Like its follow-up, Kingdom Come: Deliverance is set in the Kingdom of Bohemia at the dawn of the 1400s. This backdrop makes sense for a myriad of reasons, but developer Warhorse Studios humored other options, they just required a bit too much work.
Medieval Germany or the era of England that featured Robin Hood (also sometime during the 15th century) were the forerunners. Both are attractive propositions for a game, especially an involved action-RPG with a heavy emphasis on historic realism. But it was Warhorse's own standards that made a change of locale for Henry less worthwhile.
"I believe the most important part of the design is that you really feel you are there, and all the systems are there to support that. You can do anything to the world, and the world should react," Viktor Bocan, design director at Warhorse Studios, tells Edge magazine.
"The historical stuff is not [only] there because we wanted to reconstruct the history," he continues. "We did that because when you do it correctly, it's believable." The term "verisimilitude" comes up, where you try to replicate something as exactly as possible.
Doing this to the level Bocan and the team want means extensive research. They have an in-house historian, Joanna Nowak, who digs into all manner of local sources, including clergy and universities, to give them the clearest snapshot possible of life centuries ago. This was all made easier by the fact the company is based in Prague, the capital of the Czech Republic, the country the Kingdom of Bohemia evolved into.
Moving toward England or Germany would've meant starting from square zero in many respects, because Warhorse "knew nothing" about them, as Bocan puts it. Instead, the studio chose to build the original game on stronger foundations, and it's safe to say that decision worked out for all involved.
