Work | KCD2 - Level Design

Trosky

I was the sole design owner of Trosky Castle, the landmark of the Trosecko region and the key story location of the first map. I worked on the castle from pre-production to release, collaborating on early concepts, revising whiteboxes, supporting quest teams with unique story content, populating the location with NPCs, creating set dressing, and working on final polish and bug fixes.

Trosky went through many redesigns to be able to serve as a quest location, boss arena, living set piece, striking landmark, and historically accurate reproduction. For most players, the castle has become an unforgettable location that has sparked increased interest in visiting the real Trosky Castle in the Czech Republic.

Blockout

  • The reimagination of the castle is an original concept of Warhorse Studios based on archaeological probes and excavations. The design of the palaces and the towers remained relatively unchanged throughout the development, while the functions of the individual chambers and the area of the bailey were iterated the most.

    The general infrastructure of the castle (doors, staircases, battlements) needed to be periodically revised to accommodate increasing NPC population, while remaining efficient enough for guard patrol routes.

Closed castle

  • When the castle is inaccessible to players during the first few story chapters, it is inhabited by a group of 15 NPC guards patrolling along the walls, ready at any time to defend against attacks from players trying to get in.

    For the system to function properly, it was necessary to create 107 waypoints and firepoints, plus one area of interest covering the immediate vicinity of the castle within the firing range of the guards.

Life at the castle

  • The castle is home to 109 NPCs, 10 horses and 1 dog, each having unique daily routines and tasks to perform. Special care was given to story characters to reflect their role in the story. While Otto von Bergow entertains other nobles in his castle chambers, attending to bureaucracy, spy Katherine pretends to be a maid and moves between the watchtowers, searching through chests and eavesdropping on plans.

    Creating real life in the castle required the involvement of dozens of prefabs, from beds, benches, chests, tables, guard spots, wells, fireplaces and much more. Not only are NPC routines subject to the time of day, the NPC's social class or gender, they also reflect quest states, weather, faction angriness based on player actions, or whether the NPC is under influence of some de/buff, such as being drunk or injured.

Technical level design

  • Scripting work was needed to keep features like crime, trade, or bathhouse running. That meant creating trespass areas, NPC factions and ownership structures - for example, if players steal a sword from a noble’s chamber, the owner of the sword can be determined, and when arrested, the player’s fine is calculated at a higher rate.

    Furthermore, it was necessary to establish infrastructure of the shops, determining areas that are unroutable by player’s horse and dog, adding collision or visibility barriers where necessary, creating situation areas where NPCs gather for gossip about current events, or placing tagpoints where players teleport to when they pass out from drunkenness.

Daycycle example

  • Day in the life of Trosky’s resident scribe:

    • wakes up at 5:00 with plus/minus half an hour, gets dressed and goes to have breakfast in the palace’s kitchen

    • between 5:00 - 7:00 spends time in his room contemplating

    • his day shift runs between 7:00 - 19:00, spent primarily in his chamber writing, reading, thinking

    • between 10:00 - 13:00 he moves to the next-door palace to work in the main chamber together with other nobles, chamberlain and personal maids, all of whom have coordinated routines

    • between 17:00 - 19:00 he has a private session with the lord of the castle in the scriberoom, discussing matters of the day

    • from 19:00 to 22:00 he has free time, which he dedicates to personal reading or loitering around the castle

    • he goes to sleep at 22:00, plus minus half an hour

Items and inventories

  • I distributed various items in the level, be it necessary tools for NPC work, flavor decorations or easter eggs I created and managed in a database. I assigned difficulties of door and chest locks, and configured inventory presets for chests or stashes.

    It was also necessary to actually debug and test inventories of all chests and NPC pouches so they did not contain any illogical items or items that would be progression-breaking.

Archery circuit

I was the level designer for the archery circuit in Horses for Courses, the first free DLC. I created the basic layout, whitebox, iterated on various gameplay ideas, and organized/evaluated internal playtesting sessions. The design of the circuit was informed by a collection of references, coming mainly from horseback archery disciplines of Hungary, Poland, and Mongolia. I implemented 19 unique mounted archery tracks with 210 targets in total. Before handing the circuit to the level artist, I did preliminary set dressing.

Working on the archery circuit was not just about landscape and static objects, but also about dynamic events. These included dedicating areas for competition spectators or creating a daily routine for the race organizer who takes care of his circuit by repairing fences, target stands, or widening roads.

Blockout

  • The chosen layout is essentially made up of three connected ellipses. Most of the early work was dedicated to sculpting terrain, creating roads with ideal curvature and elevation, or placing target stands at optimal angle and distance from the road.

