Greetings warriors of Calradia!

Technical Artists perform a unique and challenging role in game development. They are responsible for ensuring that art assets can be integrated into a game without sacrificing the artistic vision or exceeding the technical limitations of the platform. The role demands for them to be artistically talented and to possess a good technical understanding of the tools at their disposal.

In previous instalments of our Q&A blogs we introduced you to one of our 2D/3D Artists, Fatma Nadide Öçba, as well as the Lead Programmer of our Game Engine Team, Murat Türe. In today’s blog we talk with the person who acts as a link between these two individuals and the very different roles that they play in the development of Mount & Blade II: Bannerlord - Technical Artist, Gökalp Doğan.


Gökalp Doğan

Ankara, Turkey

2010

Visual Communication and Design

Technical Artist

"My duty as a technical artist is to act as a bridge between the graphic artists and the programmers. I work alongside both teams to provide support in solving any issues they face during the development process.

During my time at TaleWorlds, I have worked on various parts of Bannerlord. My involvement includes motion capturing, rigging, animations, visual effects, lighting, the interface for the game editor, as well as designing the user experience. I try my best to help my teammates whenever they need assistance with any of these different aspects throughout the day."



"Bannerlord offers much more in terms of richer content, a stronger game engine and a higher visual quality than the previous game in the series, Mount & Blade: Warband."



"But what excites me the most are the editor and tools that we use to develop the game. When designing new tools we aim to provide up-to-date technologies while prioritising user experience. Doing this means that the game will be more user-friendly when it comes to modding."



"I am really looking forward to seeing the content that modders will create using these tools!"

"Before joining TaleWorlds, I used to work on CG animations. I experienced some difficulties in adapting my previous experiences into real-time rendering, especially in my first few days. In my previous job it took 60 minutes to render each frame; at TaleWorlds, we are creating 60 frames per second. I found this process to be quite challenging in the beginning. You need to consider performance while following the aesthetic of the work."



"I overcame this mostly through trial and error, and by closely cooperating with the engine team. I think that we have been largely successful in this and it was great to see the positive feedback on dynamic effects that we received from the videos we shared at E3."

"I am currently working on atmosphere and general lighting. Today, for example, I am working on a day-night cycle and toning settings. We also record new animations using the motion capture system every week."



"My favourite faction is Khuzait because they are inspired by Asian nations and culture."

"I won’t go into detail about script components for now as we are thinking about publishing a detailed guide about modding. However, I will share a simple example for now."



Discuss this blog post HERE



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Greetings warriors of Calradia!

Technical Artists perform a unique and challenging role in game development. They are responsible for ensuring that art assets can be integrated into a game without sacrificing the artistic vision or exceeding the technical limitations of the platform. The role demands for them to be artistically talented and to possess a good technical understanding of the tools at their disposal.

In previous instalments of our Q&A blogs we introduced you to one of our 2D/3D Artists, Fatma Nadide Öçba, as well as the Lead Programmer of our Game Engine Team, Murat Türe. In today’s blog we talk with the person who acts as a link between these two individuals and the very different roles that they play in the development of Mount & Blade II: Bannerlord - Technical Artist, Gökalp Doğan.


Gökalp Doğan

Ankara, Turkey

2010

Visual Communication and Design

Technical Artist

"My duty as a technical artist is to act as a bridge between the graphic artists and the programmers. I work alongside both teams to provide support in solving any issues they face during the development process.

During my time at TaleWorlds, I have worked on various parts of Bannerlord. My involvement includes motion capturing, rigging, animations, visual effects, lighting, the interface for the game editor, as well as designing the user experience. I try my best to help my teammates whenever they need assistance with any of these different aspects throughout the day."



"Bannerlord offers much more in terms of richer content, a stronger game engine and a higher visual quality than the previous game in the series, Mount & Blade: Warband."



"But what excites me the most are the editor and tools that we use to develop the game. When designing new tools we aim to provide up-to-date technologies while prioritising user experience. Doing this means that the game will be more user-friendly when it comes to modding."



"I am really looking forward to seeing the content that modders will create using these tools!"

