(Fanart(?) from our concept designer in NDC 2022)
Hello everyone,
I’m Eunseok Yi, the game director for ‘Warhaven’.
(Quick sidenote: In Korea, I’m known better by my gamertag: Paparang)
I know there are those who have been following this game since its very early stages, when it was still known as ‘Project HP’. And I know that many others might have come across our game quite recently.
Either way, wherever you’re from, however you got here, I’m delighted to have a chance to communicate with you all. Hello again.
After our global beta took place on Steam last year, I know we haven’t been putting out a whole lot of news regarding Warhaven. And I’ve heard through the grapevine that folks are waiting patiently for any news, big or small, on our game.
So today I hope I can help alleviate a bit of that longing, by sharing our current development process.
But before going any further, I want to take a step back, and fill you in on the backstory behind the creation of Warhaven. What inspired it to be what it is today.
What came to me personally, and the team on our journey of creativity.
(*The image above is actually me. Badass, right?
I’m just kidding. That’s not me. I did rightfully pay to use it though.)
When I first stepped into the gaming industry at a young age, many, many years ago, I also had a brief stint in a martial arts gym where I actually got to learn the basics of real swordsmanship.
I had to start out by swinging a heavy wooden sword, then I got to turn off candle lights with sword swings, and then I was promptly humbled and amazed by our master when he slashed straw mats in half like they were paper.
It might seem a little childish looking back, but what I really enjoyed over anything else was when I sparred with others using foam swords. The fun that we had from having wooden swordfights with friends as a young kid was still there in our hearts, even after becoming adults.
I mean, think of it as pillow fights; those can be fun at any age!
Nowadays, swords have lost their place in the current society.
They’ve been cast to the side by guns and more modernized weapons.
I still believe, however, that there is a special experience that comes from up close and personal, hand-to-hand combat and action when using weapons of the old.
(Of course, we’re still talking in the context of games and make-believe where no one actually gets hurt, away from real world atrocities committed through war and violence.)
Swordfights are unique in their own way.
There’s a certain valor, a certain cool factor in swordsmanship that can’t be replaced by guns.
I think this is probably why many protagonists in today’s entertainment, deflect bullets with their sword-type weapons, even in sci-fi movies where spaceships and laser beams are supposed to be superior.
(Above GIFs are from very early prototypes of Project HP.
They might look a bit strange, but they were very fun to play.)
A few years back when we first started developing what was known then as Project HP, the prototypes we came up with were extremely fun to play. Even though the characters didn’t have any unique, cool skills or other special features like they do now, merely swinging swords and dodging other peoples’ attacks provided us with pure, raw, palpable joy.
Through this unforgettable experience, other developers, along with myself, felt and saw the game’s potential.
(These are from some of the later versions, with a few modifications since the earliest prototype.)
It was then when we decided on another important feature of the game: large-scale battles with many other players.
When it comes to games, the current market seems to be more focused on providing smaller scale combat experiences, many of them being around 4v4 or 5v5 matches. I feel that these types of matches provide players with tension-filled, riveting experiences of their own, but they also come with stress.
I know this first-hand: the pressure to pull my own weight, not-so-nice remarks from so called teammates (I thought we were friends!), and comparisons to opponents…
Come to think of it, all of these might be reasons why I have so much grey hair today. (Wait, I’m making this way too personal, aren’t I.)
To reduce these causes of hair-loss in players (aka myself), we decided to go in a slightly different direction: large scale combat. However, we realized along the way that the phrase ‘the more the merrier’ may not be so true if we went overboard, so there needed to be a fine line between ‘many’ and ‘too many’; thus we decided on having 16v16 battles.
(Reenactment of a Viking battle. Denmark, 2005)
Reference: CC BY-SA 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=385134
But, enough talk of the past. I know all of you are interested in what’s going to happen soon, right?
Where Warhaven might be in its current development?
Well, it’s our plan and promise to start Warhaven’s early access on Steam, within this year.
And the emphasis has been put on the following:
- Close-combat Battles in Numbers
- As mentioned above, Warhaven’s key concept is to provide raw and visceral fun in big-team, sword-to-sword battles.
- As mentioned above, Warhaven’s key concept is to provide raw and visceral fun in big-team, sword-to-sword battles.
- Thrilling Action
- There are 3 key words to describe the action gameplay of Warhaven – Simple, Intricate, Visceral.
- Players will require only a few skills and even fewer buttons to jump straight into combat.
The action will be straight forward, tangible, and visually fun.
The fights will be brutal, rough, and rowdy. They will bring out the swordsman in you.
- There are 3 key words to describe the action gameplay of Warhaven – Simple, Intricate, Visceral.
- The Quality of Victory, over the Quantity of Wins
- It’s important to note that wins can only come with a few losses.
Maximizing the joy that comes with each and every win, however big or small, whilst minimizing the anger/stress that comes with each loss is something that we’ve focused on since the very beginning.
- It’s important to note that wins can only come with a few losses.
- Fantasy + Medieval Battleground
- Warhaven does not represent a real-world time or place in history.
It has its background in a fantasy world, which gives us a chance to create something with endless potential.
It’s just so fun to imagine what can come next, because there’s a unique joy and excitement which can only be obtained through a world of fantasy and make-believe.
(A unique “Tactical Medieval” armor set which we created for Warhaven. We thought it would be fun to imagine master craftsmen getting their strange designs from the Immortals through dreams and revelations. Materials and technology may be different from what we know in real life,
but how the armor functions stay relatively the same.) - Warhaven does not represent a real-world time or place in history.
- Fight forever! Fun forever!
- To be honest, this is the most difficult task we have at hand. It is our goal to create a ‘companion game’, which players can enjoy for many years to come and always come back to.
- Our development team has been playtesting Warhaven for a long time, and we are joined by other departments around Nexon, a few hours each day. The excitement is palpable as we await the start of each playtest. We sit, readying our hands in anticipation to kick each other’s butts, and to slash each other into rubble. Just today, I think I was stabbed and slashed more than 30 times overall. (But trust me, you should see the other guys.)
Every time we jump into a Warhaven match, we play with gusto. We play with raw excitement. Each match is an adrenaline rush, and I want to create a game where players feel like they can also enjoy this the same way we do. - We will focus on providing stable, high quality live ops services of Warhaven when it’s released into the wild, with proper and timely updates, each one bringing more fun and more amazing content for players to enjoy.
- To be honest, this is the most difficult task we have at hand. It is our goal to create a ‘companion game’, which players can enjoy for many years to come and always come back to.
The annual schedule is hectic, and we’re all very busy with creating, polishing and perfecting the fore-mentioned subjects.
This year has been, and will continue to be a busy one, but the team aims to make it an unforgettable one, for the devs and for our players alike.
We hope you can continue to look forward to Warhaven, and because we know how much you want news on the game as often as possible, we’ll make sure to come by often with more dev notes and tidbits from behind the scenes.
As always, thank you for all your support, and I hope to talk to you again, very soon.
Thank you!
- “Paparang” Eunseok Yi
