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!

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