"Before joining TaleWorlds, I used to work on CG animations. I experienced some difficulties in adapting my previous experiences into real-time rendering, especially in my first few days. In my previous job it took 60 minutes to render each frame; at TaleWorlds, we are creating 60 frames per second. I found this process to be quite challenging in the beginning. You need to consider performance while following the aesthetic of the work."



"I overcame this mostly through trial and error, and by closely cooperating with the engine team. I think that we have been largely successful in this and it was great to see the positive feedback on dynamic effects that we received from the videos we shared at E3."

"I am currently working on atmosphere and general lighting. Today, for example, I am working on a day-night cycle and toning settings. We also record new animations using the motion capture system every week."



"My favourite faction is Khuzait because they are inspired by Asian nations and culture."

"I won’t go into detail about script components for now as we are thinking about publishing a detailed guide about modding. However, I will share a simple example for now."



Discuss this blog post HERE



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Twitter


Website
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Greetings warriors of Calradia!

The misty hills of north-western Calradia are dominated by the Battanian clans, the original inhabitants of much of the continent. Their hilltop fortresses have born witness to countless wars fought to resist outside invaders: first the Empire's legions, and more recently the rising Sturgian and Vlandian kingdoms. They are masters of the longbow, the night raid, the sudden wild charge out of the woods. They idolise valour, but especially like it when mixed with a bit of mischief - the cattle thief who can whisk an entire herd into the fog; the champion who dines with a rival tribe, and, regaling his hosts with an anecdote of battle, produces from his bag the skull of one of their kinsmen that he took as a souvenir.



As readers have probably guessed, the Battanians are inspired by the Celtic peoples of Western Europe - in particular, the Picts, Irish, and Welsh of the early medieval era. So we'd like to take this chance to discuss how history influences our design. Mount and Blade's Calradia is a low-fantasy setting that we think gains from cleaving fairly closely to history. Our physics-based combat system, for example, gives a well-balanced sword or a hard-hitting axe the characteristics that you'd expect by looking at it. A murderous-looking ascent up a cliffside to assault a fort should be murderous in the game, thanks to an engine that gives defenders the ability to rain down rocks and arrows on attacking forces.

Because of this design philosophy, we try not to introduce any social institutions that would be impossible to find in the technological and economic setting we describe. But we also don't mind borrowing a bit from other times and places outside our core setting, the 10th and 11th centuries. For example, the Dark Age Celts built some mysterious and majestic structures, like massive roundhouses and complex concentric fortresses, but did not build major cities. By then, they'd been pushed back to the margins of Europe, where big cities were hard to sustain. Back in Caesar's day, however, the Celts still lived closer to the economic heart of the continent and created impressive towns known as oppida on key trade routes. So you won't find an exact archaeological antecedent for our Battanian settlements, which mix later Celtic architecture with earlier Celtic town layout. But we think the result will be both visually impressive and credible, sort of an alternate version of how Celtic settlements could have evolved had history been slightly different.



Lots of our characters, too, are based on history - or legends, at least. For example, the Battanian king Caladog is partially inspired by Gruffydd ap Llywellyn, who dominated much of Wales in the 11th century. He was a very colourful figure, ruthless yet possessed of a wicked sense of humour. He is famous for quipping, when accused of having killed off all his competitors for the kingship, "I merely blunt the horns of Wales' sons lest they injure their mother." The charismatic silver-tongued rogue, who'd steal your cattle and then extemporise a poem about it: this was a bit of stereotype of Celts among the English at the time. It's actually a common view that inhabitants of peaceful but despotic kingdoms held of tribal peoples who had a strong oral tradition and enjoyed freedom but little security. Boastful, cunning, resourceful, but perhaps a tad too cussed and individualistic for their own good -- the Battanians aren't an efficient conquering machine like some of their neighbours, but no one makes war with more flair.

Bannerlord gives us some new features to bring out the uniqueness of its cultures, but we're especially excited about minor factions - mercenaries, nomads and outlaw leagues that have their own agendas that aren't part of the struggle for power. One of the Battanian minor factions is the Wolfskins - a society of young warriors who have left their clans to live a life of freedom (and violence) in the woods. So long as they live 'as wolves' - eating no cooked meat, sleeping under no roof, and wearing no woven cloth - they are exempt from the laws of men. The Wolfskins are inspired by the Fianna, a fighting brotherhood who were the stars of a major Irish saga. It treats them as heroes, but they also have a dark side, extorting money from clans who are interested in mundane things like marriage and crops and don't have time to fight all the time. Simon Young, a historian who wrote a brilliantly entertaining reconstruction of "darkest Britain," AD 500, suggests that the Fianna may in reality have given rise to legends of werewolves. The Code of the Wolf however is our own invention.



