Warhorse Studios responds to leaked medieval RPG demo

Warhorse Studios head Daniel Vavra has responded to the firm's leaked tech demo was released onto the net yesterday. According to Vavra, the prototype was shown running on older PC hardware, but the RPG could run on both current and next-gen systems due to the engine.

Still, the video posted on YouTube is not the final product, as Vavra said if the intention was to 'wow' everyone, Warhorse would have shown more than just peasant houses surrounded by mud.

"Our goal, then, was not to show how our game looks just now - for that we'd have shown something quite different (we certainly have plenty to choose from) and instead of the editor we'd have shown the actual game and not just the graphics taken out of context, because the game is now playable, has a GUI, animations and the foundations of all the main playing mechanisms," he posted. "But we don't want to show it yet, because it would be very premature.

"We're not looking for development money (for now) and so it wouldn't be too smart to shoot off all our ammo prematurely (and lose the moment of surprise of presenting something new). If things go the way we imagine them then we can maybe announce our game in the first half of next year. Maybe.

"To call it ‘next gen’ is also somewhat misleading, considering that we showed it on a two-year-old laptop with a mobile GeForce 555M, which is not exactly state-of-the-art PC or next gen Xbox. Obviously, the machine wouldn’t have fared so well with the whole several square kilometre terrain we have, especially if it had to run the game itself, AI and the full world simulation and not just a preview in the editor.

"However, the game runs fairly OK on present day average PCs, and we haven’t yet even started seriously optimizing."

The firm began work on the medieval RPG in August 2011 after announcing the studio's formation in July.

CryEngine 3 is the tech behind the game, and currently the RPG mechanics are forming well and some of the swordplay through motion capture has been filmed.

Vavra concluded his post stating Warhorse is "fine-tuning" its prototype, and it plans to show it to potential partners soon.

"At that moment, our future will be decided upon, and the future of our/your game will depend on the results of these presentations," he said.

Thanks, Eurogamer.