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Petr is the cinematic director at Warhorse Studios and in this interview with the Vasco da Gama bridge in the background we discuss how to make good cinematics nowadays.
"Hi Gamereactor friends, this is the DevGAMM Lisbon Day 2.
You can tell it's Lisbon because we have the beautiful Vasco da Gama bridge in the background.
And I'm here joined by Petr. This would make for an interesting cutscene, wouldn't it?
Yes, it would. I was actually just walking around and took impressive shots of the bridge."
"It's really cool. Not for our game, but definitely it would be nice to shoot something like that.
Your game is, of course, Kingdom Come Deliverance 2, which is one of the candidates for Game of the Year.
We can talk about Game of the Year later. But you're here to talk about its cutscenes.
You're in charge of that, you're head and director of that."
"And you just gave a panel to developers gathered here.
What did you tell them is the key to make a cutscene unskippable?
Well, the joke or the point is to make them as entertaining as possible.
So the player actually doesn't want to skip the cutscene. It's a treat for them."
"So our philosophy is to make them as nice, as funny, as entertaining, as tense as possible.
And short?
It depends. A few of our cutscenes are quite long, but we worked very hard not to be boring.
I mean, if the dialogue is really refined and there's always something happening, it can be long and entertaining at the same time."
"We actually like long shots and atmospheric shots and long cinematics and meaningful talks.
So not necessarily short, but it still has to be effective.
How much techie did you go in your panel?
In terms of what goes into dealing with cameras, with lighting, with pace, with in-game models versus something that you can use and props."
"How deep did you go into the rabbit hole?
Well, to be honest, not that deep.
I was mainly focused on the filmmaking part of the work.
How we approach the camera, how we approach the lighting, how we approach the acting and the recording of motion capture."
"Because it's, from my point of view, much more entertaining to see on a panel.
Which would you say is the best cutscene in the game without getting into spoiler territory?
That's hard.
The one unveiling it in the beginning, in the first trailer?
That's hard and it's highly subjective."
"I personally did several of the cutscenes, so I don't want to brag about my cutscenes.
But there are several I like and I'm not sure if I can talk about it without spoiling them.
But for example, you mentioned the first cutscene of the game.
There are actually two of them."
"One was made by me, one was made by my colleague.
And both of them are really carefully crafted.
Every picture, every camera shot is really well thought through.
I would say the first two cutscenes are really good."
"But the first two or three quests are really well crafted.
So I would say it's better from there.
What would you say sets Kingdom Come Deliverance 2 apart in terms of cutscenes and your craft?
What you guys did with this game compared to other games?
I personally think that it's first the writing, which is really unconventional."
"There are lots of weird and bizarre situations that you just can't see in other games.
So first the writing, then of course the setting, the historical, realistic, medieval setting is quite unusual.
So that as well.
And also our filmmaking approach, creating the cutscenes to be similar to historical spectacles from the 60s or 50s."
"Or the most recent historical movies.
So I think that as well.
And when we started I mentioned the Game of the Year awards.
They're around the corner."
"Not just the TGA, but every single magazine such as ourselves.
So how do you feel about that?
How do you feel about being...
Of course, I think you are nominated pretty much everywhere."
"And how do you feel about players' feedback?
Because the game released earlier this year.
So looking back at all this, at this moment in time, what are the expectations of the studio?
Well, the players' feedback is great."
"I think it actually exceeded our expectations.
I think the player actually enjoyed it.
And I played the game, of course, myself.
And I enjoyed it as a player as well."
"So the feedback is tremendous.
And I'm glad for that.
And we tried our best, so I'm glad for that as well.
And regarding the Game of the Year, I don't know."
"We will just see.
But because the competition is really, really tough this year.
Really tough.
So whoever will win, it will be okay."
"Because they are great games this year.
Something crazy that you would like to try out in cutscenes?
That perhaps you couldn't try with this game?
Or something that you have been considering for a while?
I don't know."
"I've got a feeling that we did everything we could.
And we are happy with the solution.
Maybe one thing that I would really like to try is to have a bigger motion capture studio.
That was part of my panel."
"That we've got quite a modest motion capture studio.
So we have to improvise quite a lot.
And it would be nice to work in a bigger studio.
But on the other hand, the improvisation that we needed to do brought some interesting new ideas."
"So I don't know.
I'm just kind of happy with the result.
That I wouldn't change anything, to be honest.
Okay.
Tricky one."
"Kingdom Come delivers two cutscenes.
How good will they look on the Switch 2?
Sorry, I don't know.
On the Nintendo Switch 2."
"Oh, on the Nintendo Switch 2.
Well, yeah, okay.
On Switch 2.
How will they look on the Switch 2?
Well, that's a tricky question."
"We already shipped, I believe, the first one on the Switch.
And the reception was good.
I can only imagine that they will be good as well.
I mean, I think they are really very well optimized."
"So I think people will enjoy it.
Alright, alright.
And then final one.
Let me ask you about AI.
But not AI in terms of sort of creating props or creating graphics."
"But AI in terms of helping you out with perhaps filmography and arrangement.
Or to change cutscenes as you go.
Because we are seeing this more and more, for example, with combat design.
That AI can life change what's going on within the game."
"Is that something that you would like to explore?
Is that something that you think is the future?
Is that something that you don't want to touch with a stick?
Well, I think neither."
"We personally like to do our stuff handcrafted, right?
So we are trying to be as personal, as original as possible.
So we were not using AI that much.
But we are, of course, thinking about how we can help the process with AI."
"With getting the tedious work a bit easier and a bit faster.
But regarding the art, I still kind of like more to do it just by myself.
From my head and from the head of our colleagues.
And kind of just creatively think of something new."
"Fantastic. Thank you so much for your time, Peter.
Enjoy the rest of DevGAMM and safe travels back to Prague.
Thank you. Thank you very much. Thanks.
Good."
