Interview with Vesselin Handjiev, lead designer and producer, Black Sea Studios about Knights of Honor

Interview
with Vesselin Handjiev, lead designer and producer, Black Sea Studios about
Knights of Honor

April 20, 2005 – GameZone received an
interview today from Paradox Interactive with the creators of Knights of Honor.
Knights was released in Europe October 2004 and will be releasing in North
America on May 10, 2005.

In
the game you become Emperor of all Europe using war, diplomacy and espionage by
leading your powerful Knights!   Let’s find out what
Vesselin Handjiev of Black Sea Studios,
the creator behind Knights of Honor has to say about
the game.

Question: What
gave you the inspiration to create Knights of Honor?

Vesselin:
The Medieval times always inspired me with the simplicity of human relations and
values. I managed to pass on this enthusiasm to my team and developing the game
has done nothing to diminish that!

Q: What kinds
of players did you design the game for?

Vesselin:
It is for more patient players, that don’t hurry, like to create strategies and
endure every step of the creation of their own empire and history. Those players
who are used to playing games from the Paradox line-up will probably find that
this game has a slightly less steep learning curve.

Q: What do you
think is especially attractive in your game concept?

Vesselin:
The combination of diplomacy, espionage and empire building is quite unique. All
components by themselves are well known and were used many times in other games,
but combined together in KOH they give a new meaning and dimension to the game
play.

Q: How long
time did it take you to develop the game?

Vesselin:
It took exactly 3 years and 3 days and quite a few pots of coffee along the way…

Q: How many
people worked on the project during this time?

Vesselin:
The team included 2 game designers, 7 programmers, 9 artists and a couple of
people as assisting personnel. We’ve also had great support from the Sunflowers
team who did a great job working with us on the title!

Q: Paradox
Interactive are known for their extensive historical research when developing
games. How much historical research did the Black Sea Studios crew do to create
a realistic setting for Knights of Honor?

Vesselin:
We did extensive research on historical subjects by plowing through books and
the Internet. One of the challenges we faced was to decide which facts to
choose, since every country writes its own history. In the end, we had to agree
on a few compromises, as our main priority was to create the best possible
gameplay.

Q: How do you
feel about Paradox Interactive bringing Knights of Honor to the wide North
American public?

Vesselin:
We are very happy about this fact, since Paradox is very famous with its
historical games all over Europe and USA. We are especially happy that Knights
of Honor will be reaching a broader North American public after its great
reception in Europe.

Q: Battles are
the only aspects of the game, which is supported in multiplayer. What was the
reasoning behind this decision? 

Vesselin:
The only reason for this is the essence of the game mechanics and rules behind
the game. It is meant to be played by a single player on the giant map of
Europe. Because it’s hard for me to explain it I will give you an example.
Imagine that you play the game and all your enemies are AIs. If you lose a
battle the enemy AI can still come to you with a peace proposal, can ask you for
a land or gold, but will hardly destroy you without any negotiations. In the
other hand, if you play with your friends and get in the same situation when
player X is stronger than player Y, it is in the human nature that X will wipe Y
from the map without any doubts. That’s why multiplayer games are always meant
to be arenas where players meet and fight. To make such a multiplayer in KOH
would mean to invent completely different mechanics and game rules. And that
would mean a completely different game.

Q: What can you
tell us about the AI in the game?

Vesselin:
The AI is designed to be human like and most importantly designed to
entertain the player.

Q: What will be
the next focus for Black Sea Studios?

Vesselin:
Now we are doing our second title, which I can’t reveal at this stage, but you
will hear about it very soon.

Q: Finally,
what tip would you give to a player who runs the game for the first time?

Vesselin:
Try to get into the atmosphere of the game and don’t give up when the AI wipes
you from the mapJ
It requires a bit of patience in the start but once you get into the game it
becomes incredibly addictive and you’ll be able to enjoy countless hours of fun!