So, what's it like to be a grunt—sorry, serve the Emperor—in the Inquisition within the Warhammer 40K universe?
Of course, I'm not talking about the Inquisitors who spend their days burning heretics, but rather the Acolytes—the most numerous and hardworking members at the bottom of the Inquisition. If you have no idea what an Acolyte does, there's a game called Warhammer 40,000: Darktide that perfectly illustrates the job: wake up early to pray with the Sisters, deploy via Thunderhawk, slaughter every heretic, mutant, traitor, and suspect in your path, smash daemon hosts with a hammer, slap Nurglings to death, wipe out an entire platoon of Ogryn heavy infantry, and finally blow up the heretical cathedral.
Of course, the latter part requires a hard condition—if you are the Emperor's Chosen.
But what if the one doing this dirty, tiring work is just an ordinary citizen of the Imperium?
Haha, that sounds too "intense," feeling like life really has something to look forward to.
Thanks to Owlcat Games, I connected with the producer of Warhammer 40,000: Rogue Trader, who is recently responsible for the development of Owlcat's new project—Warhammer 40,000: Dark Heresy. His name is Anatoly Shestov, inheriting the bloodline of the twin Primarchs Alpha and Omegon. He has served as a Rogue Trader, served in the Astra Militarum, and fought for Deathwatch. His resume is quite rich.
Currently, Anatoly is working in the Cassiopeia Sector, under High Inquisitor Anton Zerbe and Tyrant Star, which sounds like he has extensive "Inquisition" work experience. I took this opportunity to sit down and have a good chat with him.
Below is the main body of the interview.
Q: This is both a warm-up question and a personal interest of mine—as the producer of two Warhammer games and a Warhammer fan, which Space Marine Chapter is your favorite?
Anatoly:My absolute favorite Chapter is the Alpha Legion. Whether it's covert agents, infiltration raids, or carefully crafted conspiracies, I am fascinated by them all. Moreover, I am personally keen on the Alpha Legion's narrative of deep behind-enemy-lines covert engagements and the "Ultimate Plan of the Old Man Emperor" executed by the twin Primarchs Alpha and Omegon.
I really enjoy participating in community discussions about whether Alpha Legion truly betrayed humanity or serves a dual loyalty. The narrative puzzles and complexity of decryption drew me into the embrace of the Hydra.
Q: This answer really surprised me. I had thought of popular Chapters in the Russian community like Space Wolves, Imperial Fists, and Salamanders, but I never expected Omegon himself to be sitting in front of me. No wonder, in every sense, you are very suitable for working in the Inquisition, or becoming an enemy of the Inquisition—I mean, a collaborator.
Anatoly:Haha, yes, I follow the grand design of the twin Primarchs.
Q: As a practitioner in the CRPG industry and the producer of the highly popular Warhammer-themed CRPGs in the community, how do you view the current market environment? Especially at this point when Baldur's Gate 3 has reignited the CRPG热潮 (boom)?
What is different about making a CRPG today compared to the past?
Anatoly:This is quite a complex question, so let me answer it step by step. First, we never decide the type of our works based on the potential number of users. Our studio consists of hardcore CRPG fans, so we decided to make CRPGs—simply put, we just make games that we find fun. That's how we made Pathfinder: Kingmaker, Pathfinder: Wrath of the Righteous, and Warhammer 40,000: Rogue Trader.
As for what is different compared to the past—from our internal mindset, waiting methods, and handling of affairs, which are the basics of game production—there has been basically no major change.
Our goal has always been to make games that we find fun and would want to play ourselves.
We have always tried to share what we cherish while striving to stay true to ourselves and remain honest. When making CRPGs, we constantly ask ourselves: Is this design fun? Is this level interesting? Is this puzzle too much, and so on.
Speaking of the success of Baldur's Gate 3, it is indeed a boon for the entire CRPG community and industry practitioners. The folks at Larian Studios brought the CRPG genre to a very popular height, introducing many newcomers to the entire game type.
To be honest, these newcomers haven't truly changed the entire industry and community, nor have they significantly expanded the existing boundaries of the CRPG community. However, their presence did briefly inject vitality into the CRPG community. They hadn't played Icewind Dale, Dragon Age: Origins, or even the relatively modern Solasta. For themselves, they pushed open the long-closed door called "CRPG" and found a brand-new realm.
