically according to the situation - so they can prepare themselves for a particularly tough combat by selecting the right set of abilities.

This really brought a focus to the gameplay, and indeed, one of the most satisfying things about playing the game is acquiring new Attunements, seeing how they combine with previous ones and so forth. I'm really happy with how this came out, although there is room for improvement - there always is! -, and we're certainly hoping to take this further in the future.