In next week’s blog we will be talking with Technical Artist, Gökalp Doğan. If you have a question you would like to ask him please leave a reply in the comments and we will pick one out for him to answer.

Discuss this blog post HERE



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Twitter


Website
Facebook
Twitter
YouTube
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Greetings warriors of Calradia!

The misty hills of north-western Calradia are dominated by the Battanian clans, the original inhabitants of much of the continent. Their hilltop fortresses have born witness to countless wars fought to resist outside invaders: first the Empire's legions, and more recently the rising Sturgian and Vlandian kingdoms. They are masters of the longbow, the night raid, the sudden wild charge out of the woods. They idolise valour, but especially like it when mixed with a bit of mischief - the cattle thief who can whisk an entire herd into the fog; the champion who dines with a rival tribe, and, regaling his hosts with an anecdote of battle, produces from his bag the skull of one of their kinsmen that he took as a souvenir.



As readers have probably guessed, the Battanians are inspired by the Celtic peoples of Western Europe - in particular, the Picts, Irish, and Welsh of the early medieval era. So we'd like to take this chance to discuss how history influences our design. Mount and Blade's Calradia is a low-fantasy setting that we think gains from cleaving fairly closely to history. Our physics-based combat system, for example, gives a well-balanced sword or a hard-hitting axe the characteristics that you'd expect by looking at it. A murderous-looking ascent up a cliffside to assault a fort should be murderous in the game, thanks to an engine that gives defenders the ability to rain down rocks and arrows on attacking forces.

Because of this design philosophy, we try not to introduce any social institutions that would be impossible to find in the technological and economic setting we describe. But we also don't mind borrowing a bit from other times and places outside our core setting, the 10th and 11th centuries. For example, the Dark Age Celts built some mysterious and majestic structures, like massive roundhouses and complex concentric fortresses, but did not build major cities. By then, they'd been pushed back to the margins of Europe, where big cities were hard to sustain. Back in Caesar's day, however, the Celts still lived closer to the economic heart of the continent and created impressive towns known as oppida on key trade routes. So you won't find an exact archaeological antecedent for our Battanian settlements, which mix later Celtic architecture with earlier Celtic town layout. But we think the result will be both visually impressive and credible, sort of an alternate version of how Celtic settlements could have evolved had history been slightly different.



Lots of our characters, too, are based on history - or legends, at least. For example, the Battanian king Caladog is partially inspired by Gruffydd ap Llywellyn, who dominated much of Wales in the 11th century. He was a very colourful figure, ruthless yet possessed of a wicked sense of humour. He is famous for quipping, when accused of having killed off all his competitors for the kingship, "I merely blunt the horns of Wales' sons lest they injure their mother." The charismatic silver-tongued rogue, who'd steal your cattle and then extemporise a poem about it: this was a bit of stereotype of Celts among the English at the time. It's actually a common view that inhabitants of peaceful but despotic kingdoms held of tribal peoples who had a strong oral tradition and enjoyed freedom but little security. Boastful, cunning, resourceful, but perhaps a tad too cussed and individualistic for their own good -- the Battanians aren't an efficient conquering machine like some of their neighbours, but no one makes war with more flair.

Bannerlord gives us some new features to bring out the uniqueness of its cultures, but we're especially excited about minor factions - mercenaries, nomads and outlaw leagues that have their own agendas that aren't part of the struggle for power. One of the Battanian minor factions is the Wolfskins - a society of young warriors who have left their clans to live a life of freedom (and violence) in the woods. So long as they live 'as wolves' - eating no cooked meat, sleeping under no roof, and wearing no woven cloth - they are exempt from the laws of men. The Wolfskins are inspired by the Fianna, a fighting brotherhood who were the stars of a major Irish saga. It treats them as heroes, but they also have a dark side, extorting money from clans who are interested in mundane things like marriage and crops and don't have time to fight all the time. Simon Young, a historian who wrote a brilliantly entertaining reconstruction of "darkest Britain," AD 500, suggests that the Fianna may in reality have given rise to legends of werewolves. The Code of the Wolf however is our own invention.