And for us, this is a brand-new challenge.
Their influx has had a profound impact on our decisions. They want to experience high-level narratives, highly creative performances, and the weight and pressure of choices. These desires force us to rethink how we write better stories and create superior gaming experiences.
Think about it. Over a decade ago, there were many ways to please hardcore CRPG fans. But this kind of "fun" might not be "fun" at all for players outside the CRPG circle. Now, the question we ask ourselves most often is: How do outsiders view our designs? Can those outside the conventional CRPG mindset understand them? Can they feel the fun in them?
These are changes brought by the times. This shift affects every aspect of our internal processes and decision-making. As a result, we have absorbed more new people, especially fresh blood not influenced by the old-era mindset.
Q: I noticed that this kind of "optimization" seems to have started quite early. Compared to your previous, more hardcore CRPGs—such as Pathfinder: Kingmaker and Pathfinder: Wrath of the Righteous—Warhammer 40,000: Rogue Trader is quite simple. In fact, many CRPG players view this "simplification" as a reduction in the game's overall playability. The simplest example is that each character has very few Build options.
Speaking of this, I actually want to know why, after making two D&D-style CRPGs, you chose to make a Warhammer-themed CRPG? The worldviews and settings of the two are worlds apart. Moreover, as an IP with equally heavy history, Warhammer fans are just as harsh and picky as D&D fans.
Anatoly:There is indeed complex logic behind this choice. To speak from the heart—you know, we are all die-hard fans of TTRPGs. We play Pathfinder, we play Dungeons & Dragons (D&D), and we have also played various Warhammer universe TTRPGs, which we enjoy very much.
Actually, on the night we decided what to do for the sequel, or rather, the new work, we kept thinking about how to bring the shining points of the TTRPG experience to "electronic TTRPG" players? Are these shining points fun? What were the external and internal factors at the time? How to convey the same experience and emotions?
When we sorted out our entire cognitive assessment system, we realized that whether it's Pathfinder or Warhammer, the passion when rolling dice, the joy of messing with each other, and the pride in overcoming puzzle difficulties together remain unchanged. These emotions are not limited by the theme and are what we most want to convey.
After deciding on the core fun, the difficulty lies in implementation—especially how to pull a vast, boundless fantasy world down from the sky and place it truly in front of the players.
Think about it. A grand worldview often brings endless possibilities, which in turn bring endless inspiration. And when we compare these worldviews, they are so unique and different; you can always find what you want.
Then, when we look at certain universes, especially thick, mature worldviews like the Warhammer universe, designers actually have very low freedom. This low freedom comes not only from its grand story but mainly because this universe already has mostly self-consistent rules.
To be precise, when developing worldviews with high freedom, we include more interesting and different designs. And when dealing with stricter, more detailed worldviews—such as the Warhammer universe and The Expanse universe—we work based on various reference materials.
Of course, many of our experiences in tabletop RPGs are not unprecedented within the mature IP system of Warhammer—we hope to explore how our personal experiences operate within specific systems and environments by searching for these precedents.
This approach is crucial for the Warhammer universe we are exploring. More broadly, it also applies to other fantasy IPs with similarly rich backgrounds and settings, like Warhammer.
In fact, even within the Warhammer universe itself, there are many different systems. Take tabletop gaming, for example. Those expensive plastic miniatures raid, board, and perform various tactical maneuvers on player-made boards. Players have developed all sorts of rules and stories around these boards, forming independent micro-narrative systems—these "house rules" are as numerous as the books in the Black Library.
On the other hand, we have the "lore" system constructed by various official writers. The Warhammer universe loved by fans who battle on the tabletop is often completely different from what novel readers know, not to mention the large number of third-party fan creators in the Warhammer community.
Then there are the game fans of titles like Warhammer 40,000: Dawn of War, Warhammer 40,000: Battlesector, Warhammer 40,000: Gothic Fleet, Warhammer 40,000: Space Marine, and so on. They form their own distinct groups—even multiple factions—different from story enthusiasts and tabletop painters.
When facing such a complex and diverse user group, we try our best to ensure that most people can understand the stories we tell, or allow more people to enjoy our stories. We hope that Warhammer fan communities in any region can find fun in our works.
