Kingdom Come Deliverance 2 dev on Witcher 3 comparisons, working with history, and adding guns

Kingdom Come Deliverance felt a little like it came out of nowhere back in 2018, offering a lengthy RPG set in historic bohemia from an unproven studio.

While it was a little janky at times, its spurring of more fantastical locales for a historically accurate one certainly earned it an audience - and a chance for developer Warhorse Studios to go one better. Now, just months out from its sequel (which is shaping up very nicely indeed), we caught up with Tobias Stolz-Zwilling, PR manager at the studio.

We spoke to Stolz-Zwilling about the team's growth since the first game, Witcher comparisons, and how it feels to have firearms added.

"Sink or swim"

By the time Kingdom Come Deliverance 2 arrives, it will have been around seven years since the first instalment. While the development team always envisaged a sequel, Stolz-Zwilling notes it was never a certainty.

"The easy answer is that we always had a sequel in mind and pretty much started work on Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2 right after the release of the Royal Edition of KCD in 2019," he explains.

"The more complicated answer is that we faced several sink-or-swim situations in the past. If the Kickstarter in 2014 had failed, we would have never even started with Kingdom Come: Deliverance. If the release had failed, we probably wouldn’t have worked on DLCs or the sequel - but here we are."

Despite its ambitious nature, the first game was developed by a relatively small team, but the developer now boasts a much larger number of talented staffers. "When I started in 2014, there were 35 of us; now, we’re at 250," Stolz-Zwilling recalls.

"I have a hard time remembering everyone’s name, but jokes aside, we have a relatively flat hierarchy, which means that everyone can bring up ideas or express strong opinions against others. This makes the process a bit longer, but the results are usually better.

"And lastly, we can, of course, now tackle bigger projects. For instance, we always wanted to have a medieval city in the game, but we simply couldn’t with the limited resources we had."

Kutten about the place

That city is Kuttenberg, a place seemingly teeming with branching pathway opportunities, at least as far as we saw in our preview. Now known as Kutná Hora, a real-world location in Warhorse's native Czechia, it's clear the team is proud of its roots - with Stolz-Zwilling explaining during our trip that the team is hopeful the game will do for Czechia what The Witcher 3 did for Poland.

"It really comes down to how the game is perceived and how it can break the 'it’s just a video game' boundary," he explains. "By that, I mean that Kingdom Come: Deliverance is seen as something of a cultural phenomenon or export that represents the Czech Republic.

"That’s why various institutions, such as the City of Kutná Hora, the Central Bohemian Tourism Office, Czech politicians and embassies, and the national news, are actively reaching out to cooperate. But we’re also not under any illusions—it ultimately depends on the game’s success, of course."

While Ubisoft has come under fire from a vocal group of fans in recent months for its perceived 'inaccuracies' when it comes to Assassin's Creed: Shadows, Stolz-Zwilling is keen to stress how authentically the team is recreating 1403 Bohemia, warts and all, but not without some creative liberties.

"Those decisions are usually due to technical or gameplay reasons. We are still working very hard to depict 1403 Bohemia as authentically as possible, to the best of our knowledge.

"Not only do we have an in-house historian, but she is also in direct contact with museums, universities, reenactors, and more. We are diligently going through piles of manuscripts and data to gain a thorough understanding of various aspects.

"This information is then brought to the team, and together, we translate it into a video game—depicting things in a plausible way that reflects how they could have happened or looked. Think of it as a toolbox or the vessel we use to tell a believable and authentic story, with believable and authentic characters and gameplay."

Bang Bang

That accuracy extends to the game's systems, of course, and one big new gameplay addition this time around is the inclusion of firearms. With combat in the first game mostly fought in close quarters, I was keen to find out how much the arrival of ranged weaponry would change things.

"Kingdom Come: Deliverance won’t suddenly become a shooter, so don’t worry," Stolz-Zwilling jokes.

"Think of gunpowder and heavy crossbows as ultimate weapons—shoot once, but make it count. These weapons are slow, difficult to use, and take ages to reload, so it’s better to switch to a melee weapon when the situation calls for it.

"There are three categories of crossbows: light, medium, and heavy. Each varies in power and reload time. To complete the ranged weapons, there are also bows, which are the fastest but difficult to aim."

Steady your aim folks - Kingdom Come Deliverance arrives February 11, 2025.