Work | KCD2 - Game Design
Horses
I had design ownership of the horse feature from pre-production to release. Among other responsibilities, I was tasked with refining controls, polishing movement, tuning RPG constants, adding new features and horse archetypes - in general I was expanding upon the horse from the first Kingdom Come. Since I was also a level designer, I was tasked with implementing horse-related level markup, stables, and handler camps, as well as most AI behaviors related to the crime system.
Additionally, I wrote dialogues and barks related to horses, such as shop interactions in stables, fans cheering during horse races, horse tack names and their descriptions. I named most of the horses in the game.
Below are selected parts of the design described in further detail.
Pre-production designs
Inspired by Stone Librande’s GDC talk on One-Page Designs, I created my own one-page designs for pre-production purposes. Originally written in Czech, in the few examples below I “lorem ipsum-ed” them to emphasize their intended form above content.
Collison avoidance
Together with a programmer and animator, we designed and implemented a collision avoidance system, which made the horse a bit smarter when navigating rough terrain.
The system consists of three rows of raycasts that are only enabled when the player is actively controlling the horse (not during the Follow road mechanic or Follow NPC mechanic). If the raycasts pick up a collision, the horse will react accordingly. Activating the side raycasts will only push the horse sideways; activating all raycasts will force it to swerve.
The length of raycasts is determined by the type of ground material and the horse’s speed (the faster the horse, the longer the raycasts’ reach). If the player is riding along the road, the raycasts are shorter, as we don't expect many collisions and don't want the horse to act independently too often. If the horse is moving over grass or forest material, the raycasts are made longer to allow the horse to predict collisions more effectively.
If the horse repeatedly detects collisions with all raycasts, it will start to buck and after some time it will throw the player, which gives the animal a bit of individuality.
If players maintain forward motion, the horse autocorrects its route using set of raycasts. (Gameplay slowed to 0.7x)
Quick start
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What may seem just like a flashy animation, even forced rearing is fully integrated into the RPG mechanisms. In combat, the action debuffs the courage of nearby enemies, which can cause some to take flight. However, the stamina cost of this action is intentionally very high.
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Of all the improvements to the animation transitions between horse gaits, the most prominent is the quick start. Designed with the intention of being used in horse racing, like all mechanics in the game, it has a strong roleplaying component supported by perks affecting the horse’s speed and stamina consumption.
Forced rearing
Startling horses
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In collaboration with the technical designer we integrated the free-roaming horses into Kingdom Come’s robust crime system. Players who attempt to steal a horse will activate a debuff that lowers the horse's morale and stamina, making it more susceptible to startling.
If players want to startle the horse on purpose, they can do it through a general hit reaction or a gunshot sound. As a result, the horse will take a priority startle behavior and flee. Additionaly it spawns a volume that its owners can respond to. These NPCs will then also adopt the priority behavior, which encompasses going to find the horse and leading it back. This behavior can rely on a dynamic system or can be manually scripted using a set of trigger areas and interlinked tagpoints.
Horse handler
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The new KCD2 feature is a horse handler - dedicated NPC that buys or appropriates stolen horses. My responsibility was to create a dialogue structure that simulates the transaction system and to script trigger areas and tagpoints for the handler's behavior. The system is full of edge cases that needed to be addressed as it intersects both open world systems and quest situations.
Troughs
In order to make the player's animal companion even more lifelike and to avoid cases where players leave their horse stranded somewhere where it interferes with NPC activities, we created a new prefab of horse parking.
The horse will move to this prefab if several conditions are met: the horse needs to be at the correct distance from the prefab, the player needs to be at a sufficient distance from the horse, and the necessary time needs to have passed to activate the behavior.
The trough also functions as a prefab for the living world design, which we incorporate into the daily routines of NPC horses.