This mindset is often brought up when we start thinking about how to craft new stories. For instance, before starting development on Warhammer 40,000: Rogue Trader, we had already been running a "Rogue Trader" tabletop campaign for three full years. Then, during specific game development, we separately formed a "Deathwatch"—that is, Space Marines—campaign. The stories, experiences, and settings of these two campaigns were completely unrelated, but this difference brought us more food for thought.
Q: Speaking of specific Warhammer settings, I have a small question here. In the trailer for Warhammer 40,000: Dark Heresy, I noticed that the Ogryn teammate in the protagonist's party has an Intelligence of 30; whereas if we look at Ulfar, the Space Wolf in Warhammer 40,000: Rogue Trader, he only has an initial Intelligence stat of 25. This isn't some intentional joke, right?
Anatoly:To be precise, the numerical systems of Warhammer 40,000: Dark Heresy and Warhammer 40,000: Rogue Trader are not on the same level. From a designer's perspective, you can't say that because these numbers exist in a similar universe and operate within a similar system, they should have the same strength.
My answer is: NO, this is not an intentional joke. What we showed in the video is actually a generic template. Cog, the Ogryn teammate, actually has an Intelligence stat of only 20.
So, the Blood Claws (the youngest and most volatile members of the Space Wolves) can calm down for now.
Q: You previously mentioned that Warhammer 40,000: Only War, Warhammer 40,000: Deathwatch, Warhammer 40,000: Black Crusade, Warhammer 40,000: Rogue Trader, and Warhammer 40,000: Dark Heresy all belong to the five famous Warhammer TTRPG rules jointly launched by Games Workshop and Fantasy Flight Games.
So, in the future, is it possible to adapt the remaining ones into games?
Anatoly:It is too early to make any promises now. The only thing I can say is that the Warhammer universe is vast, and we have been cultivating this universe for many years, accumulating a lot.
However, there is currently no definite conclusion.
Q: I noticed that this time, you are not only developing Warhammer 40,000: Dark Heresy but also simultaneously working on a project based on The Expanse, and it's third-person. With two projects running at the same time, will you face issues with insufficient manpower or funding?
Anatoly:I can't speak for The Expanse team, so I can't share any stories there. However, in terms of our studio's daily operations, we are two completely separate teams with no conflicts, each independent and focused on different projects—so we don't have to worry about competing for human resources or development resources.
To be precise, our two teams often invite each other to participate in game stability testing, identifying potential problems from different perspectives. So, in the game development process, we are actually learning from each other's experiences.
For example, while another team was developing The Expanse, our entire studio greatly improved its understanding and experience with cutscenes—both in terms of details and overall control.
I don't know if you saw that promotional video, where the camera sweeps through the station, bringing various details to life. The guy from The Expanse team responsible for this shared a lot of experience, from which our entire Warhammer team benefited greatly.
However, overall, we work in different worldviews, different game engines, and develop different game genres. Therefore, our teams are relatively independent during specific development phases, with little interference. Only occasionally, during the delivery of important milestones, do we participate in each other's functional testing to jointly verify the actual user experience.
This is our current way of operating. Does developing this way bring difficulties? Of course. After all, our studio is not large. For example, the Q&A—Quality Assurance team—is like firefighters running around everywhere.
But overall, these changes become nutrients for our growth during development, helping us continuously optimize our decisions. Actually, I personally enjoy these challenges very much.
Q: When you made Pathfinder: Kingmaker and Pathfinder: Wrath of the Righteous, you used real-time combat, but chose pure turn-based combat for Rogue Trader. Unsurprisingly, Warhammer 40,000: Dark Heresy will also follow this path.
Could you share the reasons behind this?
Anatoly:From a more specific perspective, when you want to offer players some enjoyable combat experiences, when you want players to keep savoring these experiences after battle, when you want those experiences to pop out like sparks from a bottle... real-time combat is a good stage—a stage we feel can offer more possibilities for veteran players.
In the Warhammer universe, a battle is either overwhelmingly grand, where all the "major events" around you are just background noise, or it involves extreme tactical subdivision, where every detail, every step, and every choice is crucial.
Therefore, to present the possibilities and beauty of the Warhammer universe as much as possible and to enrich the entire fantasy world, we chose turn-based combat.