In next week’s blog we will be talking with Technical Artist, Gökalp Doğan. If you have a question you would like to ask him please leave a reply in the comments and we will pick one out for him to answer.

Discuss this blog post HERE



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Twitter


Website
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Greetings warriors of Calradia!

A video game is made up of a number of key components which come together to create an interactive experience for the player. At the core lies the calculations and scripts which make the game operate and respond to the player’s input, but on the outer layer these operations need to be represented to the player in a way which makes sense and is easy to digest. This is where Graphic Artists step in, turning the cold plethora of numbers in to graphical representations of actions, characters and places to make the game visually come to life.

In this week’s blog we talk to Graphic Artist, Fatma Nadide Öçba. Nadide works on a number of different visual aspects of Mount & Blade II: Bannerlord, helping to relay information from the game to the player, in an immersive and appealing way.


Fatma Nadide Öçba

Kocaeli / Maşukiye, Turkey

2013

Electrical Electronics Engineering + MSc in Medical Imaging (KTH, Stockholm) + 3D Modelling (Future Games Academy, Stockholm)

2D/3D Graphic Artist

“My workflow consists of a number of steps to get an item from the design stage all the way through in to the game. I start by doing extensive research for references, with the vast majority of these being historical items, and they could be anything: books, pens, horse harnesses, torches, you name it… Then I prepare sketches or sometimes I photo bash, (this is a process where I gather photos which have the right colours, angles and references and then paint over them.) Following this I get approval from the game directors and turn these into 3D models for use in the game.”



“I am a big fan of the really nice level designs, as well as the new game features. Each time there is a new shader, the game looks more beautiful.

Also, when I saw the effects of the cloth physics for the first time I was so hyped! Seeing the clothes and armours move according to world physics was so satisfying.

I also love playing with the atmosphere settings, it makes the props look realistic, (I love testing my horse harnesses with the atmosphere, they look so shiny… so precioussssss.) Salute to the engine coders and technical artists!”



“Sometimes, the integration of assets into the game can cause some minor problems, but I think I had the most difficulty with skinning my horse armours. I didn’t have much experience with skinning at the time, so it was a somewhat challenging, but fun, learning experience.”

“I am tearing castles into pieces right now for siege. This isn’t exactly the most fun process, especially when trying to break down wooden towers, however I think player’s will really enjoy the end result when they are demolishing enemy towers!”

“Aserai. I love the Middle-eastern, fairy-tale feeling to the cities of this faction. Dreamy.”

“As I said before, we tend to stick to historical influences for our designs. But as an artist, of course, one would like to be creative, so I usually try to add small ideas and imprint my own personality onto the design. There are also cases that I have to be creative, especially when I can’t find reasonable or enough resources for a functioning model, and so I have to engineer it myself.”



Discuss this blog post HERE



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Greetings warriors of Calradia!

A video game is made up of a number of key components which come together to create an interactive experience for the player. At the core lies the calculations and scripts which make the game operate and respond to the player’s input, but on the outer layer these operations need to be represented to the player in a way which makes sense and is easy to digest. This is where Graphic Artists step in, turning the cold plethora of numbers in to graphical representations of actions, characters and places to make the game visually come to life.

In this week’s blog we talk to Graphic Artist, Fatma Nadide Öçba. Nadide works on a number of different visual aspects of Mount & Blade II: Bannerlord, helping to relay information from the game to the player, in an immersive and appealing way.


Fatma Nadide Öçba

Kocaeli / Maşukiye, Turkey

2013

Electrical Electronics Engineering + MSc in Medical Imaging (KTH, Stockholm) + 3D Modelling (Future Games Academy, Stockholm)

2D/3D Graphic Artist

“My workflow consists of a number of steps to get an item from the design stage all the way through in to the game. I start by doing extensive research for references, with the vast majority of these being historical items, and they could be anything: books, pens, horse harnesses, torches, you name it… Then I prepare sketches or sometimes I photo bash, (this is a process where I gather photos which have the right colours, angles and references and then paint over them.) Following this I get approval from the game directors and turn these into 3D models for use in the game.”



