If you haven’t seen the Kingmakers trailer yet, I suggest you do so now before continuing. If you’re reading or reading this magazine to limit your screen time (you’re doing a great job and thank you for your support), I can’t keep talking about the game without spoiling its major twists. The trailer makes it look like it’s a medieval strategy game with pre-contemporary base-building elements, but it’s certainly a junk truck, screeching through time and landing in the middle of a battlefield filled with horses, armor, and possibly Old English shouts. It’s a phrase, but it’s hard to hear in the chaos.
What follows is more of a dynasty warrior, where a man equipped with modern weapons technology like guns and missile launchers goes to war with armies of the past. The premise is immediately charming, bizarre, and fun, but Kingmakers creators brothers Ian and Paul Fisch are taking a surprisingly grounded approach to the game while fully embracing the absurd yet compelling idea.
“Plot is important, especially when it comes to historical accuracy,” says Ian. “It’s not just a medieval setting. You live in the 15th century. You are fighting against Henry Bolingbroke (Henry IV) and his son Henry V.” This was a shock to me because after seeing the trailer I totally thought Kingmakers was a joke action game where you fight medieval soldiers using modern weapons. And that’s certainly true, but Ian clearly has a passion for history. He spends the next few minutes of the interview talking about that period in history, the relationship between Britain and France at that time, and commiserating about how the 2018 Timothée Chalamet film came to be. the king and Shakespeare’s Henry V They both misunderstand history. “Ian is very interested in history and loves to dig deep,” says Paul. “We are trying to maintain this accurate knowledge and then you step in. Then it occurs to me that you are changing history.”
And that historical intervention will certainly have different results. “There are many endings to games.” Paul confirmed. The trailer intentionally doesn’t go into much depth about the game’s story. The Fischs didn’t want to bog down potential players with their knowledge on the first look. “I don’t think trailers should list proper nouns, places or character names,” says Ian. But for those who immersed themselves in Kingmakers when it launched, this story will be the driving force behind it.
Despite the action of fighting medieval armies using modern weaponry, you’re not playing as a trained soldier. Instead, you are part of a team of scientists trying to figure out what caused the current apocalypse in the past. Your team has invented a time machine that allows them to see the world change and change due to decisions made in the past. They learn that to prevent a dire future, England, Wales, Scotland and, as Ian puts it, “little Ireland” must unite. You are not a military with an unlimited government budget. You are a scientist trying to prevent an ongoing disaster.
And you might fail, or at least end up with a very confusing ending. The trailer shows an optimistic picture of a futuristic city with floating cat-shaped ships, but all is not as it seems. “If you pay close attention to the end, you can see the cat glands opening up and pouring into the human skull and other bones. So I’m not very optimistic,” says Ian.
Story was the unexpected element that prompted Kingmakers’ conversation with the Fisch brothers, but the pair and their team are also passionate about creating compelling action games with unique mechanics. As a time-traveling scientist, you will not only be thrust into the heart of battle, but you will also build a defensible base and command your army. So, in addition to shooting your guns and driving trucks to fight your way through hordes of soldiers, you’ll also be giving orders and doing it all online with other people if you want. You can help your friends with their ongoing campaigns, and they can do the same for you. Specific details about how multiplayer will work haven’t been confirmed yet, but the Fisch brothers have made it clear that they want everything to jump.
“It’s in third person, but it’s also a simulation?” Paul says he’s not ready to commit to a specific genre yet. “It doesn’t have to be this narrow, because people like a lot of genres and want to see interesting matchups in those genres,” says Ian. Kingmakers enters Early Access later this year, which will be your chance to see exactly what this unusual game is actually about.
This article was published in issue 365 of Game Informer.