We chose turn-based combat not due to technical factors, trends, or commercial considerations. We simply felt that this gameplay mode is more suitable for players to have an immersive experience, and it also allows us to provide various Warhammer-flavored experiences to players more efficiently and systematically.
Q: Will the map exploration gameplay in Warhammer 40,000: Dark Heresy be completely different from Warhammer 40,000: Rogue Trader? For example, the quick and efficient star map scanning setting in Rogue Trader—although this gameplay received mixed reviews in the community. Some said this gameplay was too simplified and didn't express the grandeur of carving out territory in Rogue Trader, while others said we are playing a CRPG, the focus isn't on this, so the simpler the better.
Of course, if Warhammer 40,000: Rogue Trader touched upon some "base-building" gameplay needs, then the Inquisition in Warhammer 40,000: Dark Heresy is purely about being a "covert agent." So, in terms of actual gameplay, what are the differences between the two?
Anatoly:I believe the essence of Warhammer 40,000: Dark Heresy's design lies in this: as a member of the Inquisition, you must handle Everythinggj personally.
And when you can play as a "Rogue Trader" in the Warhammer universe, Lady Luck herself applauds your good fortune—you are practically born with a silver spoon, possessing almost infinite freedom, with countless people sworn to execute your commands.
There are simply too many such examples in the various existing stories of the Warhammer universe.
Meanwhile, in the Warhammer universe, there is a group of people deeply buried in darkness and horror. They have no choice; they must oversee Everythinggj personally—they must bear the weight and consequences of every decision alone.
This absolute difference in narrative and positioning affects every aspect of game design—not just map design, but also potential combat desires, the player's entire role-playing system, the story's thread and stage, all of which will be completely different from Warhammer 40,000: Rogue Trader.
We even designed a "detective" gameplay system specifically to serve this narrative tone.
The map design you're interested in is the重中之重 (core focus) of the entire narrative mode. We have invested a lot of time and energy to create an interactive, visually strong, and immersive "Imperium of Man"—one you won't see in any other Warhammer game on the market.
We throw players into a world that is absolutely painful, counter-intuitive, and despairing—a place where one glance makes you realize you're in an environment known as the "Warhammer shit-hole."
Those grand, brutal, or even tiny battlefields? We have them. Those beautiful warships driven by inefficient manpower and flesh-and-blood suffering? We have them too. There are also Planetary Defense Forces, the "trash" thrown away by nobles as expendables, and ordinary Imperials struggling desperately in slums—those "ordinary people" who might not even survive past youth. Players can get up close and personal with these "hells" they could never imagine.
We carefully select stage environments, ensuring these "hells" are wrapped in enough interactive elements. We are fully expanding the dimensions of performance, allowing more stories with a "Warhammer" flavor to be within reach of players.
We firmly believe that in terms of presentation, the more detailed and rich the details we provide, the more infectious the story players will experience.
Q: In Warhammer 40,000: Dark Heresy, what directions can character origins reveal? Are there origins with a heavier role-playing nature? Can players play as alien races? Of course, you need to answer this question cautiously, as the Emperor is watching here.
Anatoly:We didn't strictly follow the Dark Heresy tabletop rulebook for character origins, but we offered very rich possibilities in character customization. Moreover, we are vigorously expanding the role-playing system, such as transforming the "class" system into a "talent" system, etc.
This is not just about strengthening character stats to a certain extent; more importantly, players can configure different builds specifically for different situations.
Overall, at least in terms of customization, players can freely express and create the characters they want.
Q: So, is there any possibility of forced character origins? Like the Mind Cleansed from the rulebooks?
Anatoly:When constructing this customization system, we wanted to replicate the behavioral logic of the "Inquisition." We hope players will think from the perspective of an Inquisitorial agent when making decisions.
To be precise, on a story level, the Inquisition is not a charity—you either execute orders or go meet the Emperor. When serving a super-violent organization like the Inquisition, ordinary Imperial citizens really don't have much room for free operation or many choices.
Your thoughts and feelings are irrelevant to the Inquisition.
This constraint in choices is not just ideological; within the Inquisition itself, there are various factional branches that will respond differently based on your actions and decisions. For example, mission rewards, items in NPC shops, and story branches and progression will all be affected.