“I am a big fan of the really nice level designs, as well as the new game features. Each time there is a new shader, the game looks more beautiful.

Also, when I saw the effects of the cloth physics for the first time I was so hyped! Seeing the clothes and armours move according to world physics was so satisfying.

I also love playing with the atmosphere settings, it makes the props look realistic, (I love testing my horse harnesses with the atmosphere, they look so shiny… so precioussssss.) Salute to the engine coders and technical artists!”



“Sometimes, the integration of assets into the game can cause some minor problems, but I think I had the most difficulty with skinning my horse armours. I didn’t have much experience with skinning at the time, so it was a somewhat challenging, but fun, learning experience.”

“I am tearing castles into pieces right now for siege. This isn’t exactly the most fun process, especially when trying to break down wooden towers, however I think player’s will really enjoy the end result when they are demolishing enemy towers!”

“Aserai. I love the Middle-eastern, fairy-tale feeling to the cities of this faction. Dreamy.”

“As I said before, we tend to stick to historical influences for our designs. But as an artist, of course, one would like to be creative, so I usually try to add small ideas and imprint my own personality onto the design. There are also cases that I have to be creative, especially when I can’t find reasonable or enough resources for a functioning model, and so I have to engineer it myself.”



Discuss this blog post HERE



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Twitter


Website
Facebook
Twitter
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Greetings warriors of Calradia!

In this week’s blog we would like to talk about an aspect of the game which many of you have requested we talk about for quite some time now: singleplayer. We decided that the most interesting way to do this would be to discuss different features and mechanics from the campaign in their own dedicated blogs. We hope that, over time, we can touch on many of the key aspects of the sandbox and give you all a better understanding of what to expect in Mount & Blade II: Bannerlord.

In a previous blog we briefly discussed a mechanic which is new to the Mount & Blade series, influence. Influence acts as a kind of currency in the game and can be earned by serving your kingdom in various ways: destroying bandits or enemy parties, raiding, capturing enemy settlements etc. Influence points can be spent to determine the outcome of some faction decisions and to make requests to allied lords. We have already shown you that influence can be spent to ask an allied lord to follow you, but one thing we are yet to discuss is how players can use our new army gathering system to perform this action on a grander scale.

So how does this work? Well, each allied lord has an influence cost based on the power of their party. Players can spend their influence points to summon allied lords to form their own army. It is the leader of the army which gains all of the influence for the army’s victorious deeds, e.g. capturing a city will result in a huge influence boon for the leader, so spending influence to build an army is actually an investment, and sometimes even a gamble. If an army leader can no longer afford to spend influence then the army will start to disband.

Army influence upkeep cost is based on several factors:

• If the army morale is high, then upkeep costs are lower (and vice versa)
  
• Distance from their hometowns, how long they have been fighting etc.
  
• Relations between the army commander and lords

As long as the army is successful in their efforts and the lord commander is keeping the other lords happy, then the army can go on marching for a long time. But if things don’t go so well, the army will quickly dissolve and lords will decide to abandon the campaign and return to their own lands.

When an army is gathered it becomes almost like a moving settlement, with its own UI overlay on the campaign map. The UI shows:

• Army morale
  
• Lords and their parties
  
• Food supplies
  
• Marching speed (players can see factors affecting the marching speed from a tooltip)

The UI also shows portraits of the lords which are currently a part of the army and their current relations with the player. Deep red means that they despise you, whereas bright green means that they are your favourite drinking buddy! If a lord has answered the summons and is travelling to join your army, or if they are currently away from the army on a mission, their portrait will appear greyed out with an indicator displaying their distance from the army’s current position, which is measured in days of travelling time. If you are an army commander you can click on a portrait to talk with a lord and give them a task to perform, such as scout ahead, bring food, bring reinforcements, bring horses, etc. You can dismiss lords to send them back to defend their lands or to trim the army and better manage your influence upkeep costs. If you are a member of an army, the army commander or other lords might have their own missions for you.

Another aspect of the new army system is that armies use pooled resources to support their campaigns. This means that if one lord brings some food, butter, for instance, then the rest of the army will be fed. Likewise, horses and mules are shared, increasing the movement speed of the entire army.