Roleplaying
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I was responsible for the design and implementation of four new horse archetypes based on the period-accurate distinction of use - destriers, palfreys, rounceys and draft horses. Since every horse in KCD2 is the same NPC as humans with its own attributes, classes and factions, I created general and specific rules for all horses reflecting their archetypes using our soul-to-role manager.
In addition, I designed stats and buffs for the horse's equipment, which were further adjusted after release based on the results of telemetry data.
Authenticity
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Since KCD2 is set in the real locations of 15th century Bohemia, it was important for me to get as many period historical references into the game as possible to further support its immersive nature.
Most of the names of horses and traders are based on the contemporary mining registers of the town of Kuttenberg, compiled by historian E. Leminger.
With the help of an in-house historical consultant, I researched medieval horse tack in order to accurately describe its various parts and specifics.
Much of the dialogue I wrote for the game is interspersed with small details from the lives of the inhabitants of the region at the time, which was a melting pot of Czech, German, Hungarian or Italian ethnic groups.
Media
Stealth
From pre-production to release, I was a part of a specialised team responsible for KCD2’s robust crime system. As a huge fan of the Thief franchise, I fulfilled my dream of designing stealth gameplay - especially when it took place in the winding, shadowy streets of Kuttenberg at night. My goal was to leverage pull versus push dynamics to create interesting scenarios.
I was responsible for designing and implementing several new mechanics, AI behaviors, balancing RPG constants like perception and hearing, working on meta progression, and supporting the quest and feature teams in level and encounter design.
Pre-production designs
Inspired by Stone Librande’s GDC talk on One-Page Designs, I created my own one-page designs for pre-production purposes. Originally written in Czech, in this example I “lorem ipsum-ed” it to emphasize its intended form above content.
Pebble throwing
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I helped to design a new type of distraction mechanic - pebble throwing. With the programming team, I worked on pebble trajectory and its throw distance; with technical designers I developed AI responses; last but not least, I also worked with animators on first person animations and with sound engineers on general volume and clarity balancing.
While this mechanic was developed to be responsive to our general open-world design, we also tweaked it to suit specific quest scenarios as required by narrative design.
Dog companion distraction
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As part of the player's stealth toolset, we designed the barking distraction mechanic. It was a collaboration between two teams handling the dog companion feature and the crime system. The player can give a command to the dog, and it will bark and attract the nearest NPCs, which will then abandon their current activity, allowing the player to take advantage of the situation.
Like any other contextual events, the barking distraction required a unique set of NPC reactions - in this case reacting to the barking and also spotting the player giving the command. If a player annoys people with a dog repeatedly, it can escalate into a specific crime of disturbance.
Stealth encounters support
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Throughout the development, I was frequently assisting other designers and level artists with stealth encounters. I came up with many rules regarding metrics, guard placements, and infiltration points, generally aiming for level readability and ease of player’s mental mapping.
For my work on encounters, visit the Level design section.
Items & stealth
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As a design owner of game items management, I have advocated for utilizing items in the world as breadcrumbs or exploration rewards. Most of the work consisted primarily of documentation and mentoring, but the results are evident in all corners of the KCD2 world.
The video above shows how I incentivise the player to seek a key to an important chest. For more on this quest, see the Quest Design section.
Sack carrying
I was the design owner of a new sack-carrying mechanic that was used in various quests and later added to NPC behaviors as well. The mechanic was initially based on the existing body carrying system, but it needed to undergo changes to fit the purpose.
I provided the design for a custom first-person animation set (picking up and placing the sacks); the challenge was to make it visible on screen while looking natural from a third-person perspective - in photo mode or while casting a shadow. I came up with the function and visuals of sack objects themselves and prefabs for their stashing - both static (wooden platforms) and dynamic (wagons and carts). Furthermore, I wrote documentation for the quest implementation and supervised it as well. Finally, I integrated the mechanic into the player's RPG and fine-tuned the stat gains from carrying the various cargo.
Carrying sacks - a key mechanic in the Forbidden fruit quest.