    I deliberately worked with different configurations of leading lines and visibility barriers to ensure a unique flow within the circuit’s 19 racecourses.

Biathlon idea

  • Since we were concerned that archery on horseback would be too difficult for players, we toyed with the idea of “horse biathlon” for a while. The players would ride between stations on horseback and shoot targets while stationary. They could earn bonus points between stations if they hit a target while riding.

    In the end, we decided to scrap the concept because it wasn't different enough from the static archery we already had in the game. Plus, players enjoyed hitting targets while riding the most, which proved to us that the original concept was worth developing.

Bow vs. Crossbow

  • With the introduction of the crossbow in KCD2 (to an already existing bow), it was necessary to create racecourses that are optimal for both range weapons. Each weapon has a different reloading and aiming time. Therefore, it took several iterations to find the ideal distance between targets at which both weapons worked effectively.

Legendary tracks

  • For the hardcore players, I created difficulty options of each racecourse. Defined by large amount of targets, mandatory bow and unforgiving score requirement, the so called “Tengri” tracks (named after nomadic God of Heaven) emerged from many playtesting sessions. There I observed the most skilled players using various tricks, exploits and shortcuts to gain advantage. I then reconfigured and built racecourses with obstacles intentionally hindering this gameplay. Mastering horse riding and shooting precision while choosing optimal horse tack and weapon is required to succeed.

Bach

I was the design owner of the Bach industrial zone adjacent to the city of Kuttenberg. Bach underwent several iterations during its development, especially in terms of its art direction. For a long time, we struggled with the location's visual noisiness - this negatively affected the city's skyline when used as a backdrop for several important story moments (depicted both in the game and cutscenes).

As for level and open-world design, Bach is populated by 75 NPCs, each with a specific set of routines taking place in the area. The naturally rugged terrain partially forms the boundary of the playable map, so we spent a lot of time optimizing navmesh, barriers, and collisions not only for the player but also for his canine and equine companions.

Sigismund’s warehouse

Part of the Bach area is Emperor Sigmund's warehouse, which I designed specifically for the Feast for the Poor quest. From the beginning, it was intended as a place where players would have to use their stealth and thieving skills, as it was specified in the narrative that they must not utilize combat or kill anyone on the premises.

My goal was to convey a sense of uncertainty to players as they move between tents and cargo. This feeling was enhanced by deliberate denial of any vantage points. Players are therefore thrust into the space and must think on their feet.

The design of enemy patrols differs according to the time of day. At night, more guards are static, and some may fall asleep on duty. Part of the encounter design included custom settings for perceptual values such as soldiers' vision and hearing, their combat level, and their equipment.

Continuous playtesting helped us identify shortcomings in the spatial hierarchy. The video shows the removal of a multi-story building that served as an unintended point of interest for players.

Ruthard Palace & Vlasska Street

I was the design owner of the district of Kuttenberg city situated around Vlasska Street, which included two key locations - Ruthard Palace and All Saints Inn.

All districts of Kuttenberg were divided among five level designers, which provided a unique opportunity to cooperate within the city on interesting connections between neighborhoods and share various improvements to NPC daycycle management and area design in general. Furthermore, by reviewing each other’s work, we were able to develop ideas on how to differentiate our neighborhoods better.

Vlasska Street is characterized by the juxtaposition of opulent and distinguished buildings that staunchly guard their privacy and wealth, and alleys lined with groups of workers and beggars coping with the recent siege of the city. 

The world of KCD2 is characterized by a keen attention to detail, allowing players to visit and compare real-world places with those in the game. Therefore, before I started working on the location, I visited the city to gather references.

Ruthards in control

  • Ruthard Palace is Warhorse Studios’ original reimagination of former residence of a patrician family in Kuttenberg. Ruthards play an important role in the story and their palace is one the few key locations players need to visit repeatedly. I worked closely with the narrative designers and scripters of quests Via Argentum and Taking French Leave, which take place there.

    In addition to Lord Kunzlin and his daughter Rosa, 12 other NPCs and 1 dog live on the palace premises. Each NPC has their own unique daily routine, not only within the palace, but also in the city itself, whether it's shopping at the markets, participating in the tournament, or visiting the tavern.

Ransacked palace

  • During the events of the Oratores quest, situation changes when the palace grounds are ransacked by a vengeful mob. After players retake control of the location, the palace becomes the base of operations for 16 NPCs, most of them being important story characters. At this point, the level design of the location essentially started from scratch, as all the characters required a different approach to their daily routines and roles within the palace.

