We had the strength to say, 'Yes, that's what we want.'
In the studios of Warhorse, a quiet conviction took hold: that the most meaningful rewards in play — as in life — are those that cost something first. Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2 was designed from the ground up to make players feel genuinely powerless at the outset, inviting frustration as a feature rather than a flaw. When playtesters recoiled and left negative feedback, the developers read it not as failure but as confirmation — a signal that the stakes were real, and that what lay beyond them would matter.
- Playtesters were arrested within minutes of starting the game, stripped of momentum and agency, and many walked away frustrated — exactly as the designers intended.
- The studio faced internal fear and doubt, debating whether it was truly willing to deny players even a safe place to sleep at the very beginning of the experience.
- Warhorse drew courage from FromSoftware's trajectory — proof that punishing, uncompromising design can escape the margins and become a cultural force.
- The team reframed negative playtester feedback as validation rather than warning, treating early player suffering as the necessary foundation for earned progression.
- The studio now bets that polished, original ideas willing to demand something of players can still find — and even grow — a mainstream audience.
When playtesters picked the wrong fight, stole the wrong item, or wandered into the wrong part of town in Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2, the guards came quickly. They were arrested, their characters left sitting in a cell, momentum broken. Many left negative feedback. For Warhorse Studios, that was precisely the outcome they had hoped for.
Lead designer Prokop Jirsa recalls those sessions with something close to relief. The studio had made a deliberate choice: vulnerability would be the default condition of the early game. If players began feeling powerless — without weapons, without skills, without even a safe place to rest — then the slow accumulation of strength would feel genuinely earned rather than handed over. The internal debates were, by Jirsa's own account, frightening. People inside the studio questioned whether they were really willing to strip everything from the player at the start.
The first Kingdom Come: Deliverance, released in 2018, had already demonstrated that an audience existed for this kind of uncompromising experience. And Jirsa found further encouragement in FromSoftware's rise — studios that took difficulty as a core design principle and carried it from the margins of gaming culture into the mainstream with Dark Souls and Elden Ring.
Jirsa doesn't claim this approach works for everyone. But he believes the market has room for original ideas that ask something real of players — and that negative feedback during development, rather than signaling a wrong turn, can confirm that the stakes are genuine. Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2 is built on that conviction: that discomfort at the beginning is not a problem to be solved, but the very thing that makes the reward worth reaching.
When playtesters sat down with Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2, some of them made a wrong move early on—picked a fight they couldn't win, stole something they shouldn't have, or simply wandered into the wrong part of town. Within minutes, the guards arrived. They were arrested. The game continued, but now they were in a cell, their character stripped of agency and momentum. Many of them left negative feedback. For Warhorse Studios, this was exactly the point.
Prokop Jirsa, the lead designer at Warhorse, recalls those playtests with something close to satisfaction. "We had playtests where some players started a game, did something wrong, immediately got arrested, and gave negative feedback," he told GamesRadar+. "We had the strength to say, 'Yes, that's what we want.'" The studio was not interested in softening the blow or easing new players into the experience. They wanted vulnerability to be the default condition of the early game.
The reasoning was deliberate: if a player began the game feeling powerless, then the slow accumulation of strength—better weapons, better armor, better skills, the ability to survive a confrontation—would feel like something earned rather than something handed over. "We want the player at the beginning to feel extremely weak," Jirsa explains, "because then the validation of gaining strength feels earned." This was a bet against the grain of modern game design, which tends toward immediate gratification and early wins. It felt risky. Jirsa remembers the internal debates being "scary"—the studio questioning whether they were really willing to strip everything from the player at the start, even a safe place to sleep.
But the first Kingdom Come: Deliverance, released in 2018, had proven something important: there was an audience for this kind of thing. The game had found its players despite—or perhaps because of—its refusal to coddle them. Still, the conversations inside Warhorse continued. "Are we really going the right way?" people asked. "Are we really into these survival elements? Do we really want to take everything from the player at the beginning?" The doubts were real. But the precedent was there.
Jirsa points to FromSoftware as proof that punishing design can break through to the mainstream. Dark Souls and Elden Ring took something that lived in the margins of gaming culture—difficulty as a core design principle, failure as information rather than punishment—and made it not just successful but culturally dominant. "They took something that was very niche to the mainstream audience and were very successful," Jirsa says. The lesson seemed clear: if you have conviction about your design, if you polish it until it shines, audiences will find you.
This is not a universal truth in game development, and Jirsa doesn't claim it is. But he believes there's room in the market for original ideas that refuse to compromise, that ask something of the player rather than simply entertaining them. "I honestly believe there's big potential for original ideas that, if they were given a chance to be polished, could reach mainstream," he says. Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2 is betting on that belief—that negative feedback during development is not a warning sign but a confirmation that the studio is building something with real stakes, real consequences, and real rewards.
Citações Notáveis
We want the player at the beginning to feel extremely weak, because then the validation of gaining strength feels earned.— Prokop Jirsa, lead designer at Warhorse Studios
I honestly believe there's big potential for original ideas that, if they were given a chance to be polished, could reach mainstream.— Prokop Jirsa
A Conversa do Hearth Outra perspectiva sobre a história
So when players got arrested in your playtests and complained, you took that as a good sign?
Exactly. It meant we were hitting the feeling we wanted—that moment where the player realizes they're genuinely vulnerable and the world doesn't care about their intentions.
But that's counterintuitive. Most developers chase positive feedback. Why embrace the negative?
Because negative feedback in this context meant we weren't softening the experience. We were committing to something harder. If everyone had said "this is great," we might have been doing something safe instead.
Were there moments you second-guessed that approach?
Absolutely. There were real conversations about whether we were being too harsh, whether we should give players more breathing room early on. But the first game proved there was an audience for this.
What changed your mind when you were doubting?
Seeing what FromSoftware did with Dark Souls and Elden Ring. They showed that niche design philosophy could reach mainstream audiences if it was polished and intentional. That gave us permission to trust our instincts.
So you're betting that players want to earn their victories, not be handed them?
We're betting that when you strip everything away and make the player truly weak, the moment they gain strength—a better weapon, a skill they've trained—it means something. That validation is worth the early frustration.