This new system allows for all lords to call on other allied lords and build their own army. Because of the large influence costs, it is of course easier for a king to do this, however there will certainly be times when some powerful lords will have more influence and money than their liege and will be able to amass their own powerful armies to take on a campaign. It also makes it possible for players to try their hand at army management relatively early in the game, before they have had a chance to climb to the top of a kingdom.

We feel that the new influence and army gathering systems better simulate the historical feudal system. When the player becomes part of a kingdom, they have obligations to their liege. This system allows players to pay for the benefits of being a lord by supporting their liege and fellow lords in military campaigns while building up influence within the realm to serve their own purposes.



In next week’s blog we will talk with Graphic Artist, Fatma Nadide Öçba. If you have a question you would like to ask her about her work, please leave a reply in the comment section and we will pick one out for her to answer.

Discuss this blog post HERE



Facebook
Twitter


Website
Facebook
Twitter
YouTube
Twitch

Greetings warriors of Calradia!

In this week’s blog we would like to talk about an aspect of the game which many of you have requested we talk about for quite some time now: singleplayer. We decided that the most interesting way to do this would be to discuss different features and mechanics from the campaign in their own dedicated blogs. We hope that, over time, we can touch on many of the key aspects of the sandbox and give you all a better understanding of what to expect in Mount & Blade II: Bannerlord.

In a previous blog we briefly discussed a mechanic which is new to the Mount & Blade series, influence. Influence acts as a kind of currency in the game and can be earned by serving your kingdom in various ways: destroying bandits or enemy parties, raiding, capturing enemy settlements etc. Influence points can be spent to determine the outcome of some faction decisions and to make requests to allied lords. We have already shown you that influence can be spent to ask an allied lord to follow you, but one thing we are yet to discuss is how players can use our new army gathering system to perform this action on a grander scale.

So how does this work? Well, each allied lord has an influence cost based on the power of their party. Players can spend their influence points to summon allied lords to form their own army. It is the leader of the army which gains all of the influence for the army’s victorious deeds, e.g. capturing a city will result in a huge influence boon for the leader, so spending influence to build an army is actually an investment, and sometimes even a gamble. If an army leader can no longer afford to spend influence then the army will start to disband.

Army influence upkeep cost is based on several factors:

• If the army morale is high, then upkeep costs are lower (and vice versa)
  
• Distance from their hometowns, how long they have been fighting etc.
  
• Relations between the army commander and lords

As long as the army is successful in their efforts and the lord commander is keeping the other lords happy, then the army can go on marching for a long time. But if things don’t go so well, the army will quickly dissolve and lords will decide to abandon the campaign and return to their own lands.

When an army is gathered it becomes almost like a moving settlement, with its own UI overlay on the campaign map. The UI shows:

• Army morale
  
• Lords and their parties
  
• Food supplies
  
• Marching speed (players can see factors affecting the marching speed from a tooltip)

The UI also shows portraits of the lords which are currently a part of the army and their current relations with the player. Deep red means that they despise you, whereas bright green means that they are your favourite drinking buddy! If a lord has answered the summons and is travelling to join your army, or if they are currently away from the army on a mission, their portrait will appear greyed out with an indicator displaying their distance from the army’s current position, which is measured in days of travelling time. If you are an army commander you can click on a portrait to talk with a lord and give them a task to perform, such as scout ahead, bring food, bring reinforcements, bring horses, etc. You can dismiss lords to send them back to defend their lands or to trim the army and better manage your influence upkeep costs. If you are a member of an army, the army commander or other lords might have their own missions for you.

Another aspect of the new army system is that armies use pooled resources to support their campaigns. This means that if one lord brings some food, butter, for instance, then the rest of the army will be fed. Likewise, horses and mules are shared, increasing the movement speed of the entire army.

This new system allows for all lords to call on other allied lords and build their own army. Because of the large influence costs, it is of course easier for a king to do this, however there will certainly be times when some powerful lords will have more influence and money than their liege and will be able to amass their own powerful armies to take on a campaign. It also makes it possible for players to try their hand at army management relatively early in the game, before they have had a chance to climb to the top of a kingdom.

We feel that the new influence and army gathering systems better simulate the historical feudal system. When the player becomes part of a kingdom, they have obligations to their liege. This system allows players to pay for the benefits of being a lord by supporting their liege and fellow lords in military campaigns while building up influence within the realm to serve their own purposes.