In fact, the oppression of individual will by the Inquisition and the different choices players make under this oppression are exactly what we hope to explore through Warhammer 40,000: Dark Heresy, and it is also one of the reasons we chose this story.
For this type of tabletop RPG scenario, what often pains GMs the most is players' overly imaginative fantasies and actions. The system we've prepared retains depth in gameplay without completely stifling all possibilities. Meanwhile, through the clever use of numerous low-level mechanics, when players lose autonomous control over the game's progression, these mechanisms naturally guide them toward deep exploration—whether exploring different playstyles or making seemingly absurd yet profoundly meaningful choices, ultimately leading them to the core of the game.
In fact, so-called "advanced" and "free" decisions are not castles in the air. The decisions players can make are built step-by-step upon various "basic" or "low-level decisions." These low-level decisions are often easier to understand and more practical.
This bottom-up, fluid decision-making logic can help players better understand the story and organize their experiences.
Q: As a member of the Inquisition, will we have the opportunity to issue an Exterminatus order?
Anatoly:Players actually have the opportunity to make strong, Inquisition-style decisions independently, without interference from external factors. The reserves of Exterminatus orders in the Calixis Sector are extremely low, and wasting such precious resources on low-level Inquisitorial operations would indeed be too wasteful.
But I can guarantee that the impact of certain decisions players can make will be absolutely huge.
Q: Roughly how many endings will Warhammer 40,000: Dark Heresy have? Will there be something similar to the Psyker ending in Warhammer 40,000: Rogue Trader, which can be described as a very bold and subversive "heretical ending" for the "Warhammer" universe?
Anatoly:Whether the ending of the Calixis Sector story is crazy or heretical enough is somewhat subjective. But note that the same team writes the stories for both Warhammer 40,000: Rogue Trader and Warhammer 40,000: Dark Heresy—their demands for story quality and depth are almost consistent, so you can fully expect to see equally high-quality presentations.
As for the details... I won't reveal too much here. In short, wait a while and you will see those shocking endings.
Q: I have another question regarding the plot—Lord Inquisitor Anton Zerbe, the absolute authority figure of the Calixis Conclave and the Tyrant Star Conclave, is an important character that we absolutely cannot bypass when discussing the story of Warhammer 40,000: Dark Heresy.
Can you reveal any settings or plans regarding this character?
Anatoly:Personally, I really appreciate the character Anton Zerbe—well, I'm not entirely sure what I can share. I mean, we are delving deep into the entire "Dark Heresy" storyline chain, not just Anton Zerbe and the Tyrant Star Conclave. Players will see many familiar names in the game.
We will not make any changes to stories already established by official lore. Instead, we will draw inspiration and experience from them, and then begin telling our own stories.
Therefore, various characters and Inquisitorial factions such as Tyrant Star, the Tyrant Star Conclave, Witch Hunter Rykehuss, and Demon Hunter Ahmazzi will all be involved in the story of Warhammer 40,000: Dark Heresy.
We will also "slightly modify" parts of the story to provide an experience that can surprise and delight even the most hardcore veterans of "Dark Heresy" tabletop RPGs.
Q: I can't wait to see Owlcat Games' interpretation of Tyrant Star.
Q: I noticed that in the Alpha test of Warhammer 40,000: Dark Heresy, you released three new combat-related systems: the Armor and Injury System, the Called Shot System, and the Morale System. Could you delve into the design logic behind these systems?
Anatoly:These systems serve the overall dark, rotting atmosphere of the game. In Warhammer 40,000: Rogue Trader, players play as the elite of the entire human Imperium, leaders possessing supreme power. Their subordinates are top talents in their respective fields, and their daily activities—such as exploring different planets and uncovering ancient ruins—are merely a small fraction of the possibilities available to them, realms that ordinary citizens of the human Imperium wouldn't dare imagine.
Warhammer 40,000: Dark Heresy is completely different. You can think of it as having a Star Trek-like atmosphere, where you play as an undercover detective or FBI agent in the darkness. You play as a character deeply rooted in the lowest levels of the Imperium, someone who struggles just to survive, let alone work, and must scheme just to find a moment of respite.
And we hope that in this environment, every attack is precious—so, we introduced the "Precision Strike and Injury System."