    I worked closely with the narrative designer of the quest to develop individual activities, allowing characters to meet, plan, celebrate, discuss, or argue. Working on the ransacked palace was the highlight of my work as a level designer, as it required a huge number of moving parts, from coordinating NPCs AI to maintaining order across diverse streamed profiles containing both static and dynamic objects. Similar design requirements are rarely found elsewhere in the game.

All Saints Inn

  • Inns and pubs contain one of the most complex open-world behaviors in KCD2, as they require high-level NPC coordination and scripting of dozens of prefabs. All Saints Inn is no exception. It is inhabited by 10 NPCs, most of whom are involved in the inn's activities. This required assigning unique roles and routines to individual residents. And so, while the barmaids bring beer and food, wipe tables, and sweep the inn's premises, the innkeeper chats with customers or watches them play dice.

    The inn plays a prominent role in the Yackers ’n’ Fash and Striped Tonies quests, in which the player infiltrates the building. This required modifications both on the surface and in the underground cellars. I worked with quest designers and scripters to ensure that their requirements were incorporated logically and sensitively into the natural functioning of the inn.

Streets

  • During production, we realized that we couldn't fill the streets of Kuttenberg enough to make them seem busy and lively. Paradoxically, the main limitation was not performance or memory budget, but a lack of sleeping space. That's why we created so-called additive NPCs. They are indistinguishable from persistent residents. They have their own routines, social roles, and full-fledged open-world reactions. What sets them apart is that they spawn out of sight of players at night. In Vlasska street there are 61 of these NPCs out of nearly 700 in the whole city.

    It is important to mention that we did not perceive streets merely as passageways between important locations, but as showcases for all our activities and behavior. Players cannot simply visit the private interiors of houses, so it was important to take the activities outside. That is why we filled the streets with countless situations and events where players can meet unique historical figures or find interesting loot.

Sedletz

I was the design owner of the Sedletz region, which consists of the ossuary, the cemetery, and the gravedigger's dwelling.

The large area is inhabited by only four human NPCs, two horses, and two dogs, which allowed me to go more in-depth within the living world design and enrich the individual day cycles with more custom activities. Likewise, the individual locations contain a lot of exploratory gameplay, during which players can find unique loot, references to the quests Feast for the Poor or Forbidden Fruit, and easter eggs. As part of my ownership duties, I assisted the team with the quest Thou Art but Dust, which tells a fictional story about the origins of the current bone furnishings in the ossuary’s chapel.

Vineyard

I was the sole design owner of the monastery vineyard and the adjacent region of Lorec. Most of the development time was devoted to the actual vineyard settlement and nearby workers’ infrastructure, which are prominently used in the In Vino Veritas quest. I revised layouts and whiteboxes and was in charge of living world design, which included creating and labeling settlement areas, positioning prefabs like tables, benches, weeding spots, stashes, fireplaces, or guarding spots. I created 28 human NPCs, 4 dogs, and 4 horses for the region, each with a unique role and daily routine.

The vast expanses of the vineyard can easily appear deserted, so it was important for me to incorporate various distinctive daily activities of the residents and cleverly schedule them to create the impression of a larger number of workers moving around.

Grund, Horschan, Old Kutna

I was the original design owner of Grund, Horschan and Old Kutna regions before handing them over to junior level designers during full production. I worked on area design, settlements’ initial layouts, and whiteboxes. I created around 150 NPCs, their factions, and rudimentary day cycles consisting of basic morning and leisure activities, work duties, and sleep schedules.

Level optimizations

As the design owner of the horse and stealth features, I worked closely with other level designers, level artists, and 3D artists in optimizing the world. This involved mainly creating trigger areas where players’ horse and dog companions couldn't access, adding custom collisions to building prefabs to accommodate horse pathfinding, defining playable space using generic or player-only collisions, and helping stealth gameplay using visibility blocking collisions.

Additional work

Chasing the Cardinal

  • As the owner of the horse riding feature, I assisted the dedicated team with the chase sequence in the Oratores main quest. I primarily worked on level design, scripted NPCs, fine-tuned their stats and skills, and did various set dressing along the route.

Stealth encounters

  • I designed a number of stealth encounters across both game maps and a variety of quests, whether it was supporting the teams at Castle Trosky in the quests For Whom the Bell Tolls and Storm or assisting my colleagues at Castle Maleshow in the quests Taking French Leave and Dancing with the Devil. I've also been involved in various military or bandit camps, like those in the quests Skeleton in the Closet or The Thunderstone.

Regular collaborators:

Here are some of my regular collaborators from the concept and level art departments:

Matej Bejcek - level artist

Jakub Englicky - level artist

Pawel Kurowski - concept artist

Petr Susanka - level artist

Jonas Zavacky - concept artist