In next week’s blog we will talk with Graphic Artist, Fatma Nadide Öçba. If you have a question you would like to ask her about her work, please leave a reply in the comment section and we will pick one out for her to answer.

Discuss this blog post HERE



Facebook
Twitter


Website
Facebook
Twitter
YouTube
Twitch

Greetings warriors of Calradia!

Before a product goes to market, it is important that it has been thoroughly tested to confirm that it is working as intended and that it will meet the expectations of the end user. This is especially true for PC games, which are targeted at wide range of hardware and software configurations, with the aim of providing users with unique, fun and engaging gaming experiences. This is where the unsung heroes of the gaming industry step in, quality assurance (QA) testers. The role of a QA tester is to identify and report any issues with the game, ranging from game-breaking bugs through to obscure and hard to replicate glitches. This is often repetitive and tedious work, but it is vital in order to ensure the quality of the final product. In this week’s blog we talk with QA Lead and Game Designer, Meriç Neşeli, who oversees our dedicated and hardworking QA team.


Meriç Neşeli

Istanbul, Turkey

February 2015

Computer Engineering

QA Lead and Game Designer

“In the morning I organise and allocate the day’s assignments for the rest of my team. Our daily tests revolve around testing features for both the game and the game engine. We test the functionality of newly added features and track general development day-by-day to ensure that the game is still stable after changes to the code.

In the afternoon I attend a meeting with members of our various teams. The purpose of this meeting is to discuss the development process and establish which features need our immediate attention in testing. Naturally, the QA team gets to spend a lot more time playing Bannerlord than the rest of our colleagues which means that we have a somewhat deeper understanding of the current state of the game than others. We get to see the long term effects of design decisions and offer our feedback. If a feature is still interesting after hundreds of hours of gameplay then that is a good indication that the right decision was made during the design stage.”

“I like a wide variety of things about the game; battle strategy, the teamwork required in multiplayer, the different factions - each with their own distinctive culture... There is just too much that I enjoy to narrow it down to a single choice.”

“Balancing troops. In Bannerlord, each faction has their own unique troops. Although unique troops offer some advantages over regular troops, we still have to strike a balance with how these units compare to similar troops within their own faction, and how they will perform against units from each of the other factions.

Each faction has their own advantages and disadvantages when it comes to army compositions. For example, Empire’s core units are heavy infantry, which are more durable than other infantry in Calradia. We need to select their perks and equipment in a way which will provide them with this advantage, yet exposes them to risk. In this case, the weakness of heavy infantry is shock infantry, such as the Falxmen of Battania. A good strategy to employ with Empire is to use infantry and ranged units in close proximity so that they can provide support to each other against their counter troop types.

Another balancing issue is the cost of troops, which is set according to the power of the unit. In Captain Mode we had to handle this a little differently because money doesn’t feature in this game mode. We decided to alter the troop count instead of the price, with the reasoning that all players have the same amount of funds and therefore the stronger units should have fewer soldiers because their recruitment and upkeep costs would be higher.”

“Answering these blog questions, (just kidding!) I'm currently working on setting civilian equipment for lords. Lords will wear helmets and heavy armour in battle, but you will see the same lords wearing robes or silk tunics in a lord's hall. The aim of this is to make the world feel more realistic and immersive.”

“Battania. Battanians have tattoos and battle paints giving them the look and feel of Celts. They have well skilled, armoured archers and many of their troops use two-handed weapons, (the archers included!) I find the atmosphere in their large and sparsely populated cities to be fascinating, and even though the cities are mostly ruinous, walking around them feels relaxed.”

“There are two types of tests which we use. The first one is automated tests which are run by code. Some of them are unit tests, others performance tests, there are visual tests, etc. We have several computers running these tests at all times. The second type of tests are manual tests, which are performed by the QA team. We prepared a document for manual tests which includes testing steps for each scene and feature. We currently have 5 people working in the QA team and we focus our work on our field of experience, for example the editor tester checks engine features daily.”

“There was a bug at one stage where everyone in towns, some of them naked, madly started attacking the player! The screenshots came out to be almost like a renaissance painting.”



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