To be precise, this system is no longer just "precision attacks" in the literal sense—that's just one manifestation of the entire system. In fact, there are many situations where precision strikes are not needed, but player characters or enemies will still suffer injuries to body parts—for example, suddenly breaking a leg or spraining a waist, or injuring an arm, which then greatly affects fighting with a war hammer.
This system can create an additional layer of combat immersion and narrative experience for players, which is also the experience we hope to pursue in Warhammer 40,000: Dark Heresy.
The morale system is similar. This system did not appear in the story of Warhammer 40,000: Rogue Trader for a simple reason—the Rogue Trader's crew could practically be called a "dream team," a group of professionals working closely around the protagonist, where morale was never an issue that needed discussion.
In Warhammer 40,000: Dark Heresy, the player plays only as an Acolyte of the Inquisition, possibly social scum picked out by an Inquisitor from some slum or den of villains, a weak ordinary person. Furthermore, the composition of the entire protagonist team is no longer completely specialized or unified; they will not be as loyal and fearless as the Rogue Trader's subordinates.
Therefore, to better express this difference in team dynamics in combat and presentation, we introduced the combat morale system.
Such a group of "non-professionals" in combat might completely lose self-control due to the impact of several major injuries. And certain futures with no hope of victory can destroy the sanity and confidence of these people from the lower levels of the Imperium.
This experience is absolutely unique to Warhammer 40,000: Dark Heresy.
There isn't a particularly complex reason for the armor system; mainly, when you have refined systems like the injury system and morale system, the need for armor and its effectiveness naturally emerges. We need this system to make the entire injury gameplay framework more substantial and complete.
For example, wearing armor on certain body parts can prevent early injuries and to some extent avoid morale penalties caused by injuries, etc. Then, the entire armor and weapon system, along with the injury and morale systems, are important parts of creating atmosphere and giving weight to player decisions.
Plan, decide, then strike. If you're not careful, you'll easily fail—it's often that simple.
Q: So, under these systems, how does the puzzle gameplay in Warhammer 40,000: Dark Heresy compare to Warhammer 40,000: Rogue Trader? The community for Warhammer 40,000: Rogue Trader often complains about these "small puzzles," believing that without specifically searching for guides, one might never find the solution in this lifetime.
Anatoly:I'm not sure if this situation is universally applicable. At least for me personally, these puzzles aren't particularly difficult. However, we did spend considerable effort striving to improve various aspects of the game—such as exploration and puzzle-solving.
The puzzle system is crucial to the entire gameplay loop of "explore, discover points of interest, and finally resolve them." Therefore, this gameplay system is the experience we care about and value most, and it is also the area where we have accumulated the most experience from various project developments over the years.
It can be said that the puzzle structure, overall fluidity, and playability of Warhammer 40,000: Dark Heresy will all be improved. You can expect richer puzzle-solving experiences, as well as puzzles that fit better with the story and feature superior presentation.
We hope the puzzle system won't feel out of place and will function well within the overall story structure. We also hope these puzzles integrate better with characters, serving as an important journey for NPC growth. Furthermore, we hope these puzzles add more depth to the game's "detective gameplay."
Puzzles with low presence and low rewards, like those in the past, will basically no longer exist.
Q: Speaking of which, there is another aspect that receives the most attention—bugs, which many community players jokingly call "an essential part of Owlcat Games." In fact, in several of your previous works, the core of many powerful builds relied on bugs, similar to how many builds in Baldur's Gate 3's normal non-honor mode depend on damage calculation bugs.
What areas will Warhammer 40,000: Dark Heresy focus on for optimizing bugs? If there are bugs causing softlocks or corrupted saves, is there a quicker channel for the Chinese community to report bugs? What efforts have you made during this development process to avoid bugs?
Anatoly:Uh, let me first answer those simpler questions. If you encounter some bugs or serious errors while playing, you can use the shortcut Left Alt + B to send us the current game state, system information, and all necessary details.
No joke, this is absolutely the fastest way to report bugs or provide feedback to us. We have an entire Q&A team dedicated to organizing and summarizing bugs reported by players, and then passing these issues on to the production team and developers responsible for the relevant areas.
This isn't just empty talk. In most cases, we rely on this feedback to identify and fix bugs in the game.
Really, folks, any bugs, misunderstandings, confusions, or issues encountered during gameplay can be shared with us through this method. We definitely prioritize ensuring player experience as the highest requirement in our development work. Personally, whenever we discuss how much time and effort to invest in the debugging phase at the end of development, we always include any player-reported situations and issues in our discussions.
