Ever since its release last year, players couldn’t help but compare Kingdom Come: Deliverance with The Witcher series. Both share their Eastern European roots after all. Now, Warhorse Studios has confirmed just how much The Witcher influenced Kingdom Come: Deliverance.
In an interview with Game Pressure at GamesCom 2019, Warhorse Studios’ Tobias Stolz-Zwilling opened up about the Kingdom Come development team’s The Witcher influence. Interestingly enough, while there was a heavy influence by CD Projekt Red’s video game adaptations, inspiration also came from some of author Andrzej Sapkowski’s works outside of his famed series.
According to Stolz-Zwilling, Warhorse Studios co-founder Daniel Vavra happens to be a big fan of CD Projekt Red’s take on The Witcher. This should be already evident to anyone who’s played Kingdom Come: Deliverance, due to the number of Easter eggs and references to the series hidden in the game. Stolz-Zwilling mentioned that Vavra’s favorite quest happens to be the Bloody Baron quest from The Witcher 3. Vavra specifically liked the formula of the quest line, which spanned numerous quests before reaching a climax.
In addition to this, Vavra also took inspiration from a series of non-Witcher books by Sapkowski — the so-called Hussite trilogy. Comprised of Narrenturm, Warriors of God, and Lux perpetua, this trilogy cover the Hussite Wars which were fought by the Hussites against the combined forces of the Holy Roman Empire and the Catholic Church in the early 15th century.
“Dan Vavra claims that no one described the Hussite wars better than Sapkowski,” explained Stolz-Zwilling. “Even though he added some fantastic elements — he perfectly conveyed the atmosphere, places, standards of living. It certainly influenced the final picture of the game.”
Incidentally, the same Hussite Wars also served as an influence to one of the gameplay decisions Warhorse Studios made for Kingdom Come: Deliverance — the lack of season changes. Adding such a system would eventually move the game’s date to that of said Hussite Wars. This is surprising considering Sapkowski’s books set in these wars served as an influence. Did the studio not feel like it could capture it in the same detail as Sapkowski, or is it saving it for a sequel? Stolz-Zwilling did state that he hopes for Warhorse and their game to follow in CD Project Red’s footsteps.