So, don't forget this small in-game tool; it is definitely the most effective and quickest way for players to report bugs and issues.
Regarding your question about how to reduce the number of critical bugs at launch, we have indeed been thinking seriously about it. You need to know that when we started considering making a CRPG—such as Warhammer 40,000: Rogue Trader—we only had a rough estimate of the entire development cycle. Although there wasn't a very clear number, we knew how much time needed to be invested to make this work sufficiently impressive.
In most cases, our cycle estimates were off. So, this is also one reason why the launch version of Warhammer 40,000: Rogue Trader was somewhat unsatisfactory.
But now the situation is different from before. With past experience, we are better prepared and more confident in how to plan the entire project long-term and estimate the development cycle for Warhammer 40,000: Dark Heresy. We already know what preparations and budget management are required when managing such a massive game project.
Currently, we are more confident in our team's product delivery capabilities. We believe that Warhammer 40,000: Dark Heresy will not have as many critical bugs.
Of course, we're not guaranteeing that there won't be any issues after the game launches. Think about it, for a game of the scale and level of Warhammer 40,000: Dark Heresy, claiming it would have no bugs would be pure fantasy.
Not long ago, we just released the Alpha public test. From the feedback, the game currently doesn't have particularly serious issues, no critical bugs, and no softlocks or corrupted saves. Compared horizontally to the disastrous scenes when our previous titles were first released, our progress is quite noticeable.
You could say that our optimized development process and operational experience from past projects have contributed to this situation. We are able to control content production more precisely, ensuring that Warhammer 40,000: Dark Heresy meets our expected quality standards.
Overall, I am confident in our current development process and project management. However, whether the final product will have many bugs or obvious quality issues? It's too early to say, as Warhammer 40,000: Dark Heresy is still in a very early stage of development.
But we know where the problems lie, and we are all gamers who love games. Therefore, we are committed to fixing any bugs, and we hope the game can run in a good, or even excellent, state.
You could say we have been constantly pushing ourselves to avoid those dangerous situations.
Q: When Warhammer 40,000: Rogue Trader first launched, it faced significant backlash regarding its Chinese localization, and the community response was not good. What measures are being taken for the localization of Warhammer 40,000: Dark Heresy to avoid repeating the same mistakes?
Anatoly:First, Chinese players, if you encounter any problems, definitely don't forget to provide feedback to us—using that Left Alt + B shortcut tool. After all, I personally haven't learned Chinese, so I can't understand many situations, and therefore need your help.
To ensure we provide high-quality localization services, please provide feedback on any localization issues you feel need improvement, adjustment, or are inappropriate. Currently, we are actively expanding our internal localization team and comprehensively adjusting related processes.
Moreover, this time Warhammer 40,000: Dark Heresy will achieve full voice coverage—meaning all dialogues in the game will have voice acting. To achieve this goal, all content requires precise translation rather than rough translation, and must complete the approval process before official release.
This time won't be as rushed as before—because full voice coverage cannot be done at the last minute. We will make significant adjustments to the process and significantly expand resources for localization.
Q: Here's a little joke. Chinese players—especially Chinese "Warhammer" fans—if they have issues with you, they generally won't aggressively curse you out. Instead, they will pray to the Emperor to recruit you early—after all, no fan would refuse to serve the Emperor in the "Warhammer" universe, right?
Anatoly:Haha.
Q: Lastly, do you have any message for Chinese players?
Anatoly:Folks, please don't forget the feedback tool we mentioned above. Although we don't read Chinese, as soon as we receive feedback, we will ask our localization members to translate and handle it.
Finally, we are deeply grateful for your patience and support. Your love for our work has reached us clearly, even across language barriers. I want to express my heartfelt thanks to you—because this truly means a lot to us.
Q: By the way, I once fixed a minor issue in Warhammer 40,000: Rogue Trader using binary prayers and a Mechanicus censer. If you encounter bugs that are truly difficult to fix, you might want to give it a try.
Anatoly:Ah! Yes, the Machine Spirit is indeed real, and we will offer solemn prayers to the Omnissiah, the God of Machines.
THE EMPEROR PROTECTS.